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Uni-monikered Britsoul starlet Duffy has definitely made a (single) name for herself outside of her unpronounceable, vowel-less hometown in Wales. But before she was racking up a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, Duffy was known as Aimee Duffy, a contestant on a Welsh Idol-style singing competition called WawFfactor.

[Aimee] Duffy competed on the show during its 2003-4 season and was supposedly the frontrunner; but she came in second, losing out to someone named Lisa Pedrig. Still, she rebounded quickly and released a self-titled, three-track, Welsh-language EP with such catchy song titles as "Dim Dealltwriaeth," "Hedfan Angel," and "Cariad Dwi'n Unig." The EP was a hit in Wales, but the artist formerly known as Aimee was soon to undergo a stylistic and sonic makeover and take over the world as simply Duffy.

Below is an interview clip from Duffy's WawFfactor era (sorry, all you readers who don't understand Welsh--which, um, is probably 99.9 percent of you--but it's in Welsh), interspersed with her music video from the time. Her voice sounds decent--I suppose she wouldn't have made it all the way to second place if she couldn't sing, right?--but her old material is snoozy, Enya-lite yoga music that would probably only have a chance of earning a Grammy in the New Age categories.

See here:

Now, I don't claim this is breaking news here--while Duffy has distanced herself from her reality TV past, she's never denied it. However, now that I've finally got around to seeking out her underwhelming WawFfactor-era music, I'm beginning to wonder if she should deny it. (It won't curry her any favor with the Grammy judges come February, when the awards ceremony takes place.)

So anyway, yes, I know this is common knowledge to many, so please no "everyone knows this already/have you been living under a rock?"-type message board posts, OK?

Unless you post your comments in Welsh. That would be cool.