WE were under her spell when a 2008 debut album sent singer Duffy stratospheric – but within two years she had vanished off the face of the earth.
It was at the same time a newly discovered teen artist called Adele launched her first tracks, which were totally eclipsed by the 23-year-old Brit.
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Of course, the tables quickly turned when Duffy mysteriously vanished from the public eye and now, 17 years on, Adele is one of the most successful pop stars of all time.
However, the sinister reason behind why Duffy’s enviable success was cruelly stolen from her makes her disappearance even more devastating.
She quit the industry without explanation and isolated herself for a decade – leaving Adele to pick up where she left off and land a host of best-selling albums, top gongs and lucrative success.
As Duffy now takes stepping stones towards a possible revival ten years on, we can reveal she is being bombarded with big money deals for a tell-all TV interview – but she has refused.
An insider told The Sun: “Duffy has been through so much hurt and trauma, it’s important she has full control of her next steps.
“She’s already pulled out of speaking about her ordeal in person before because she found it too difficult.
“Before what happened, happened, Duffy had the world at her feet and could have been as rich and famous as Adele.
“For now, Duffy just wants to focus on what she’s truly missed – making music.”
Duffy – whose real name is Aimée Anne Duffy – bravely waived her anonymity in 2020 to reveal she had been raped during a terrifying kidnapping.
She had been drugged on a night out for her birthday and forcibly taken to a foreign country – only surviving because she eventually managed to escape her attacker.
Unlike many artists who find strength in using their personal pain to make music from the soul, Duffy became a recluse – living in fear of telling anyone about her traumatic ordeal.
Then, out of the blue five years ago, Duffy wrote a 3,600-word post on her website about her assault, in which she heartbreakingly told how “rape is like living murder, you are alive, but dead”.
Explaining why she didn’t use her voice to heal, Duffy said: “I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes.
“I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken?”
Despite hopes this moment marked the beginning of Duffy’s return to the spotlight, she went underground again – until this week.
The 40-year-old was seen for the first time in ten years on Wednesday when she appeared in a new TikTok, lip-syncing to her signature track Mercy in a video shared by Emotion HQ.
The account posted: “Some of you asked if Duffy was really doing a UK Garage remix with us…”
The remix appears to be a collaboration between Duffy and a group called E.motion, teasing that it will be released soon.
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Duffy’s secret trauma
Her much-anticipated return comes as sources close to Duffy tell The Sun she has turned down big money offers to do television interviews about her rape and kidnap.
Although Duffy may be ready to step tentatively back into the limelight, her desire to make mega-cash from her experience is non-existent.
Instead, her long-awaited comeback has been all about her passion for music, admitting in 2020: “I believe that not singing is killing me.”
Duffy signed a record contract with A&M Records and released her first single Rockferry in 2007.
She named it after Rock Ferry, an area of Birkenhead in Cheshire where her grandmother lived and her father was born.
Award-winning singer Duffy disappeared
The following year her first album, under the same name, became a UK number one – after impressing with her biggest hits Mercy, Warwick Avenue and Rain On Your Parade.
She swiftly became an overnight sensation – taking over from the likes of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen as Britain’s most popular solo female star.
With her 1960s pop sound and Brigitte Bardot ‘beehive’ hair do, Duffy also drew comparisons with Dusty Springfield.
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The world was her oyster after selling more than 1.7million copies of Rockferry and beating the likes of Take That’s Circus and Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad.
Up-and-coming star Adele shifted fewer than 500,000 of her 19 albums in the UK in the same year.
At the 2009 Brit Awards, Duffy wiped the floor with her main competitor Adele – taking home Best British Breakthrough Act and Best British Female, as well as Best British album.
She also won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album over Sheryl Crow, Eagles, Leona Lewis and James Taylor.
Even Adele gracefully admitted defeat, saying: “I think Duffy is the sound of 2008. She’s sold stupid amounts of records.”
She added: “I’m not fazed by that. I want to be making records forever; this first album isn’t the one that defines me.”
Adele turned out to be right – with the 36-year-old’s 21 album, released in 2011, mostly considered to have catapulted her to career stardom.
Adele struggled to compete with Duffy
It topped the charts in more than 30 counties, selling after Duffy’s second album Endlessly bombed.
Adele has since become famous for taking extended breaks between her music projects – having had a six-year gap between her 25 and 30 albums.
She currently has a two-year Weekends With Adele residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which ends in November 2024 and is already planning a significant break when it wraps.
Duffy’s soft-launch comeback has already sparked massive excitement from loyal fans around the world who have waited ten years for new music.
As Adele prepares to go into hibernation later this year, Duffy could be about to spring back into our lives and finally have the career she deserved.
