‘I was cancelled’: Beverley Knight on gay rights, race and her West End renaissance

Beverley Knight … ‘You’ve got to come out swinging.’ Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Guardian

Beverley Knight is mid song. Joss Stone’s Super Duper Love is playing in the restaurant we’re meeting in, and I’ve caught her lost in the music. “Yeah, I’m diggin’ on you, now baby? Yeah,” she warbles at low volume, yet with all the same soul, depth and tender warmth that earned her the nickname “Little Aretha” from her noteworthy admirer: David Bowie.

“It’s an automatic response for me to sing,” she says. “I hear a song and I have to join in. It’s the most natural thing in the world for me.”