It’s been almost 20 years since the soulful voice of Duffy first reached fans’ ears, but after just two albums, she disappeared from the spotlight.
Duffy, 40, later revealed she was the victim of a horrific kidnapping and rape ordeal, which prompted her retreat from the industry.
The Welsh singer could finally be ready to return to Warwick Avenue as she is reportedly working on new music for the first time in years.
An insider told The Sun On Sunday: ‘The time is right for her to make a comeback, she has done enough healing and is ready to make music.
‘She has a great working relationship with Bernard [Butler] and they trust each other.’
Former Suede musician Bernard, 55, produced her debut album, Rockferry, in 2008, which featured her biggest tracks like Mercy, Warwick Avenue, and Rain on Your Parade.
Duffy, whose real name is Aimée Anne Duffy, saw huge success on the back of this album, winning three Brit Awards and bagging 6.5 million sales worldwide
Two years later, she released her follow-up album, Endlessly, which saw moderate success and featured a collaboration with The Roots and Questlove.
While she couldn’t quite match the dizzying heights of her debut — which was the biggest-selling album of that year — it felt like Duffy was going places.
Then she disappeared. Her upcoming third album was shelved and she was not publicly seen again for almost a decade.
A statement from her representative at the time simply said she was taking a break before starting on her next album, but a friend said she was ready to settle down and ‘live in the country’ with her rugby player boyfriend Mike Phillips. They broke up in May that year.
Very little was heard from Duffy over the next decade, with plenty of mystery over her sudden disappearance at the height of her fame.
In 2020, the Well Well Well singer shocked us all by claiming the real reason she vanished was that she had endured a kidnapping and assault.
‘The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days,’ she penned in a heartbreaking post.
‘Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it.’
Duffy revealed she’d spent her time away from the spotlight trying to deal with the traumatic experience.
She added: ‘But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine.’
‘You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes. I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke.’
The Bangor-born star said she didn’t know why it finally felt like the right time, but that she was ready to share her story.
Her first public appearance came shortly after when she appeared on TikTok, lip syncing to Mercy and smiling.
In the five years since, she has not said she would be returning to music; however, a new album from this icon of the 00s could finally be on the horizon.
Metro has reached out to Duffy’s team for comment.
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