Joss Stone was discovered as the 14-year-old country girl from Devon with the voice of a soul diva.When people heard her powerful, gravely voice belting out covers of old songs given a soul twist on the radio they were stunned to discover she was not a 64-year-old busty black woman - but a baby-faced blonde.Now, at 19, Joss has a host of music awards under her belt and has achieved global recognition for her voice.Everyone knew her as the cheerful hippy-chick with the big voice so were understandably shocked when she strutted onto the stage at the London BRIT Awards last month with a pronounced American drawl and an attitude to match her diva voice.Joss had seemingly discarded of the Devon charm she was known for and displayed a newly inflated ego fuelled by self-importance and fame.But as Joss herself has pointed out: "I've been in America since I was 14. That's why I sound the way I do."Being plucked from school and flown over to the US to audition for record companies, release an album, and tour the world, is bound to affect the way an impressionable teenager grows up.

Everyone is saying she has changed, but perhaps they never knew her at all.

So who is Joss Stone?

Born Joscelyn Eve Stoker, the third of four children, she grew up listening to classic R'n'B and soul music, and hailed Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin as her heroes, developing a similar style of singing.

She was discovered at 14 when she appeared on BBC TV talent show 'Star for a Night' singing Donna Summer's 1979 hit 'On the Radio' in 2001.

In 2002 she was flown to New York to audition for S-Curve record boss Steve Greenberg and also signed an international music publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing in Britain under the stage name of Joss Stone.

She then travelled to Miami where she began recording her first album 'Soul Sessions', a collection of cover versions adapted to a soul style to suit her voice.

Her first single 'Fell In Love With A Boy' made the top 20 in the UK singles charts.

Joss began touring the US and other countries, wowing the world with her powerful voice.

After breaking the international music market, Joss quickly followed up her success with an album of original tunes, 'Mind, Body and Soul'.

It debuted at number one in the UK album charts, making her the youngest woman ever to debut in the top spot.

With two platinum selling albums and a string of sell out tours, Joss was soon collecting millions in the bank and a host of award nominations to boot.

The fortune has been placed into a trust fund, controlled by her parents, Richard and Wendy, which Joss will not have access to until she is 21.

Joss says this is a good thing as it will prevent her being tempted to blow her millions on an extravagant rock and roll lifestyle.

She said: "If I wanted to buy ten pounds of cocaine, I wouldn't be able to, because they wouldn't let me - which is brilliant and I kind of want them to do that forever."

When Joss was 17 she caused scandal in America by moving in with her 25-year-old music producer boyfriend Beau Dozier.

As Joss was below the legal age of consent, 18 in the US, the move was frowned upon and she was dropped by The GAP - who had adopted her as the youthful face of their clothing range - as they felt she had sullied her reputation and set a bad example.

A source said at the time: "People take things such as the age of consent extremely seriously in America.

"It is all good and well to have glamorous celebrities endorsing the clothes but the backbone of Gap's business is in small towns in Middle America where people are very, very conservative, especially in the Bible Belt.

"As a result, I think they have made it pretty clear that Stone's association with the company is over."

In 2004 Joss joined Bono and a host of other music stars to sing on the Band Aid 20 charity single re-release of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' and in summer 2005 performed at Live 8 to raise money for Aids sufferers in Africa.

After the concert feisty Joss made a jibe at Mariah Carey for promoting her new single during the concert.

The young singer said: "I didn't want to sing my single because that's really lame and pathetic and stupid and not what it's all about."

Last year Joss split from boyfriend, Beau, and was shortly seen out partying with British soul singer Lemar.

She claimed: "I still love Beau - he'll always has a very special place in my heart. You don't just stop loving someone because you're not going out with them. We split because the relationship had become a friendship and we'll always be friends.

"Lemar is a great friend and an excellent artist. But I'm still young, free and single and I'm happy that way.

"I'd love a boyfriend if the timing was right but at the moment I'm working on my new album. Lemar and I are great mates but we're not an item."

But as she isn't often a wild party-goer, and does not frequent Hollywood's celebrity circuit, Joss rarely makes the gossip columns.

So when she strode on stage at the BRIT Awards and drawled her love and get well wishes to Robbie Williams - who had entered rehab the day before - everyone was taken aback.

After her appearance, Joss declared in an interview with Radio one DJ Chris Moyles that she didn't care what people thought and that it was hard work being a celebrated musician.

She then followed that statement up with, "If you want to think I'm a b***h that's fine. I'm a b***h".

Her fans were stunned as to what had happened to the sweet, innocent little Joss they all knew and loved.

But as she has shed her old management and has been given artistic freedom for the first time with her new album 'Introducing Joss Stone', the soul singer claims this is the real her unleashed for the first time.

Joss said: "Before I was told what to sing and now at last I've been allowed to sing what I want and I'm so happy with it. This is me and I'm singing about what I feel. That's why I've given the album this title."

But even ex-boyfriend Beau was shocked by the lyrics to her latest single from the album, 'Tell Me 'Bout It', in which she sings she is "addicted to her man" and begs him to "do it to her".

Beau said: "Our romance just wasn't sexy. That must have come after my relationship with her.

"We had a spiritual relationship, but we were always surrounded by backing singers, or on a tour bus, so there was barely ever any time for sex."

This week Joss, sporting a new pink hair-do, upset her fans by keeping them waiting for two-and-a-half hours at gig at Camden's KoKo club.

Her late arrival with little apology has only fuelled the diva label.

Joss was thrown into the spotlight at 14 and ferried off to America branded "the next big thing", where she has grown up in recording studios and travelling from gig to gig with her band and backing singers.

Next month she will turn 20 - still barely out of the sways of adolescence, and just doing what young girls do, experimenting with image changes and experiencing new lifestyles.

Joss's new attitude may well just be a phase, or she could finally have become the feisty soul diva we could all hear living inside her.

Some people think Joss has got too big for her boots, but maybe the little girl with the diva's voice is just beginning to grow into them.

By Albertina Lloyd.

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