Shontelle: "The army brought out my tough side — but I wanted to be fabulous"

WHEN SHONTELLE LAYNE got a call last year saying that her song 'Battle Cry' had been picked for Barack Obama's campaign album Yes We Can, she started leaping up and down. The 23-year-old R&B singer from Barbados was already on the way to success: her first single, 'T-Shirt', a sweet, post-break-up ballad, was climbing the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and would soon reach No 6 in the UK. She already had a law degree, and had represented Barbados internationally as an athlete and swimmer. But this, Layne says, was success on another scale.