Celeste says she feels proud to have kept creative control of her debut album

Celeste has said she feels “a sense of accomplishment” at having kept creative control of her debut album.

During an interview with Sir Elton John for his Elton John’s Rocket Hour show on Apple Music, the singer said she managed to keep her “integrity” while working on Not Your Muse.

The 26-year-old soul singer topped the charts with the album earlier this month.

She was the first British female artist to top the albums chart with their debut in more than five years.

Celeste said: “I feel a sense of accomplishment in the fact that I managed to do most of it my way.

“And of course, I came across moments of give and take and compromise and finding that middle ground with my label, where they had songs that needed to do a certain job.

“And then I wanted songs to exist for just the reasons of being true to the music that I’m interested in.

“And so I feel proud that eventually an album that is the majority of songs, which have come from a place of real honesty and feeling like I’ve maintained my integrity in a commercial sense.”

She added she cannot wait to “let loose” and tour again.

“There’s so much spontaneity in the live show,” she said.

“I tried to bring that into making the album by having a live room set up and bringing all my band that play my shows into the process, but it was much further on.

“I’d already written the songs and they were demos and I took it to the band, but I really miss playing live shows.”