‘You’re Beautiful by James Blunt is terrible!’: Paloma Faith’s honest playlist

The first song I remember hearing
My mum was a massive fan of Nina Simone but she’s got dyspraxia. She was always having dinner parties, but she’d always make people dance. I just have an image of her clapping out of time to Simone’s song Baltimore.

The first single I bought
Especially for You by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, on cassette from Woolworths on the high street in Stoke Newington, with the contents of my piggy bank.

The song I do at karaoke
I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston. I love karaoke. I think it’s one of my favourite pastimes. Everyone always says: “I’m not going to karaoke with you. You’re a singer!” but I don’t sing well at karaoke. It’s like permission not to sing, but still release all that power and emotion.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
Every road trip I did as a kid had Tracy Chapman’s [self-titled] first album, the one with Fast Car on it, on rotation on the cassette player. I know every word of every song on that album.

The best song to play at a party
Growing up in Hackney, there’s a specific dance that everyone does every time Candy by Cameo comes on. Only Londoners like me understand what I’m talking about. If you’re at a party, you can spot the Londoners. Everyone else is looking around going: “How come you all know that?” That’s basically every party I’ve ever been to.

The song I secretly like but tell everyone I hate
Susan Boyle singing Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones. She sounds so vulnerable and nervous, there’s something really beautiful about it.

The song I can no longer listen to
You’re Beautiful by James Blunt because it’s terrible and didn’t deserve the accolades it got. Everyone who was involved in the writing of it was so proud and they shouldn’t have been.

The best song to have sex to
Believer by SYML, because it’s deep and sensual.

The song I wish I had written
I think Into My Arms by Nick Cave is the greatest song ever written. It takes on many forms at different points in your life and was really profound for me when I’d had my first baby.

The song that gets me up in the morning
This awful song that my kids listen to on Spotify called I’m a Banana by Onision. They just come and ask for it and it gets everyone up and ready quickly because it’s so appalling.

The song that changed my life
I’m Every Woman by Chaka Khan because it is all about how we need to not pit ourselves against each other and we’re all the same thing. It gives you this empowering sense of sisterhood.

The song I’d like play at my funeral
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien by Édith Piaf.

Paloma Faith’s debut book MILF is out now.