Jazz singer Stacey Kent has some high profile fans. Clint Eastwood invited her to perform at his 70th birthday. Three-time Oscar-winning songwriter, Jay Livingston, called her ‘a revelation‘.

Best-selling crime writer, John Harvey, has Stacey sing, if only fictionally, in one of his novels. Steve Tyler and Bill Gates are huge fans too.

But praise from high places doesn‘t get the American haughty. She takes it all in her stride – if her music is moving people, that‘s what matters.

“It‘s nice to get praise from anybody,“ says Stacey, on her way to Manchester for another sell-out show. “Famous or not if I‘m touching people‘s lives – that‘s great.

“I‘ve recently heard from a father and son who reunited after many years. When the son came to his dad‘s house he saw my CD on the desk. Both were fans and their first conversation was about the album. To be part of that story, so human and personal. It‘s a privileged position to be in.“

How she got to that position reads like a Hollywood script.

Stacey was an American language student visiting Europe to study for a masters degree in comparative literature. In Cambridge she found love, her now husband, saxophonist Jim Tomlinson.

He encouraged her to make a demo tape, which was sent out to Polygram, Candid Records and broadcaster, Humphrey Lyttelton. This small act secured her a role in Ian McKellen‘s film version of Richard III, a recording contract, plus national airplay and endorsement from Britain‘s most respected jazz broadcaster.

“All three things happened at once,“ recalls Stacey. “I‘d call it serendipity. It was a lot of luck and coincidence compacted into one period.

“It was extraordinary. I was so caught up in the moment, I didn‘t think too much about it.“

Her career since has been given more thought – the key to everything from then on, Stacey says, has been artistic integrity.

“It‘s important to have the chance to grow between records. Everything has grown naturally. Integrity has been the centre of everything.“

And it works. When Stacey took the bold move of recording three songs in French for her 2007 album Breakfast on the Morning Tram, she was nominated for a Grammy and received a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (National Order of Arts and Letters) from the French Culture Minister.

And when she felt it time to record an album entirely in French that‘s exactly what she did – with last year‘s Raconte-Moi... (Tell Me...). It was the second best selling French language record outside of France last year.

“It‘s been a fairy tale,“ says Stacey, “but not in a crazy way where I have to pinch myself. With each recording, with each show. I‘ve grown a little and I hope to keep doing so.“

Stacey Kent is at Millfield Arts Centre on May 14 at 7.30pm.

Details: 020 8807 6680