The first song I remember hearing My dad used to take me to pick up my mum from karate. He played Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton in the car and said: “This is a song about a man who lost his little boy. The chorus is saying: ‘Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?’” I remember thinking: “I don’t think he would because he was so young when he died, how would he know?” I could not stop crying for days. My mum was so upset with my dad: “Why would you play her this song? You know how emotional she is.” He was like: “That’s what music’s for.” The first single I bought My sister and I would save our pocket money and club together. She was older so would decide what we bought. We bought Now That’s What I Call Music! 42 and the Spice Girls album. Then my Uncle Porridge – that was just a nickname – asked: ‘What do you want for Christmas?” I said I wanted an Aretha Franklin album I’d seen on TV. The song I do at karaoke I try to avoid karaoke because I get too embarrassed. If I had to, I would do something that would make people get up and dance, like I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. The song I inexplicably know every lyric to No Diggity by Blackstreet and Dr Dre. The best song to play at a party Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang. The song I secretly like, but tell everybody I hate I would never tell anyone that I hate Barbie Girl by Aqua. I am unashamedly a dork and have terrible taste in music. My daughter Violet is obsessed with Aqua. Every day she goes: “Alexa. Play Barbie Girl.” It’s very cute. The song I can no longer listen to There is a Jack Johnson album that I loved, but I played it a lot with one of my exes so I don’t play it any more. The best song to have sex to Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye. But not if you burst into laughter halfway through. There’s a part I find really funny, when he goes: “Come on, come on, come on.” I can just imagine a husband trying to wake up his wife: “Come on. Come on.” And her replying: “Oh my God, I’m asleep.” I always get that vision in my head and it makes me laugh. The song that changed my life My very first TV appearance was on [2000 BBC talent show] Star For a Night when I was 13. I sang (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin. Afterwards, all these record labels were interested in meeting me, so I was flown around the world to sing a cappella for record label executives. I never thought I could sing it because it was sung by such a woman and I was such a girl. But eventually I got signed – and the rest is history. The song that gets me up in the morning My daughter and I like to dance around to Higher Love by Kygo and Whitney Houston. That’s been our morning song for a while. The song I want played at my funeral Wannabe by Spice Girls.