It's not every day you get to say you've interviewed pop mega star Nadia Berry, who notably took a little break from the music limelight for the majority of last year. After two back-to-back huge albums with Open Heart Surgery and Hera, there was definitely a Nadia Berry shaped gap in 2013, but fear not Berry fans, Nadia's finally entered the beginning of her Diamond in the Rough era and she seems more determined than ever. Not only that, but we certainly had a lot more than just music to talk about when I recently met her for a sit down interview at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

To my surprise, Nadia is a lot shorter in person, after seeing photographs of her for years as an almost larger than life celebrity, she's as little as 5'3 without heels she tells me. Despite being a little lady, she sure has achieved a lot and has a huge team around her, a lot of them stand outside the closed off lounge in the Dorchester where Nadia is being interviewed by media outlets all over the world for the day. It's likely a tiring experience on her behalf, having to answer the same questions, but she's incredibly sweet and shakes my hand on meeting, her manager the only one in the room with us. She pours us both a cup of traditional English tea from a teapot, and we swiftly begin. It's hard to call it an interview with Nadia, she's such a down to earth figure, it really doesn't feel like something so strictly professional, but more like a catch-up with an old friend, despite us meeting for the first time.

I compliment her past material and she thanks me, looking genuinely grateful, "I think over time, you form a bond with your older music, because you've performed it so much and have so many memories attached to those songs. It's nice to know they've not been forgotten about." However, this interview is of course looking forward to her future in music, and it looks incredibly bright if her past releases are anything to go by. The lead single "Make It Right" topped both airplay and digital charts and is likely to become another Nadia Berry classic. "I still ask myself why the records I put out did so well, I guess people just like the music," she smiles, picking up her teacup delicately and taking a sip, "I won't ever know why, but I feel very blessed, to know people like my music as much as I do. I love my fans." Nadia Berry's fans must be dedicated to say the least, they helped her achieve the highest first week sales ever for an album on Chart Heat with Hera, and she's quickly racked up 13 million in album sales on the very same chart. The pressure must be on for her to deliver again with her next record, but Nadia replies, sounding fairly relaxed. "I think if you have that in your mind, you'll go insane, you can't always expect to be successful and have that kinda weight on your shoulders. I've been in the industry long enough to know that there's one it-girl, then another comes along, and so on. It's a cycle."

Nadia's eyes light up when her next album is mentioned, she's clearly raring to go and appears very passionate when speaking about it. "I'm so in love with Diamond in the Rough, I've been working on it for a long time now, actually the longest I've ever worked on an album, I was obsessed with perfecting it, every single lyric, every little vocal, it had to be just right," she reveals. Despite being a successful pop singer-songwriter, Nadia is anything but a label puppet, she's completely in control of her music and is even going the next step with this release by creating a label just for herself, purely dedicated to distributing this new release. "When you've invested so much time in the creation of a record, you really don't want it out of your hands. After being at North Hill, I became used to the idea of 'Wow, I'm actually going to have omnipotent control of my album', but I never actually released anything there, so I couldn't let that slip out of my hands."

We both reach for our teacups at the same time and she laughs, mid-sentence of describing the sound to her new album, "It's really diverse, there's something for everyone. At the start of the creation, I was so set on everything being so gentle and stripped back, but then I had a lot of things happen to me and I wanted the music to be a little more loud and aggressive. I think music is the best way to express yourself and to channel your feelings, so why ignore what you're feeling? I had to make what I felt." In a past interview, Nadia revealed that she would be working with her now ex-partner Ryan Ross Hernandez, of course an iconic singer-songwriter and guitarist of our generation who was to lend his efforts to production on the new album, "We did some songs in the studio, but the direction of the album changed a lot, and you know, I wanted this album to be positive. It's a dark album for the most part, but I have nothing but positive feelings about the creation of it, it helped me through a lot. Myself and Jared Nevo worked on it all together, he understands me and my style." Of course, Nadia's whole album recently began streaming on Pitchfork, but to those still waiting to hear the album, she promises a diverse mix. "I think people will be surprised. There's still some of that easy-going, mellow music that I wanted, really raw and honest, and a lot of indie elements. Some have a nice 80s, old school pop feel to them, while others are just really loud and careless, and me shouting out words from my heart. It's got it all."

