THE NEXT BIG THING WORLDLY LAMYA BRINGS INTERNATIONAL, OPERATIC FLAVOR TO POP MUSIC.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

In the first song off her debut album, ``Learning From Falling,'' Lamya yearns for men with empires in their purpose and new eras in their brain.

If there ever was such a man, it's Clive Davis, the veteran record company honcho responsible for launching the careers of such artists as Carlos Santana, Whitney Houston and - most recently - Alicia Keys, on his new J Records. He has now put his legions behind the 28-year-old Kenyan-born, British-educated chanteuse with the five-octave range and ``the soul of a poet.''

``She knocked me out,'' Davis said, recalling his reaction to her demo tape. ``The quality of what's she done, the depth of what she's done, the musical validity of what she's doing is very, very impressive.''

Lamya is impressive all right. For someone who claims she has the power to channel people into her life, including Davis - with whom she said she had tea parties as a child - Lamya seems to be poised for a very real-world arrival.

Audiences can judge for themselves when her record - a pop-music fusion of Orientalism, rock and groove-oriented trip hop evoking distant lands east of Suez - arrives in stores today on the heels of glowing reviews. Spin magazine singled Lamya out as ``one of the six artists to watch in 2002,'' while Rolling Stone likened her to ``Kate Bush, Tori Amos and Bjork rolled into one trans-Atlantic package'' and Interview called her ``an enigma.''

``It's definitely a compliment,'' Lamya said. ``I suppose it's the radio stations now that we have to think about. Does KCRW count? Because they've been so supportive of me.''

Lamya was born Lamya Al-Mugheiry in Mombasa, Kenya, of Omani descent. Her parents moved their only child to England, where her appetite was whetted for opera, Greek poetry and the likes of iconic American folk singer Bob Dylan.

``In the house, we had a lot of rock and poetry, I think, because Mom and I were really into literature,'' Lamya said.

One of her favorite books was Bram Stoker's ``Dracula,'' the title character of which she believed was living among humanity as David Bowie.

``The first time I saw him on TV, I went running into the kitchen going, 'Mum! Mum! I found him!' She was like, 'Who?' 'Dracula!' Then I'd be scared,'' Lamya said with a giggle. ``So in the bathroom I'd keep two toothbrushes in case he peered through the window so I'd be able to make the sign of the cross.''

She had an even earlier memory of throwing tea parties for her stuffed teddy bear, Teddy, and her invisible friend, Clive Davis.

``I guess I hadn't said that I'd grown out of it when he heard it, I think, on MTV,'' Lamya said. ``He sent a memo to the whole company, going, 'I'm so honored.' I think he thought I was still having them.

``I'm like, 'No, no, no,' '' she said. ``I don't want him to think I have bats in my belfry. I should be more settled in a bit before he found out that I'm mad.''

Lamya signed last year to Davis' J Records. But her recording career started in 1990 when she ran away from the conservative Islamic country of Oman, where her family had relocated just as she entered the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

``Just devastating, isn't it? My parents didn't know where I went,'' Lamya said. ``I left them one of those mixed-up tapes that you do when you're young, thinking that it explained everything, and obviously it explained nothing.

``That obviously is a regret, but I felt like I just didn't have a choice,'' she said. ``It was very hard getting back into the culture, so I thought that was a sign. Like, 'Yeah, I tried, but it didn't work,' so I just got out of there.''

Like a musical virgin

The catalyst for her escape was a videotaped interview she had seen with Madonna in which the Material Girl discussed her early rise to fame from Michigan runaway to runaway success.

``At the very end of this interview, she actually said, 'And my dream came true' - bam! Straight to Madison Square Garden,'' Lamya said. ``I was like, 'That's a plan.' ''

Lamya headed for New York City. It wasn't long after her arrival that she connected with the local music scene, becoming a lead vocalist with the innovative jazz-r&b collective Soul II Soul. Her work with the popular group had celebrities such as Bowie, James Brown and John Taylor of Duran Duran clamoring for Lamya to sing on their records.

A classically trained vocalist since the age of 16, Lamya began training with the voice coach of the Metropolitan Opera, thanks to her mother, with whom she remains very close.

``Mum - being Mum - was like, 'Well, my daughter sings,' '' Lamya said with a shrill, ``and so she got me an audition. I thought at first that I might blow it because when I was sent to Cairo, there was no one at that level to train me, and so I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to give up,' and turned to alternative music.

``But then I auditioned with him, and he was like, 'What are you doing in the pop world?' I thought, 'Well, I'm kind of in it now,' '' she said. ``He was like, 'In the pop world, the older you get, the less respect you get, and it's opposite in this world.' And so I thought that I would definitely return to opera one day when I'm old enough to play all the good parts and I'm a little more established.''

So far, Lamya's off to a good start. Last year she signed with a label headed by one of the most respected record executives of the past 40 years, whose neo-soul newcomer Keys had just debuted at the top of the album charts.

The success of Keys' ``Songs in A Minor'' resulted in a heap of praise and accolades for the singer, including five Grammys. Whether Lamya's debut has what it takes to build her own empire and conquer the music world similarly remains to be seen.

But, according to Davis, there's no pressure. With Lamya, he's prepared for the long run.

``The truth is that I was prepared for the long term with Alicia Keys, but it happened that a single erupted for her,'' Davis said. ``But with artists like Sarah McLachlan, with artists like Patti Smith, with artists like Bruce Springsteen, you could not say that they had an immediate, ignitable commercial record. But they deserved to be recorded and they were special.

``Lamya is a very special artist culturally, critically and musically,'' he continued. ``She is doing exciting things even if we don't know when, how and where she's going to break.''

Lamya came to Davis via word of mouth. After listening to a demo tape, he called asking for a copy of her lyrics, which sealed the deal for the flattered, self-described poet.

Earlier inspiration

All but her cover of Nick Drake's ``Pink Moon'' came from poems that she wrote over the years.

``I'm inspired by the Latin and Greek poets because my language is quite dense and doesn't really lend itself to pop songs,'' Lamya said. ``And so I want to take my poetry and adapt it finally, because there's some stellar stuff all about couplets and meter and things like that.

``It would be great to have Clive say, 'Now that's an excellent couplet,' you know, because you just don't get anybody to understand it,'' she said. ``But you put them in pretty enough melodies and rhythms, it comes off.''

Lamya's songs are confessional, drawing from feelings of betrayal (``Judas Kiss''), empowerment (``Black Mona Lisa'') or dreaming about the perfect man (``Empires''). Although her goal is to be around forever, she said, ``I'm just happy to have gotten this far and gotten to the man himself.

``He was my imaginary friend since I was 3,'' she said, referring to Davis. ``It's actually true, and that's why I definitely think you can channel people into your life.''

The person she's trying to channel now is Drake, the ill-fated British folk singer who died in the early '70s and is posthumously known for the song ``Pink Moon'' used on a Volkswagen commercial.

Lamya discovered Drake through the commercial and later reworked his ``Pink Moon'' using Bollywood Strings to create her haunting tribute.

``I heard that he committed suicide because nobody understood his music,'' Lamya said. ``I was like, 'What? How sad.' So in case he's listening somewhere: `We do. Look - I think you're great.' ''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Channeling LAMYA: Clive Davis' otherworldly songbird poised for stardom

(2) no caption (LAMYA)