"It was a weird one to come my way because I've never been particularly polite about how I feel about reality pop shows," Tunstall said during a recent teleconference. "They're fantastic television. It's very entertaining. But there's very limited amount of space in our culture for new music to get through. It's a real shame when you've got essentially very expensive karaoke acts taking up a lot of space when there's new and very exciting original artists who are writing their own music and doing something very, very new and unique."

She said she was very impressed when the Grammy society nominated Imogen Heap for best new artist. However, she was let down when American Idol winner Carrie Underwood took home the prize.

"[Heap is] just completely free spirited and a very, very talented original musician. And it was just basically scary that the best new artist [Underwood] got up and said thank you to God and Simon Fuller. It wasn't what I expected to hear when someone got that award. But, I mean, there's no bad blood with it. I mean, she does well and lots of people absolutely love what she does and she's obviously talented. So, it was just not what I expected."

Tunstall participated in the teleconference to promote her sophomore album "Drastic Fantastic," the follow-up to 2004's "Eye to the Telescope." On "Drastic Fantastic," Tunstall, who plans to return to the United States in 2008, shows a fair amount of growth.

"I really wanted to progress on the second album," Tunstall said. "I wanted to make something that I felt was the next thing; not a repeat of the first one. It's an easy trap to fall into just because you've got a successful first record. But the big difference was the fact that I'd been on the road with a band for three years, so that really found its way into the second record.

"It's got a lot more life energy, I think, than the first one might have, which is much more fitting. The first one is a much more intimate affair."

Like "Eye to the Telescope," "Drastic Fantastic" is slowly catching on with the American public, and Tunstall's word-of-mouth campaign, which began after she appeared on the U.K. TV show "Later ... with Jools Holland," continues.

"Word got over to the West Coast of America and a few retro-play radio stations were playing the CD before it was even released in America," Tunstall said. "There was a real kind of feeling of ownership from people who had gotten into it first and I think that’s great. It's a dream way to start your career, to have fans feel like they have it first, it's great."