Chance meets tenacity to propel Tunstall

updated 1:00 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2007

NEW YORK - If KT Tunstall wins a Grammy next month, she might consider thanking two of the most unlikely people in her acceptance speech.

One would be “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee. The other: jazz trumpeter Olu Dara, father of the rapper Nas. Without them, Tunstall might still be strumming a guitar in London coffee shops.

“Me, McPhee and Nas’ father need to go to a wicked bar in Times Square and suck one down and talk about how great my career is,” the Scottish singer-songwriter says with a laugh.

Nas inadvertently handed Tunstall her first big break when he pulled out of an appearance on an influential BBC show in 2004 after his father fell ill, allowing Tunstall to fill in.

And it was McPhee who raised Tunstall’s American profile by belting out her infectious hit “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” — twice — during the last “Idol” run.

Partly thanks to them, Tunstall’s debut album, “Eye to the Telescope,” has sold 3.5 million copies worldwide and earned her a Grammy nod for best female pop vocal performance. Many of her songs have been featured on hit TV shows.

Along the way, Tunstall, 31, has remained fiercely grounded, even while rubbing shoulders with her musical peers when she was invited to the Grammy nomination announcements in Los Angeles in December.

“I was at a photo call with Justin Timberlake and Mary J. Blige just going, ‘Oh my God. I was unemployed like five years ago. This is not who I am!’ ” she says.

“A light bulb went off just five minutes after me getting stressed out about it, going, ‘You don’t have to do anything. Just carry on. It’s what got you here.’ ”

What got Tunstall here is her blend of alternative folk-blues and a soulful voice that has drawn comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, Dido, Bjork and — this one irks her most — Joni Mitchell.

“I’m nothing like Joni Mitchell. I’m flattered, but I don’t want to be Joni Mitchell,” she says, sipping a glass of red wine in a SoHo hotel. “There’s no point in trying to be Joni Mitchell. It’s a complete losing battle.”

Virgin Records, Tunstall’s label, is perfectly happy with that. “I’d love to clone her,” says Jason Flom, chairman and CEO of the label’s U.S. branch. “She is the kind of artist that you look for and you dream about when you’re in this business.”

One of the odder quirks in Tunstall’s career has been that her songs have been embraced by U.S. TV producers even though she dislikes television, especially reality music ones.

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