The night Dustin Hoffman asked for Amy Macdonald’s autograph

Meeting Hollywood A-lister Dustin Hoffman on The Graham Norton Show led to one of the most surreal moment’s of Amy’s life.

Meeting Hollywood A-lister Dustin Hoffman on The Graham Norton Show led to one of the most surreal moment of Amy Macdonald’s life.

She is Scotland’s £5 million pop princess. But despite having all the trappings of wealth and fame, including an addiction to expensive cars, there’s not the slightest hint of the diva about Amy Macdonald.

Home is an £800,000 pad in the upmarket suburbs of Milngavie near Glasgow. And a Ferrari 458 and a Range Rover Vogue are parked in the drive.

There used to be third until recently but even car-mad Amy admits that was a bit excessive for a single girl. They’re the trappings of fame and fortune you’d think are standard for any pop star.

What you won’t find, though, are pictures of her staggering out of London’s hottest nightclubs.

Or see her taking to the stage or in a saucy video that’d make a pole dancer blush in outfits made with less material than you’d need to decently clothe a baby.

For the 26-year-old is the down-to-earth polar opposite of the sexed-up, life-in-excess chart-toppers that measure success by gossip column inches.

And any concerns over diva-like behaviour are dispelled within minutes of settling down at a Glasgow riverside hotel with the girl whose records have sold millions over the past seven years.

Yes, she’s wearing Balenciaga designer boots that would cost most people a week’s wages. But she’s also wearing an M&S top and her idea of girly shopping fun is a trawl round Topshop.

The fortune she’s amassed is definitely not for bragging about.

“I know these things are public knowledge, but I feel embarrassed, to be honest,” confides Amy as she settled down for her most revealing interview ever.

“I’m not the kind of person to say, ‘Look at me, here’s what I’ve got’. I know I say that and I’ve got a big red Ferrari but I just love cars.”

That’s probably an understatement. You get the feeling that if you nicked her she’d bleed unleaded. Isn’t splashing out six figure sums on a piece of metal crazy?

“Oh, it’s so much more than a piece of metal, it’s an amazing feat of engineering,” gushes Amy. “It makes you feel alive. I’ve had so many moments where I’ve felt unbelievably happy sitting at the wheel of a car.

“I find it exhilarating and it’s something I probably wish I didn’t have. It’d be a helluva lot easier especially on my mum!” she laughs, knowing that her mum worries about her driving powerful vehicles.

What retired accountant mum Jo and surveyor dad Jimmy think matters. Really matters.

When she’s not touring, Amy calls or sees them every day, her luxury pad a short drive from the comfortable detached Bishopbriggs home where she grew up with her sister Katie, now a doctor.

“I talk to mum and dad about absolutely everything,” Amy reveals. “I know if I called them from anywhere in the world they’d be there as fast as possible.

“And my sister is amazing, just so intelligent. A while back she’d beat herself up thinking: ‘Amy’s doing all this and I’m only doing that’ but I’d be doing the same thing looking at what she was doing.

“She’s worked incredibly hard and she’s doing something really good. When people ask, I puff my chest out and tell them she’s a doctor.”

Slim and poised, Amy looks every inch the pop star but it’s a look she controls.

“I’ll never change who I am to sell records,” she insists. “If you take your clothes off and you’re suddenly No 1 all over world, is it that or a genuinely good song?

“I want people to buy my songs because the music moves them, not because there’s all that nonsense in the background.”

Amy used to practise guitar for hours each night after coming home from Bishopbriggs High School.

“It was agony, bleeding fingers and everything, but I was so desperate to play along with my favourite songs.”

Determination won through and landed her the record deal that led to This Is The Life followed by A Curious Thing and then her third album, Life In A Beautiful Light.

They’ve thrust Amy into the spotlight, one that has never shone more brightly than during her relationship with footballer fianc Steve Lovell.

The pair were together for more than four years until they broke up 18 months ago. But Amy insists that moping about her ex or indeed any ex isn’t her style.

“I know that personal stuff is what people want to talk about,” she said. “But I’m not the kind of person who would be sitting heartbroken, no matter how hard the break-up was.

“Things like that wouldn’t bother me. I wouldn’t cry myself to sleep. I’d always said I wasn’t a strong person, but in the past few years I’ve found I actually am.

“I’ve dealt with a lot and could deal with a lot worse if it ever happened. I’m single and don’t get asked out a lot, although I have been recently.”

Refreshingly open and honest, Amy is, quite simply, right good company.

She giggles as she recalls dodging fans by NOT wearing dark glasses or being surrounded by bodyguards, and just casually strolling past. Not all fans are a delight, though.

“The industry will always attract crazies and, unfortunately, I’ve been on the wrong end of a few,” she reveals.

“I’ve had issues with stalkers. A guy got arrested two years ago and I’ve had trouble with it in the past few weeks.”

Amy has rubbed shoulders with some of the music business’s biggest names. She’s supported Bruce Springsteen, been hugged by Sir Elton John and hung out in U2’s dressing room.

But an encounter with Dustin Hoffman after The Graham Norton Show still has her shaking her head in disbelief.

“At the end of the recording he said he wanted to hear my story,” she explains. “I told him I responded to an advert then got a record deal and he loved it.

“He said it was fate, I was meant to do it. I gave him a CD and two minutes later he came back asking if I’d sign it for him.

“Me, signing an autograph for Dustin Hoffman it’s so surreal.”

As our chat comes to an end there’s a firm impression that Amy will never change. She’s happy that taking a lot of this year off to write songs means she’ll be able to catch up with friends, the same pals she’s had since school.

“I’ve had two years travelling so I’m taking time at home,” she adds. “I’ve always stayed in Scotland because I need things to be quieter and this where I feel most comfortable.

“I’m passionate about my country and love having people around me who have been there since the beginning. I wouldn’t ever want to leave that behind.”