In 22 albums, only three songs might be ‘a bit’ about her. Which? - Sydney Morning Herald

Singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading in 2021.Credit:.

Joan Armatrading answers media questions at the Sebel Townhouse in Sydney in 1988.Credit:Philip Wayne Lock/Fairfax.

Why, reasons the woman once dubbed Joan Armour-Plating, would she go to all the trouble to guard her private life as fiercely as she does and then spill the beans in her songs.

She received an MBE in 2001 and was recently appointed a Trustee of the Prince’s Trust, a charity in Britain founded in 1976 by Prince Charles to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track.

“Everybody deserves to be able to do certain things in their lives no matter what their economic situation – get a job, education, be social,” she says, “and the Trust helps young people to do all of those things, to motivate them, to keep them confident.”.

“They honour ordinary women, not necessarily household names, campaigning to make things happen,” she says, “like setting up a children’s hospice or collecting money so women in Africa can have sanitary towels.”.

Few artists have a sense of self like Joan Armatrading.

“Not everyone in my family is like this,” she says, when asked where her strength and positivity come from.

I measure success by how much I really love what I have written.’.

“I’ve never felt like a pop star,” she says.

I measure success by how much I really love what I have written … but it’s important to me that songs affect people.”

“I like to try new things – in my music and in my life – just to keep myself amused,” she says, letting loose her trademark contralto laugh

“I’m trying to write the song that says, ‘You’ve done it

OK, Joan, there’s nothing left for you to do’, the song that says, ‘Put the pen down!’”

Joan Armatrading with Band – Live from London is streaming from 5am (AEST), Sunday, August 1