COURTESY PHOTO

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Feel the love

Pop singer Norah Jones feels
more comfortable before
a live audience

Fresh off a string of concerts in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, pop songstress Norah Jones arrives in Honolulu for a performance at the Blaisdell Arena on Saturday.

Norah Jones and the Handsome Band Where: Blaisdell Arena When: 8 p.m. Saturday Tickets: $40 Call: 591-2211, 877-750-4400 or go online at www.ticketmaster.com

At just 26 years old, she's already a multiplatinum selling artist on Blue Note Records with more Grammy awards to her credit than she can carry. With little fanfare, 2002's "Come Away With Me" -- and, in particular, the monster hit "Don't Know Why" -- took mainstream audiences by storm with its jazz influences and mellow sound. Her 2004 sophomore release, "Feels Like Home," was eagerly anticipated and didn't disappoint.

"I didn't really put any pressure on myself," Jones told the Cincinnati Enquirer last year. "The record's gonna do what it's going to do."

THE DAUGHTER of legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, Jones was born in New York City and grew up in a suburb of Dallas with her mother.

After graduating from the prestigious Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, she spent a few years majoring in jazz piano at the University of North Texas before returning to the Big Apple in 1999. Instead of staying for just the summer, as she had originally planned, Jones ended up staying and playing in local clubs with a band called Wax Poetic before getting signed to Blue Note as a solo artist in 2001.

"The music kept me (in New York)," she explained. "I found it very exciting. ... Everything opened up for me."

WITH THE release of "Feels Like Home," Jones found herself changing the tempo of her songs slightly. While fans loved the slower songs on her debut, live audiences seemed to react favorably when she sped things up.

"It's kind of weird, because I'm not really like the personality that emerges from ('Come Away With Me')," she said in an interview with VH-1. "I'm not melancholy; I'm a happy-go-lucky person, kind of silly. I tend to like music that's mellow, though."

Not only have the last three years allowed Jones to develop as an artist, but also as an all-around performer. After a few years of performing in coffee bars and other passive listening locations, it took her some time to get used to the idea that people were at a show just to see her perform.

"I'm finally able to enjoy myself (on tour)," the singer told the San Jose Mercury News last year. "Before, it was always a little bit stressful -- was I going to have a good night, was I going to have a bad night, what was going to set me off?

"It used to affect me a lot more onstage, and now I know it's no big deal. ... I've had (to learn) to talk to the audience, smile at the audience."