Rhian Benson When Welsh soul sensation Rhian Benson gave up a high-flying banking career to nurse her sick mother back to health, she realised life was too short not to chase her dreams. And now the beautiful 27-year-old is thanking her lucky stars. Her mum Glenda, from Ogmore Vale, is better and her dream of making music has come true.

The half-Welsh, half-Ghanaian stunner is already a huge success in America and is now preparing to unleash her soul-inspired album Gold Coast on the British public. And super-bright Rhian, who studied at the London School of Economics and then Harvard, cannot believe her luck.

During a flying visit back to Wales, the country she fondly thinks of as home, Rhian revealed: "I grew up surrounded by music. My grandad played the organ, my dad was a guitarist, my mum could sing.

"I learned the piano when I was about nine years old and grew up listening to the sounds of Miles Davis, Earth, Wind & Fire and Ella Fitzgerald.

"But mum and dad had always taught me that education was important so I did my A-levels, studied a degree at the LSE, worked on the floor at the Stock Exchange for a while then travelled to Boston to study there.

"It was while I was out there that I got a call saying mum was in hospital and she was very sick. Of course, I returned without hesitation. She was very ill and it was touch and go for a while.

"I decided to give up my studies and concentrate on helping her get well. It was then I rediscovered my love for music.

"Mum being so sick reminded me that life is short, we only get one chance at it and that's when I decided to become an artist.

"My mum, a proud Welsh woman who still has most of her family living in Bryncethin, Bridgend, is fine now but when you are faced with something like that, it does make you think about life."

Rhian, whose brother Justin, 32, was the first black officer in the Household Cavalry and served out in Iraq, said music became a source of strength to her throughout her mum's sickness and writing tracks for the album helped her through a difficult time.

"It was a major turning point for me. I couldn't ignore that deep-rooted desire I'd always had to be creative and wrote many songs during that time with my mum. I had a lot of fears bottled up about pursuing my musical dream but mum was so weak at times that I couldn't tell her. I resorted to music as an outlet and a way of coping and just thought, 'I'm going to do this'."

And, after an open mic spot in London's Covent Garden, Rhian was snapped up by a small American indie label called DKG Music, moved to California and her dream of being a music artist came true.

Her debut album Gold Coast has gone down a storm over in the States and she is about to release her first single in the UK Say How I Feel next month.

She said: "I've also been asked to perform at the Mobo awards which is really exciting.

"It's obviously a massive event and will be great to share the same stage with such great artists."

And she's hoping her new single is a success, particularly in her homeland.

She said: "It's weird because I think I take it more personally over here than I do over in America. I guess it's because my family and friends are all over here.

"They have all been a massive support to me. My mum and dad, my brother and sister Suzanne, 24, and our aunties, uncles and cousins, have all come to see me perform.

"I recently performed on the Red Dragon FM stage at the Cardiff Big Weekend with the Brand New Heavies at the Mardi Gras and they were all there cheering me on.

"We are a very close family, we always have been and I've got wonderful memories of growing up in Wales. We used to go to Porthcawl and Tenby for our holidays and we'd spend hours playing at my gran's house in Suffolk Place.

"Going to Cardiff for a day's shopping was a real treat and that's why it is so great to come back now and see how it has changed."

But Rhian's home, for the moment, is America. "Living out in California is good, once you've got used to the American way of life.

"It can be a bit strange at first but it's fun. I do have a boyfriend, and luckily he is very understanding.

"I can be called away at a moment's notice and not know when I'll be home so it makes things far less complicated that he understands it's my work."