UK soul queen Beverley Knight has been in Jersey! We gave you the chance to ask the star whatever you wanted. You submitted your questions and Melissa Goguelin went along to put them to her.

Melissa: Beverley thanks for joining us. We've been asking the viewers to send in some questions for you.

Beverley: Great!

M: We've got loads of questions but we've selected the best. So I'm going to start off by asking you, this is from Nick of Grouville: "If you could perform a duet with any artist who you haven't already performed with, either dead or alive, who would it be?"

B: Oh that's an easy one. That'd be Sam Cook. The late, great Sam Cook. He was unfortunately shot dead, I think ten odd years before I was even born. But he is regarded as THE father of soul. Taught Aretha (Franklin) everything she knows, vocally, for a start. So that's brilliant. He was a man that I grew up listening to as a little kid. You know, had all the more gospel recordings that he did before he went into pop. Just an incredible, proper soul voice. Would love to sing with him.

M: Well Paul would also like to know: "What was the first single you ever bought? Do you remember?"

B: First single. I think it might have been, 'I Feel For You - Chaka Khan'. That was when I was able to go to the shop myself with my own pocket money. Went up, bought the little seven inch. I can even see the seven inch now, because I've still got it at home. Only to find that my sister had been up the shop and bought the same single! So we helped get it to number one!

M: Nigel would like to know: "What's your favourite song, from your music collection?"

B: My favourite song of mine? That is such a tough one. A song which I look back at and say "Yeah I'm really glad I wrote that" and I think it's a really well written song, is a song from my 'Who I Am' album called 'Gold' which I'm really, really proud of. But in terms of getting on a stage and just getting down, I love 'Come As You Are', really do.

M: Well, Craig from our sister island Guernsey, would like to know your opinion on shows like The X Factor and Pop Idol. "Do you think they're taking away from real talent?"

B: I think the problem with those shows, for me personally, is that they lead the vast majority, 99.9% of people who enter, into a false sense of, I wouldn't say security but they offer them hope. Packaged, neatly manufactured, in a jar, there you go. Do this and ta-dar! You'll be successful in the course. It doesn't work like that. There are very, very few people who A) will go on and win the show who, kind of, have got any real discernible talent and B) Who will sustain a career. Will for example, who's obviously headlining tonight, is one of the few who sustained a career but very interestingly, he stepped away from the Pop Idol format the instant he was successful and Simon Cowell went with Gareth Gates, and the rest is history. For every Will, for every Leona, there's a million Steve Brookstein's and people like that. You know and for every one of them there are untold millions who go for the show who just have never got a hope and yet they're on tv making themselves look crazy. I don't like exploitative things like that.

M: That's fair enough. Now Rachael has asked this question and I think you've already sort of answered it, but I just want to see if there's any more: "Who would you class as your biggest musical influences?"

B: Well in addition to the lovely Sam Cook, I grew up listening to Aretha (Franklin) who of course, I said earlier, was one of Sam's protégés if you will. I also grew up listening to all kinds of people. Prince being my major hero, being a super-duper, obsessed fan! But I grew up listening to stuff you wouldn't imagine as well. I like people like David Bowie, who I've always found amazing. You may not hear it in my music necessarily, unless you know what you're listening for but I love the (Rolling) Stones. Absolutely love The Stones, always have. And then as I got older my contemporaries at the time. I thought Oasis were cracking. Blur were particularly genius I thought. A really wide, wide, range of music. But I always go back to the people who come from soul and have really big voices.

M: Andy, another one from Guernsey as well. "What's been your favourite place to perform and where was the most unusual place you've performed?"
B: My favourite ever venue was the Barrow Land's, which was amazing, with the spring mounted floor when you jump up and down. Oh my God! It's just, it's mad. What a venue. And that's in Glasgow. Crackin' venue. Stinky but crackin'. And then... What was the other half of the question?!

M: It was unusual place and favourite place.

B: Most unusual. Well I performed on a yacht in the middle of the Med. And that was at Monaco Grand Prix. So they kinda flew in and shipped in a whole production, rig, stage. Built it up on some dead rich bloke's yacht. There I was performing, just, in the Med. Cars screaming around, all around me and there I am singing away. It was qua-li-ty!

M: Right, Vicky from St Helier would like to know how hard it is for musicians and singers to get in the music industry nowadays. How hard do you think it is?

