The graduate who was meant to study law and sang at the Vatican

Des'ree's parents hoped she would go to university to study law. Born in Croydon to a mother from Guyana and a father from Barbados, she heard reggae, calypso and jazz at home and spent three years of her childhood in Barbados. Music won out over the law books.

In 1991 she was 22, with no contacts in the industry. Her boyfriend at the time encouraged her to send a demo tape, and Sony 550 signed her; her first single, “Feel So High”, came out twelve weeks later. It missed the UK top 40 at first and reached number 13 when it was re-released in January 1992. In 1993 she sang “Delicate” with Terence Trent D'Arby, and performed in the Vatican for Pope John Paul II at the first concert of secular music held there.

“You Gotta Be” took her to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994 and was the most-played video on VH1 that year. She sang it on Saturday Night Live and at the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics. After a Ford Focus advertising campaign it finally reached the UK top ten in 1999. Baz Luhrmann asked her to write for his film Romeo + Juliet, and “Kissing You” came with a cameo, as a diva singing while the leads meet for the first time.

“Life” was the hit of 1998 in Europe, and it came in the years when the awards arrived: Best British Female at the 1999 Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello and a World Music Award. Her contralto voice and uplifting lyrics made her a rare pop singer whose optimism never felt forced.