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[Jayne]

With her huge voice (not to mention a famous mentor in the form of Amy Winehouse), teen singing sensation Dionne Bromfield is tipped for superstardom. Here, she tells Jane Gordon how she's coping with exposure at such an early age - and reveals a few unexpected home truths about her 'lovely' auntie
'Amy is really protective of me and that's a good thing because I am only 14,' says Dionne
Dionne Bromfield is telling a rather charming – if surprising – story about her Auntie Amy. It isn’t the kind of revelation that would ordinarily be worth repeating if, that is, Auntie Amy was any ordinary auntie. But Dionne is talking about her godmother and musical mentor Amy Winehouse, and the 14-year-old’s insight into the private life of the troubled singer is almost shocking in its cosy domesticity.

‘You know what? Auntie Amy makes the best food ever. It’s her Jewish side – seriously, she really can cook. She makes the best meatballs ever – better than Jamie Oliver. She is like a proper housewife, if you know what I mean.’

Within minutes of meeting the delightful and funny Dionne, you can understand why Auntie Amy is championing her career. Because the tiny girl doesn’t just possess a startlingly mature
R&B singing voice, she is also offering her godmother some rare positive publicity.

Amy’s devotion to Dionne is such that she has signed her to her Lioness record label and has become a backing singer both on her debut album, Introducing Dionne Bromfield, and on live appearances (she even backed Dionne during a performance on Strictly Come Dancing). Later this year the Grammy-award-winning singer will be accompanying her protégé on a planned launch into the American market, putting Dionne’s future success before her own.

It’s difficult to work out the exact relationship between the internationally infamous 26-year-old singer and the schoolgirl (although these days she doesn’t go to school and is home tutored). Dionne was born in East London and raised in South London by her 38-year-old single mother Julie – also known as Jay – who used to work in the music industry and is a long-time friend of Amy’s father Mitch (Dionne doesn’t see her
own Jamaican father).

Dionne hanging out with her 'godmother' in London
Clearly Amy (who would have been around Dionne’s age when Julie gave birth) is neither a real auntie nor a real godmother, but as a mentor she has become so close to Dionne that it seems ‘godmother’ has been adopted by all as the most appropriate title. ‘My mum knew Amy’s dad first and then my mum and Amy used to hang together, and then I popped out and she was, like, “Hey!” We are family,’ Dionne says with a grin.

It is to the credit of her mum (who is in the next room but too shy to talk to the press) that Dionne is so charmingly normal and unspoilt. They live together in Chislehurst with their two cats Misty and Tiddles (a present from Amy) and are very close, but not without their moments of friction.

‘I wouldn’t say my mother was my best friend because that sounds odd, but we have a really tight bond and she is my friend on Facebook. Although she only goes on it to check up on me and sometimes we argue about it. I say, “Why do you keep going on my Facebook page?” and she says, “I am just checking,” and I say, “So you don’t trust me?” and I’ll get in a strop and slam the door and go upstairs, and then five minutes later I’ll come back down and say, “I’m sorry, let’s watch television.” And then we have another argument and she’ll tell me to go to bed. I think it’s teenage hormones. Well, that’s what Mum says and I can see what she is on about,’ Dionne says with a giggle.

There have been murmurs of criticism in the press about the potential influence that Amy – who has had a difficult relationship with drink and drugs – might have on an innocent teenager. Paparazzi pictures of an increasingly ravaged-looking Winehouse accompanied by Dionne at various functions do look alarming, but it is obvious that Julie is a strong and caring mother who ensures that her daughter – despite her grown-up singing career – remains a child.

‘Every so often my mum and I take two days out to do something normal because she worries about me mixing with too many adults,’ says Dionne. ‘She makes me make time for my friends – my best mate Alex, an old schoolfriend, comes with me everywhere.’
‘She makes the best meatballs ever – better than Jamie Oliver ’
Dionne has maintained a close group of friends from Beaverwood School for Girls in Bromley, despite the fact that she is now taught at home (her grades, she says, have ‘gone through the ceiling’ due to tutoring). Has the fact that she has a successful career so young (‘Way to go!’) prompted any resentment among her peer group? ‘The ones who are happy for you are the ones you know will be friends for ever and the ones who are a bit, like, “Hmm” are not worth worrying about,’ she says with admirable maturity.

Pretty and petite, but not the least bit vain, Dionne seems unaffected by her exposure to fame. Her hopes and fears are very much in line with those of any other 14-year-old (she is frightened of lifts – and don’t mention spiders: ‘Well, let’s put it like this, I am never going on I’m a Celebrity…’).