B: In some ways it's gotten harder because of the volume of people who wanna get into the entertainment industry in general, and particularly music. So there's a lot of competition in that respect. However, the digital age has just blown everything wide open. You know, when I first started I was recording on reel-to-reel, on tape. Literal tape that went round. If you wanted to edit you had to snip the things and put them and paste them in place, and all that kinda stuff. Now everything's digital, the technology's shrunk so that you can record in your bedroom on a computer. If you've got your guitar and a drum machine and things like that. And a little keyboard with all the sound effects, you're away!

M: That's how people like Sandi Thom and things like that get noticed.

B: Completely! Sandi Thom, Daniel Bedingfield, you know, that's how they came to prominence. And then of course with sites like, well, originally Myspace. That's how Lily Allen got noticed, famous Dad aside but you know what I'm trying to say. With the whole Facebook revelation as well, revolution even, and revelation! You can post music on there, as long as you copyright it and make sure no one's trying to nick it, you can put music on there. The field is wide open! It's not an exclusive club as it was, back in the day. You don't need a big A&R man with a fat cigar in an office going "Yeah well, you know, I think you're great. You'll go a long way." You can do it yourself. Brilliant!

M: Now this sort of rolls on from that: "How important is social networking for you?" This is from Andy in Jersey, because I know you Twitter.

B: Well, as you've probably gathered, I like to chat. A lot. And I'm a sociable person, I like having folk 'round me and all that. Twitter is one of those things where it's just really easy to say: "I'm in Jersey. Guess what! It's brilliant!" and there you go. Post it to the world. Facebook, I haven't quite got my head around. I've got to be honest. I don't know. I don't know what, this poking and all that. I don't get the terminology. However my mum's on Facebook so clearly the problem is me and not everyone else. I just think it's brill, I think it's so great to be able to communicate with people you don't know. You've never met them, but you can still have a rapport with them and they may be thousands of miles away. That's really fab.

M: Now finally Suzy would like know what your secret is to staying so slim and fit and healthy. She says: "You look amazing!"

B: Aww thanks! Oh I'll come here again, this is great! Ok. Loads of celebs say:"Oh yeah, it's in my genes," it's NOT in my genes. My mum does look great and all of that but believe you me, hard work. I am in that gym five times a week. I was there this morning. Five times a week, with a day to rest my body and then the other day is yoga or pilates. So, it's a lot of hard work. It's really looking after what I eat on a day-to-day basis. I mean I do that anyway, just 'cause of my own state of mind and all of that. So I'm really into healthy eating, and being disciplined. I'm sorry, it's old fashioned but it's true. There's no actual secret.

M: So no chocolate?

B: Well, actually, I do have chocolate but I'm not a major dairy eater and refined sugar. So I have something called raw chocolate. Gwyneth Paltrow will tell you all about it, you know, when you next chat to her. She'll tell you all about that stuff. But raw chocolate, where they put it all together and nothing's cooked. So I just get the raw cocoa. Nice.

M: Well thank you for answering our viewer questions. We do have a quick, quick-fire round. Just one-word answers.

M: Facebook or Twitter?
B: Twitter.

M: Microsoft or Apple?
B: Apple.

M: France or Spain?
B: Spain!

M: Indian or Chinese?
B: Oh, Indian.

M: Sparkling or still?
B: Sparkling all day long.

M: Christmas or Easter?
B: Christmas.

M: Singing or socialising?
B: Mmmmmm, do I have to be really honest? Ok, singing!

M: Stage or television?
B: Oh, Stage, stage.

M: Piano or guitar?
B: Piano because I can't play guitar.

M: Amplified or acoustic?
B: Amplified. Yeah, why not.

Beverley was in Jersey to perform at Channel 103's Big Gig in the Park all to raise funds for the charity Help a Jersey Child.

She performed alongside Will Young who was headlining the concert.

A big thank you for all your questions!

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Beverley Knight has been writing her own songs from the age of 13, in her late teen's she began performing them in local clubs in Wolverhampton, her home town.

One of her greatest musical influences is the soul and gospel legend Sam Cooke, also a feature of her upbringing, being a particular favourite of her mothers.

Despite being offered a record deal at the age of 19, she decided that her education was vitally important and went on to study Religious Theology and Philosophy at university.

Her debut album, signed with Dome Music was released on November 2nd 1995, titled the B-Funk. Echoes Magazine called it the best British soul album ever.

Beverley Knight has been nominated for the MOBO music awards, the BRIT awards and Capital FM awards on multiple occasions. She has won three MOBO awards, two Black Music Awards and one E.M.M.A award.

In 2004 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Urban Music Event in London.

In 2007 she was awarded an MBE for both her work in the music industry and her contribution to charity work.

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Thank you for all your questions!!

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