Naughty Boy: “I always want to be like the Banksy of music”

Pop’s mystery man-of-the-moment gets his Official Number 1 Award and tells us why it’s time to reveal himself.

You probably don’t recognise this man’s face, but he’s sold a whopping 2 million albums in the UK in the past 18 months, and now British super producer Naughty Boy is finally moving to the fore.

In an exclusive new interview with OfficialCharts.com, we finally catch up with Naughty Boy backstage at V Festival to present him with his Official Number 1 Award for La La La – arguably THE tune of the gloriously hot summer of 2013 and now the fourth biggest selling single of the year after clocking up sales of a cool 836,000 since its May release.

Naughty Boy with his Official Number 1 Award

The 28-year-old musical maestro, AKA Shahid Khan, tells us how it feels to go from obscurity as a pizza delivery guy to the hottest producer of the year - taking his pick of collaborations with some of the biggest, brightest names in pop after winning a cash prize on gameshow Deal Or No Deal. True story.

The Watford-born producer, whose debut album Hotel Cabana is currently battling it out with US rockers Avenged Sevenfold for Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart this weekend, explains why he has so far shunned the spotlight.

“I thought I always want to be like the Banksy of music, but it’s not easy when people wanna know what you look like and they wanna know who you are,” he says. “But I still don’t want to give them everything.” And why the name Naughty Boy? He tells all in the full video interview.

Before his solo success, Naughty Boy was best known for his work with Emeli Sandé. It was a Naughty Boy-produced collaboration with Chipmunk which first introduced Emeli to the world, and the two have worked closely together ever since. Naughty Boy co-wrote Emeli’s first solo hit Heaven and co-wrote and produced the bulk of her mega-selling debut album Our Version of Events. One of the album’s tracks he wrote with Emeli, Clown, received approval from one of pop’s biggest legends. Sir Elton John himself wrote to Emeli to tell her how much he loved the song.

In our interview, Naughty Boy talks about his first single as a featured artist – Wonder, a Number 10 hit in 2012 with Emeli Sandé on vocal duties – and why it was important not to just recreate Heaven, Emeli’s debut solo hit. Completing work with pop royalty Britney Spears, and the highly anticipated debut album of X Factor 2012 winner James Arthur, he also reveals the big names he’ll be working with next, including Lily Allen.

Watch the full video interview to find out the effect Naughty Boy’s music has had on fans and what he has in common with Carphone Warehouse?!