Critically acclaimed Chicago singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata had the audience spellbound during her recent Esplanade Mosaic Music Festival performance and Gashaus unravels the reasons why.

She was endearingly intimate with her answers which mostly focused on her debut album Happenstance (FYI: happen + circumstance due to chance) and her upcoming sophomore effort which was actually due last summer, Rachael half-jokingly lamented.

Someone who describes herself as an "indecisive-control freak-hopeless romantic", this Italian-German-Japanese pens brooding, piano-driven tunes on subjects like love and breakup, with crowd favourites like "Worn Me Down", "The Reason Why". Her songs have been featured on romantic comedies like Prime and Monster-In-Law and she has sung with fellow music ingenue Jason Mraz. Hong Kong singer-actress Karen Mok liked her compositions so much she even covered Yamagata's "Be, Be Your Love" in Mandarin.

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Sharing in her signature husky voice whose growls are far more evident in her live singing and adds to the whole sensuality and emotion of her sentimental jazz-pop pieces, Yamagata said, "The second album is a more cynical approach where all goes to hell, nothing makes sense and chance is winning".

She clearly won Singapore fans' hearts over during her solo solid performance with a versatile band judging from the warm applause, spontaneous quips and sing-a-longs.

And though a couple of high notes escaped her reach, her chatty demeanour and self-deprecating jokes like how she should be shown in Singapore's anti-smoking campaign as an example of the damage smoking can do to the vocals more than made up for it.

Yamagata playfully teased the audience with her quick wit and even tried to set up dates amongst the audience for her "foxy drummer", then sealed the night with her promise to step back on Singapore's stage. When will it be, be dear Rach?