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The Strange Case Of Duffy The Singer From Wales
#1
This isn't a mysterious death, but the surrounding circumstances of a fairly-moderate pop-star are certainly strange.

Now before we start, I think it would be appropriate to suggest we look back on our own lives and see if there is
anything that one could point to that may be relevant to where we are today as an individual. Maybe it's an unusual
traumatic incident that effects your current everyday behavior or possibly a past-event that has moulded you into
the adult you are today?

It can happen, our childhood-years certainly have a bearing of who we're going to be as an adult and how we conduct
ourselves in society. But if you're one of the fortunate ones who's young life was fairly standard -when taking into
consideration of what the world can throw at you, then I'm sure you'd agree that any unusual act in the future could only
occur because you didn't prepare for it... didn't see it coming and why would you?!
......................................

The tale involves a British Pop singer, songwriter and actress known as 'Duffy' (Aimee Anne Duffy), a young woman
brought-up in the west-coastal area of Wales and who's breakthrough onto the national stage came in 2007 at the
late age of twenty-three.
For many years, the seventeen year-old Duffy had sang in local bars and jazz/blues clubs and in 2003, took the chance
to ply her trade in a Welsh televised talent show where she came second.

[Image: attachment.php?aid=7239]

A year later, she had acquired a Manager -Jeannette Lee, who helped Duffy make a three-song EP (extended play)
under the name of 'Aimee Duffy'. It's said that during her time in the studio, she supplemented her meagre income by
working as a waitress and in a fishmongers. 
It seemed 2004 became the real beginning of her career when that EP reached number one in the Welsh charts.

Moving to London in 2007, Duffy gains a contract with A&M Records and releases the single 'Rockferry' a title that would
be used for her later album. With an helpful hand from the BBC, she starred regularly on their shows and quickly became
a familiar face to a young British mainstream audience.

With the hit single 'Mercy' in 2008, Duffy was well on her way to stardom. The critically-acclaimed album and new single
ensured that the young blonde singer would not only be the toast-of-the-town on British TV, the notoriety of having her
tunes attached to the American television medical drama 'Grey's Anatomy' -as well as being on the soundtrack album for
'Sex and the City: The Movie' almost guaranteed that the American market was there for exploiting.

However, sensibly appreciating that the 'Rockferry' album had only a marginal success in th US and yet, still receiving the
usual platitudes from the world of singers and song writers in the UK,  the late-bloomer -Duffy, played a fourteen-city North
American tour in 2009 during which she prudently appeared on American television including Late Night with Conan O'Brien
and  Saturday Night Live to garner more exposure.

It seemed 2007, 2008 and 2009 were good years for the twenty-four year-old from the little town of Nefyn, Penbrokeshire.
2008 would also be the year Duffy reunited with her twin-sister Kate, as since Duffy had left with her father when her parents
had divorced. Kate now lived with her in her London flat, although Duffy continued her US tour.

Here's an odd account from Aimee Anne's time growing up in a family that sadly, eventually conceded to divorce.
(Wikipedia)
"...In September 1998, at the age of 14, Duffy was briefly put in a police safe house when authorities uncovered
a plot by her stepfather's ex-wife to pay a hitman £3,000 to kill her stepfather, Philip Smith. Smith's ex-wife,
Dawn Watson, was sentenced to a 3½-year jail term for soliciting to murder..."

"... Duffy describes living in the safe house as a dog-eat-dog, claustrophobic and isolating experience.
Aged 15, she ran away back to her father's home in Nefyn..."

An odd incident -to say the least! Still, apart from a strange tearful breakdown during her 2009 New York concert where
-after bursting into tears, she apologised to the audience and said she didn't know why, Duffy went on to receive a Grammy
award for the album 'Rockferry'.

There's always a downside to this kind of 'overnight' success though... it involves something called 'the second album'!
It a large box to tick-off on your stardom checklist and for many bands and singers, brought the curtain down on their careers.
Duffy worked on this new selection of songs and after starring in a soft-drinks commercial and dating a Welsh Rugby star,
the album 'Endlessly' was released in 2010.

Which flopped.

Regardless of the album's failure and that her Manager had left her, Duffy announced a two-year hiatus from music and drops
her tour-dates to Monaco and Dubai. Apart from a couple of acting roles and accompanying other singers in 2013, 2014 and
2015, it seems the welsh girl's star seemed to be waning.

The years passed and after promising a new and revised album to her fans, Duffy releases this on her Instagram page in 2020:

"You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter.
Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time, and what it is that feels exciting and liberating for me to talk. I cannot explain it.

Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why. A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach
me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak.

The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days.
Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There's no light way to say it. 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.

In the following weeks I will be posting a spoken interview. If you have any questions I would like to answer them, in the spoken
interview, if I can. I have a sacred love and sincere appreciation for your kindness over the years. You have been friends.
I want to thank you for that x Duffy

"Please respect this is a gentle move for me to make, for myself, and I do not want any intrusion to my family.
Please support me to make this a positive experience."

'Raped and drugged and held captive over some days' told to an unknown Journalist back in 2019 and not a media outlet
notified, investigated or even verified with the Police. No career-orientated friends wondered where she was, no concern from
her twin-sister and not even the neighbours noticing that Duffy had somehow fallen off the world.

So what may have happened? Well the BBC state they attempted to contact Duffy to confirm the details of her post and
Sky News have reported that they've contacted Duffy and her representatives, but as of writing this, no further information
is forthcoming.
A mystery waiting to be solved! What do you think?


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Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe. 
#2
I must confess, I had never even heard of Duffy - she must be a "young folks" thing. Out of curiosity, I listened to some of her music, and believe I may have discovered an alternate explanation for her disappearance - it seems to have something of a niche appeal.

Still, if she would be so kind as to forward to me a name or other identifying information on her captor(s), I could have him (or them) bound, gagged, and rolled into a carpet roll in her basement, suitably duct taped, within 36 hours. What she does with/to them after that is none of my business...

.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#3
(03-01-2020, 02:15 AM)Ninurta Wrote: I must confess, I had never even heard of Duffy - she must be a "young folks" thing. Out of curiosity, I listened to some of her music, and believe I may have discovered an alternate explanation for her disappearance - it seems to have something of a niche appeal...

Most haven't heard of her beyond the thirty-something age range and certainly not a major singer in
the entertainment industry. I must confess that I only vaguely recall her as one of these 'fly-by-night'
players that come and go quickly in the British music scene.

But it's the revelation in her posting that startles me. It's one helluva time to announce such a terrible
ordeal with the hashtag parades, the feminist movement, Weinstein's conviction and 'all-men-are-rapists'
narrative.

You would think a PR firm -or at least a friend, would have advised her to release the information
immediately and with some Police-backing because it could be construed that Duffy is merely using
the opportunity to relaunch her flagging career.

The media rarely sit on a situation like this when you think about Bill Cosby, the payments-for-answers
debacle of some Hollywood actors' college kids, the Daily Mirror's phone-hacking scandal and many
others. So I find it odd that Journalist resisted the urge to relate the story to anyone or get it published
him/herself.
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe. 


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