Estelle has revealed that she "prayed" for a defining career moment. The British music star has sold countless records across the world, and while she's known for continually blending genres, including soul, R&B, hip-hop and dance, to name a few, there's one track which has stood the test of time.
With six studio albums under her belt, it comes as no surprise that Estelle's music is often the soundtrack to people growing up, hitting nightclubs and important moments in their lives. But her track, American Boy, featuring Kanye West, released in 2008, took on a life of its own.
But the song was completely unexpected. Her mentor, none other than John Legend, encouraged Estelle to write about meeting an American boy, which came easily to her, since she had dozens of male friends in New York. "I unwittingly ended up creating a new ladies' anthem," she said previously.
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"I prayed for it, and it did," she said when asked if she expected the song to have such a legacy. Speaking to the Mirror at the MOBO Awards on Thursday night, she added: "So in a way, yes, but it also blows my mind, it's insane. I'm in South Korea and people singing 'Korean boy', and I'm like ok cool.
"It's one of those, I'm grateful." Last year, the 46-year-old released her latest record, Stay Alta, which in her own words, is filled with "happy, joyful music." She said: "It's happy music, joyful music, it's race and vibration music - it's heal the world music. It's funky.
"It's vibes, it's something to play if you're feeling down - if the world's actually getting you down, put it on, this will raise your vibration." But speaking in Manchester, Estelle revealed she was "proud" of local lad Aitch, who was also performing that night.
Estelle took to the stage with music icon Slick Rick, who performed a medley of his hits on Thursday, something she says was the "honour of the year". "It's an honour to perform with him," she said, adding: "There's no other place I'd rather be. But it's also iconic that it's the 30th anniversary and it's overdue for him to get this award."
Slick Rick was honoured with the MOBO Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by MOBO's founder, Kanya King CBE. But for Estelle, attending the awards had a special meaning for her - she won her first MOBOs in 2008, for Best UK Female and Best Song for American Boy.
However, when moving home, her first award broke in half in transit, leaving her utterly devastated. But seizing the opportunity, she packed in her case and was manifesting having it fixed at the Co-op Live by MOBO bosses. "I take it my awards and put them on a shelf in my house. I looked at the award, and it didn't look like it was broken at first," she said, adding: "I tried taking it out, and the whole thing was in two pieces.
"I'm trying to see if they can fix it or replace it or something. I'm sick of trying to glue it back together. It's a MOBO, it's one of my first awards, it's one of the awards I got from here [UK], so it means a lot to me." Attending the awards, Estelle admits it's "been a year" for people, so she was "proud of everybody" who was nominated for a MOBO.
"The most important thing," she said of recognising people at the event. "It's important to recognise that everybody has a culture and everybody has a thing that they bring to this big world, we all live here together. All of the division to me is old; it's not what the world is moving towards.
"My thing is, you can be, I can be, we can all be, we all have to live on this planet together. How about we start working on ways to make the planet greener? So that the Earth doesn't go from hailstorm to sun, that affects everybody, the kids have to take care of it - Gen Alpha, they've got to have that - how about we worry about that?"
