The world seems to turn black and white when singer Maria Tecce enters a club, as if one has suddenly been transported back to a sophisticated nightclub scene from a 1950s film. There's an aura of El Morocco about her — a woman of the world who's been around, but still looks like a million dollars.

Tecce materialized mic-side at U Malého Glena last May during the Prague Fringe Festival, looking like Audrey Hepburn at her most mischievous. Backed by bass and piano, she launched into a songbook that covers most of the ground between Gershwin and Tom Waits, including a number of torch ballads that she seductively made her own. A beer-cellar venue suddenly felt like the Stork Club.

The Prague Post: When did you start to sing?

Maria Tecce: I've been singing all my life, really. My mom is a pianist and sang loads of American folk music when I was a kid, so I grew up on that, plus Cole Porter, George Gershwin, the Hammersteins. I never thought I'd sing as a profession, though. That happened incrementally. Suddenly, I was writing, producing and performing one-woman cabaret shows.

TPP: I remember at the British Embassy last May when you sang Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child," a cappella no less, that you said you worshipped Lady Day as a child. Were there other singers that you found yourself paying close attention to growing up?

MT: When I was growing up, it was pretty much the same as any teenager, really... A-Ha, CSNY, James Taylor, Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears. A lot of pop and retro hippie.

TPP: When and where was your first gig?

MT: I think my first gig would have been singing at my local high-school talent contest. I was so nervous my legs cramped up and I almost couldn't walk out on stage. I was terrified. Paying-gigwise, my first gig professionally was in Galway, Ireland, at my friend Harriet's wine bar about eight years ago. I sang for an hour, got £20 and my dinner ... and as much wine as I could drink.

TPP: When were you able to just be a singer?

MT: Well, I still work as an actor as well as a musician. But I'm incredibly lucky in that for the last three years, I've made a living with my voice, full stop. I still pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.

TPP: Do you have an ideal venue in mind, somewhere in the world, where you would love to sing one day?

MT: I don't have an ideal venue per se. I've been very fortunate in that I've performed in exquisite venues in some of the most beautiful cities in the world over the last couple of years — places I'd only fantasized of playing in. But I'd love to perform in Paris one day.

TPP: Do you have a signature song?