Singer Estelle has a passion for music and charity

 4th Sept 2008

It seems like every musician in the R&B world wants to lend a helping hand to 27-year-old newcomer Estelle Swaray these days. Fans who chipped in on her stunning sophomore set "Shine" include Wyclef Jean; will.i.am; Mark Ronson; Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo; John Legend (who executive produced and also signed her to his Atlantic-distributed Homeschool imprint); and Kanye West, whose rapid-fire duet on "American Boy" helped give the British singer her first overseas No. 1 smash. Even "Project Runway" winner Christian Siriano got in on the act, designing a dress for her current tour, which hits the Independent in San Francisco on Wednesday.

But this stardom is anything but overnight, insists Swaray, who performs as simply Estelle. "It's actually been a long time coming," she says. "I had my own label in the U.K. I had an earlier album out before any of this happened. Having all these people on board just makes it look too easy."

And don't get her wrong, Estelle cautions — she's pleased to be the object of so much peer-group affection. And she's happy that her surreal blend of pop, dub, reggae, hip-hop and retro-steeped soul has finally caught on. But she'd much rather discuss her pet philanthropic causes, and the helping hand she's quietly been offering to the less fortunate around the world — a list every bit as impressive as her roster of benefactors.

So far, she's supported: the Candie's Foundation (educating today's youth about the consequences of teen pregnancy); Brazil's Afro Reggae group (which uses art and music to steer Rio's favela-born kids away from drugs and violence); and various branches of Richard Branson's far-reaching Virgin Unite nonprofit organization, which is fighting — among other things — the spread of HIV, malaria and malnutrition in Africa.

What did the artist witness on her missions? She shivers. Girls being forced into early marriage, or worse situations, thanks to a lack of education. Young AIDS-ravaged men and women, withering away in corrugated-tin hospices. "I was so shocked," she sighs. "But then again, I'm always shocked by the difference between Western and African culture. They always say it's Third World, but South Africa has some of the richest folks in the world living down there, so how are things like this happening in the same country?"

As a child growing up in roughneck West London, Estelle was keenly aware of the outside world. Her father hailed from Grenada, her mother from Senegal. "And my mom was raised amid civil wars and stuff, and they had wars over things like elections, with friends of hers being murdered along with half their families," she says. "So I know, I see, I get it. I'm familiar with that kind of culture."

Raised on a diet of African and reggae music, Estelle gladly took a job in a record store, immersed herself in all the genres she had been missing, and started out rapping before being encouraged by Legend to push herself as a vocalist. "Shine" is the remarkable result. "And I'll tell you the thing I love about London — we're so fearless," she appraises, even though she recently relocated to New York. "I don't think anyone there has any real boundaries, musically. We just mix it all up."

Next on Estelle's to-do list: The establishment of her own as-yet-unnamed charity. Fuelled, of course, by her newfound celebrity. "For instance, people always send me things, expensive things, and I never use half of 'em. They just sit there and get dusty. So why not use these things to help raise money? So I wanna do something really simple. But something really great."

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