BIRDY has never been to York in her 20 years but all that changes on Wednesday night when she makes her York Barbican debut.

"I'm excited," says the Lymington singer-songwriter who won the Open Mic UK music competition in 2008, when she was 12, and recorded three albums by the age of 19.

This autumn, Birdy is undertaking a ten-date headline tour on the back of album number three, Beautiful Lies, charting n the top ten in 43 countries, including number four in Britain.

"I haven't done a lot of concerts up to now in Britain; I've been touring a lot in Europe and America and in Asia too, and it's got bigger and bigger and scarier but it's all right with my band there!" says Birdy, who has accumulated 413 million views on YouTube and sold 10.5 million records worldwide.

Since catching the nation's attention at the age of 14 with her rendition of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love, Birdy has not only released three albums, but also performed at the 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony; been nominated for a Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist; written songs for the films The Fault In Our Stars and The Hunger Games and sung on Mumford & Sons' Grammy-winning song Learn Me Right for the Pixar animated film Brave. This year, she has performed at the BAFTAs and sold out the London Roundhouse.

Birdy, who writes her songs on the piano, is touring with guitarist Charlotte Hatherley (a familiar name from her days in Ash); violinist Peter Tickell (brother of Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell); bassist, flautist and musical director Richard Evans; drummer Jay Sikora and keyboards player Hazel Mills.

"The songs have changed through being played on stage, which is great, as it's nice to do something different, as we all feed off each other as we get to know how each other plays and it really makes the songs come alive. Normally musicians play a song lots of times before recording it, whereas I do it the other way round, recording first and then taking the song on stage."

York Press:

Birdy: "I'm writing all the time"

Birdy has not recorded songs with these musicians yet but foresees that situation changing. "When I make new music, they will be the people who play on it, as they're so talented," she says.

She plays down her precocious talent for songwriting from such a young age. "I didn't think of it really as a gift, because I've always been surrounded by music. My mother [the Honourable Sophie Roper-Curzon] is a concert pianist and she taught me to play; my dad [Rupert Oliver Benjamin van den Bogaerde] is a writer, who always told us incredible stories," says Birdy, whose full name is very full indeed: Jasmine Lucilla Elizabeth Jennifer van den Bogaerde.

"I've always been inspired by them both and I've been lucky to have had that upbringing. I was learning to play classically and then one day when I was eight I decided I would quite like to write my own thing. I started to play my own piano pieces but thought it was a bit boring, so I started singing my songs, and I remember my mother standing at the bottom of the stairs thinking, 'What's wrong with her? She's singing all these bad songs?'!"

Growing up as one of five children in an old mill in the New Forest in Hampshire – somewhere wild and secluded – had an impact on her too. Whereas her sister would go horse-riding, Birdy was "too frightened, though I have tried it", but instead she was consumed by making music.

"I'm writing all the time," she says. "But the songwriting has definitely changed; it comes much more from experience now. I still write about the same things but before, I often wrote about other people's experiences or from my imagination. Now it's more connected to me."

Where might she branch out? "I would really love to do a film score one day," says Birdy. "Growing up, I was inspired by Disney movies, and I would love the intricate side of writing for films: the more theatrical side needed for that writing, involving classical songwriting skills."

Birdy plays York Barbican on November 2, 7.30pm, supported by Dan Owen. Box office: 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk