THE 13-year-old girl with the Patsy Cline twang has come a long way in nine years.

Leann Rimes has sold eight million copies of her major label debut album, Blue, and toured the world over.

At the 1997 Grammy Awards she won Best New Artist (the youngest performer to win the award) and Best Female Country Vocal Performance; she was also Billboard's Artist of the Year.

She has released four albums with Curb, and 23 hit singles like the chart-topping How Do I Live, the longest- running single on the Billboard Hot 100, and Can't Fight the Moonlight, one of four songs Rimes contributed to the multi-platinum soundtrack album Coyote Ugly.

She's now touring the UK for the first time, calling on Cardiff International Arena on Tuesday, September 7, and has released a best-of compilation. From the best-of she sounds like a country version of Britney Spears without the robot suits or pony- tails.

Messrs Ronan Keating and Elton John are in the mix for added weight, and with a little bit of R'n'B, a little bit of a yanky-doodle dandy and some Sheryl Crow-like attitude, Leann Rimes is likely to prove a big draw.

Leann Rimes plays Cardiff International Arena on Tuesday, September 7.