THINGS couldn't be better for Jamelia Davis right now. After an amazing year of chart success with her hit singles Superstar and Thank You, she's about to embark on her first headline UK tour and release her much talked about collaboration with Coldplay's Chris Martin. She's a woman at the pinnacle of her career with only more success to come and she couldn't be happier about it. There's just one tiny problem, and it comes in the very cute and adorable shape of her three-year-old daughter, Teja. 'It's been awful the past couple of weeks,' says the 23-year-old. 'I've been rehearsing for the tour and it's been the longest time I've ever been away from her. It's been so heart-breaking.' Whenever Jamelia is down in London doing all that pop star stuff that has made her one of the most successful British female solo artists around today, little Teja is looked after by her grandmother - who gave up her job so her daughter could concentrate on her career - in the family's home town of Birmingham. 'I'm actually thinking of maybe moving,' says Jamelia. 'I hate not being able to see Teja everyday. I hate not being the one that takes her to nursery and puts her to bed. As much as I can speak to her on the phone, it's not working for me. 'It's like we've got an obsession with each other,' she continues. 'We went to the Urban Music Festival together the other day and people were saying, 'My God you're just stuck to each other, can't you let each other go?'. 'I was like, 'No!' and Teja was saying, 'No, she's my mummy'.' And she says following her instincts when it comes to being a mum: 'I'm not conventional. I just do whatever. I just think kids should enjoy their childhood. 'The other day, me and Teja and my little brother were in the back garden looking for slugs,' Jamelia laughs. 'Not a lot of mums would do that.' Teja is the product of Jamelia's volatile and now defunct relationship with her ex-boyfriend Terry. Like her mum before her the singer quickly found herself as a single mother after she extricated herself from her abusive relationship in 2001. Her thoughts and feelings during that dark period of her life were eventually transformed into the No 2 hit Thank You, a moving ballad that has since been used by NSPCC for its campaigns. But, perhaps surprisingly, she has decided to keep Teja's father in her life. 'I would just say we tolerate each other,' says Jamelia, who's currently single and wearily laughs off the (untrue) rumours linking her with Usher and rapper 50 Cent. 'I think it's very important for him to be a part of Teja's life. I didn't have my dad around and I definitely feel that there was a slight void there. As long as Teja's happy that's all I care about.' Motherhood could easily have brought Jamelia's career to an untimely end. In 1999 she burst onto the musicsceneasBritain'sgreatR&Bhope.Finallywehad a talent good enough to take on a genre traditionally dominated by American artists. She clocked up a number of hits including the Beenie Man-featuring Money but then disaster struck when, despite taking precautions, she became pregnant. Jamelia assumed that was the end of her career but her record label Parlophone were understanding, telling her she could come back when she was ready. 'But when I did come back I was so worried,' says Jamelia. 'I've seen so many people attempt to come back and I knew it would be very easy for me to be one of those that don't succeed. I knew it was important for me to plan and have a plan B.' So what was plan B? 'Plan B was Superstar,' giggles Jamelia. Her initial comeback single Bout didn't make much of a dent on the charts so she decided to take a risk. In her musical arsenal was the very poppy Superstar and, despite being worried about what R&B fanatics would make of it, she went for it as the second single. Since its release, Superstar has become an unaccountably massive hit. As well as hanging around the charts for weeks, it is still refusing to budge from radio playlists and recently picked up an Ivor Novello award. 'There was a point about four or five months ago where I was sick to death of it,' admits Jamelia. 'I thought I just couldn't perform the song anymore. But then it started taking off around the world. 'So, because of that song, I got to go to Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, all around Europe - places I'd never been to before and probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to go to otherwise. Now I don't think I can be sick of something that's enhanced my life in such a way.' Success continued with Thank You, which, ridiculously, was kept off the top spot by a six-year-old pop hit - Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl. 'I wasn't that annoyed,' says Jamelia. 'It's not like Thank You is the last song I'll ever release. I know that I'm going to be here in a year's time when other people won't be, so I can try again.' And while she lost out on two Brit awards this year - both went to Dido - Jamelia's got plenty of achievements to look forward to. She's in talks about a high profile modelling contract, which came about after she stepped in for Naomi Campbell at the Brits, and there's also a good chance her new single, See It In A Boy's Eyes, will score the singer her first No 1. 'It would be nice,' she chuckles, slightly embarrassed. 'Superstar went to No 3, Thank You to No 2 so a No 1 would be good. But I'll be happy with whatever position as long as it's not 99 or something. I got to work with Chris Martin so I don't care.' The collaboration came about when Chris, Jamelia's labelmate, called her A&R man to see if she'd like to work with him on an idea he had. 'I just totally could not believe it,' gasps Jamelia. 'I've always been a fan of his but never did I imagine he was a fan of mine.' While the Coldplay frontman won't be joining Jamelia for any surprise appearances on her forthcoming tour, Jamelia is oozing with confidence about doing her first headline dates. She's toured with the likes of Usher and Justin Timberlake in the past but is not letting her perfectly formed shoulders slump under the weight of now having the full responsibility of entertaining. 'What I want to put across is that while you can see me on this stage, I'm prepared to go on any stage - no matter how big,' she says, flashing a grin. Jamelia's single See It In A Boy's Eyes was released on Monday. | 