Her lead single "Make It Right" premiered last year, and received an incredible amount of praise from critics, which Nadia seems relieved by. "I wasn't sure if people were gonna like it, it's quite different to my past stuff, so that was a big surprise!" She sure didn't mess around with getting the word out, worldwide promotion began soon after its release, which saw the single cover projected on giant screens in busy areas such as Times Square in New York and Piccadilly Circus in London. "It doesn't get less weird seeing my face on a magazine cover or something, I was there in Times Square the moment it came on the screens, it was probably one of the most surreal moments of my life." The chaos doesn't end there though, Nadia is in fact planning a twenty-date stint at famous London venue Royal Albert Hall, which is just a matter of weeks away. "I'm super excited to start those shows, I've never performed there before and it really is a legendary venue in the UK, I'm thrilled to have the chance to even go on the stage. I've said before that I always thought the sound of this album really matched up well to a slightly more intimate setting, so these shows are perfect to make the album really come to life."

No questions were pre-screened beforehand, and Nadia seemed willing to talk about anything, so the interview took a slightly more personal turn next. With her manager in the room, she could have easily turned her head and made a little expression to say she wanted it to be over at this stage, but she dived straight into the answers. Let's face it, both Nadia and Ryan have been incredibly silent about their break-up and the world is hungry for more. "When you're with someone for that amount of time, of course it hurts, and of course it sucks, but you know, you take it a day at a time," she nods, finishing off her tea and topping up both our cups. "There's a lot of things the public don't know about our relationship. Everyone assumes we were engaged and called it off for a start," she says softly, before pausing. I grow all the more intrigued and nod my head, "Let's just say something happened without the public knowing... I think I was so quiet about it because I mean, who wants to be known as 28 and divorced? It was hard and kind of embarrassing." If she means what I think she means, it's a shocking revelation, and one I certainly wasn't expecting. "Not only do you go through that, but then you discover someone you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with casually goes off on a date straight after and then gets with a close friend of yours... it was all a very tough and strange time. I felt betrayed. It was stuff I didn't deserve." There's a sadness in her eyes when she talks, clearly evident that 2013 wasn't her best of years.

It surprises me that a hard working and determined woman like Nadia Berry was so quick to step away from everything she helped to build up, North Hill Records, or on the personal side of things, purchasing a home in Montana. Why didn't she fight for those? "To tell you the truth, I was drained, I didn't want to put up a fight, I was just ready to walk away," she shrugs. "I gave up the home because it no longer meant to me what it once did, it was the only place in the world I felt safe and happy, and it no longer represents that for me. Why fight for something that no longer has those qualities to you? Some people can carry on as if nothing's happened, but that home was never the same again to me. Superficial things don't make me happy, it's the meaning behind them, once that meaning's gone, I don't care for it," Nadia adds, clearing her throat. "It was a tough decision to walk away from a label I loved very much, I had a great relationship with our North Hill team and the artists, it was incredibly hard. I didn't want my personal life to disrupt the main purpose of why the label was created, I backed down because I didn't want the drama, the fuss, a big scene to be created, I just wanted closure. I lost everything in a matter of weeks, but it allowed me to start again."

Mark Talley was the new man in Nadia's life, but the pair only briefly dated before calling it off, "I don't think he understood me, as a person or even just as an artist, and maybe I didn't understand him either. We just didn't suit each other," she says with a little nod. "Do I think I went into a new relationship too soon? Definitely," Nadia admits, before laughing at a little joke she makes, "I think the duration of my new album is longer than that relationship." She moves back to the subject of jumping back into the dating scene too soon, "But really, I don't think I allowed myself time to heal, which was the one thing I needed, I think." It can't be easy to go through two break-ups in the space of a few months, and Nadia admits there's a sense of loneliness in her personal life, "I do feel lonely, I am lonely. I think we all have moments when we're scared we'll never find the one and we'll die alone without knowing someone truly loved us." She laughs at herself a little after her comment, "Gosh! How depressing am I today? Get it together, Nads." Nadia's clearly an upbeat and positive person, she makes sure to swiftly move away from the subject.

As we come to the end of our interview, Nadia seems just as easygoing and friendly as when we started. Clearly there's a reason the woman has been in this industry for so long, and it's because she's extremely relatable, her problems have always been very public, people can see she's a real person, and she embraces that. She's humble, a hard worker, and has been driven for many years to keep her place in the industry. I tell her all of this as a fan of hers, and it even looks as if her eyes well up a little, "I honestly appreciate that so much, thank you, sweetie," she replies in a soft tone, ending her sentence with a warm smile. We hug and off I go, but not before she gives me a signed copy of her new album Diamond in the Rough, which hits stores February 3rd.