RETRO-pop queen Caro Emerald is bringing her tour to Bournemouth tonight. She has taken the charts by storm and championed by Radio 2, Caro Emerald's vintage swing jazz sound enchanted listeners and earned her a number one album in the UK.

She has also sold out concerts around the country. Her second album, The Shocking Miss Emerald, spent an impressive 52 consecutive weeks in the official UK album chart. The tracks Tangled Up and Liquid Lunch received hours of airplay on radio stations.

The Dutch chanteuse is speaking to me from her home in Amsterdam. Ringing 20 minutes early, she is bubbly, polite and like most people in the Low Countries, speaks perfect English.

Caro's much anticipated third album is still being worked on. I ask her if there is as much of a change of direction in sound as the track Quicksand, released on Caro's website, suggests.

She said: “We're still busy working on the album. It's taking longer than expected. “We did want to release it earlier this year. “I suppose Quicksand is a bit of an example of a change of sound. We want to emphasise the electronic part of the sound.” Caro, an Amsterdam Conservatory jazz-trained vocalist, has seen her fan base grow rapidly. For this current tour most venues are large arenas like the Bournemouth International Centre. So how do you translate that smoky jazz club sound to arenas with thousands of seats? I ask.

She replied: “It's a challenge. We did even more arenas last year. We did the O2 arena and a space that size is a big challenge.

“We've never felt that the music is too intimate or too small for venues like these. “We work on dealing with it as a team. We now know what works and what doesn't. It's important to stick to what you do and not try to be bigger than you are.

“We use many techniques to make the show and the sound bigger.”

I remark that retro-pop is all the rage at the moment and wonder if Caro thinks she paved the way for this genre of music?

“I'm really not sure,” she says.

“I suppose in Holland this kind of sound is viewed as a bit passé.

“Maybe the UK is a bit behind that and the sound is having its time right now. “I think there was a bit of a revival a few years ago and it's still there in different ways.”

I ask Caro what it's like to perform back in the Netherlands as one of its finest exports.

“It's always really special to be performing in Holland. “It's funny, I always feel a bit more naked and exposed when in Holland.

“At the moment I speak English 90 per cent of the time and coming home and speaking Dutch and sometimes I feel a bit silly speaking my own language.

“It does make things more nerve-wracking having an international career. “What is nice though is that my friends all come along and support me at the show.”

Caro's tour will take her around much of Europe, so will she be looking to crack the US afterwards?

“It's a big country and you've got to go there for at least a week. With the UK I am just an hour by air from the Netherlands.

“But it's a whole different thing. I do get people from the US asking when I'm going to tour there.

“I feel like I should but it costs a lot of money so I have to plan carefully. There is so much territory to cover, and again there are other countries I want to get to and spend more time in like France, South Korea and Australia.” Having given birth to her first child last year, Caro says she cherishes her time at home.

“When I'm at home I'm a bit of a housewife.

“I do recording of some vocals and I will go over to a local gig somewhere like Switzerland, where I'm going for a couple of days soon, but mostly I like to just be in my home doing little bits here and there in different rooms.”

She says: “I'm very lucky to have been to so many places in the UK. I haven't toured any country any more than England and I love being around English people and eating the local dishes.

“A lot of people say to me: 'Why don't you move to London?'

“But I was born and raised in Amsterdam and to be honest I couldn't afford an apartment in London, it's so expensive.

“And really, I don't want to leave my friends and family who are all here. “Holland is my home and it's so perfect because it's so close to everywhere else.”

: Caro Emerald is at the Bournemouth International Centre this evening. Contact the BIC for tickets.