Like any normal teenage girl, she loves clothes and dreams of wearing Marc Jacobs
and Juicy Couture, although most of her clothes come from H&M or Topshop and ‘I like my Primark as well’. The two all-time favourite things in her wardrobe are her Adidas Superstar trainers and an Ed Hardy T-shirt that, sadly, she no longer wears.



‘It was the best T-shirt I have ever had and I thought, “I’ll wash it myself”, but of course I didn’t – Mum did. I said to her, “Put it on a gentle wash on its own”, but she put it in with all this other stuff on a normal wash and I pulled it out and it was ruined – I was proper annoyed with Mum.’
Dionne’s conversation is peppered with affectionate references to her mum. One of the best things about singing on Strictly Come Dancing, she confesses, was the box of chocolates her mother gave her for doing so well. ‘It’s not about how big or expensive a present is, it’s the thought that is so nice. I mean, I’m not a person who will say, “I want caviar after I have done Strictly.” Mum knows I love chocolates.’

In an age when girls as young as six are said to worry about their weight, Dionne is straightforward about the relationship between food and fat. ‘It’s not about being thin, it’s about being healthy. And when you are a child you like to eat all these unhealthy things like chocolate and sweets. Oh my God. I love strawberries dipped in chocolate and Lion bars and Toffee Crisps – and as you grow up you have to learn that those things are only good in moderation or you will become very fat,’ she says.

‘Amy and I go shopping together and love watching comedy programmes. She has a heart of gold’
Dionne rolls her eyes when the subject turns to boys. Does she have any interest in boys – does she have a crush on anyone or a particular boyfriend? ‘I used to think boys were yuck, but I am beyond yuck now. They are all right. I went to an all-girls school so I don’t know that many boys, and the ones I do know treat me the same now as they always did, which I like. I am glad they are not acting stupid, but then they’re going through their own problems, aren’t they, at this age?’
For now, her big crush – hers and millions of other teenage girls – is a baby-faced
15-year-old Canadian singer called Justin Biebe, who she got the chance to meet briefly last month. ‘I am totally in love with him. I used to like the Jonas Brothers, but only because I thought that they were good-looking, not because I actually liked their music. But I don’t have a real boyfriend. Well, I suppose I will have to go out with someone sometime – how else am I going to have kids?’ she says, shrugging her shoulders.

Musically, Dionne describes herself as ‘old school’, with a love for 60s soul singers that is reflected in her album, which includes cover versions of classics such as ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and ‘My Boy Lollipop’. An emergent songwriter, she doesn’t think she has had enough life experience to record her own songs.
Dionne singing on Strictly Come Dancing in October, with Amy on backing vocals
‘What am I going to write about – I got on the bus and went to school? I suppose I could write about Facebook – that would be a long, long song – but really I have nothing to say at my age. Mum won’t let me have a BlackBerry because of the Facebook issue. I don’t want to say how many hours I spend on Facebook on my laptop because people will say,“This girl is crazy”. I have this trick at night when Mum comes into my room and says, “Time to go to sleep”, I will say, “OK, Mum”, but actually I have my laptop hidden under my pillow. I suppose I am on it about [lowering her voice to a whisper as she finally reveals] 15 hours a day.’

On the subject of drink and drugs, Dionne says she has no intention of ‘following the wrong path’, but she pointedly steers the conversation away from her godmother. I tell her I only want to hear good things – pointing out that there are more than enough bad things written about Amy. ‘Amy is really protective of me and that’s a good thing because I am only 14. She is like a mother duck with me,’ she says.

Does she spoil Dionne? ‘She is lovely. We go shopping together and we love watching comedy programmes and she buys great presents. She has a heart of gold,’ she says.

As we part, I ask her for one final revelation about her wonderful godmother and, with a roll of her eyes and an exasperated expression on her face, she eventually obliges. ‘Auntie Amy? She’s Mother Teresa…’

Dionne’s album Introducing Dionne Bromfield is out now



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[Winehousedrunk]

Sweet and delightful. Funny and moving. Amy needs and deserves such wonderful press, as she is lovely and has a heart of gold. And Dionne, who has an admirable mother, deserves the world. The good part of it, that is.

[WinehouseFAN08]

As we part, I ask her for one final revelation about her wonderful godmother and, with a roll of her eyes and an exasperated expression on her face, she eventually obliges. ‘Auntie Amy? She’s Mother Teresa…’

My favourite part of the whole thing.. this really made me smile..