Singer songwriter Marina Diamandis yesterday spoke of her determination to become a music success.

Since becoming runner-up to Ellie Goulding in the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll, Diamandis – who performs as Marina and the Diamonds – has had nothing but critical praise and public adoration.

The half-Welsh, half-Greek 25-year-old now has three top 20 singles and a top five album in Family Jewels.

But she said: “I didn’t even listen to any music until I was about 19, really. I just wanted to be famous. But I didn’t say it to anyone because I was really embarrassed at the thought.”

She applied herself academically – by her own admittance in a “hardcore” fashion.

“With my GCSEs I was up at 2am everyday and I would study until 7am, go to school then come back and do some more,” Diamandis told a London Sunday newspaper.

When she was 16, Marina left the village of Pandy in Monmouthshire to live with her father in Athens, where she took the International Baccalaureate.

She said: “I’m a very, very disciplined person. And I don’t mind sacrificing normal things like friends and relationships.”

And she spoke of her eclectic university career: “I did a year, got a first, then I transferred to another uni, just because I was a bit bored, but I thought ‘this is a rubbish course’, so I switched to pure composition at Middlesex, but I stopped after two months. Never like to stay for too long!”

The musician, who once compared herself to Shakira and Lady Gaga, added: “Everyone’s like, ‘You are doing so well. And I’m like, ‘No I’m not!’ I need to do so much more.”

Kathryn Williams