I wasn't really a bad girl, I just wanted to go my own way." So explains Dutch singer-songwriter Anouk on how she wound up in a home for troubled youths at age 15. Some seven years later, she remains untamed and extreme -- only now that energy fuels a musical phenomenon. With four hit singles in Holland and momentum gaining throughout Europe, Anouk is poised to take on America. So be prepared.... Get ready for a wild filly of a voice: expressive, explosive, passionate and pure. Growly-gritty one minute, pensive the next, simply soaring, bluesy-torchy-sometimes all in the course of a single song. Anouk can sing anything, but her milieu of choice on Together Alone is timeless rock 'n' roll.

The title track is a musical mood swing that moves from gentle hush to blistering and pummeling. "It's So Hard" reminds you how effectively forceful guitar and relentless rhythm can help purge the discovery of deception. "Pictures on Your Skin" is a sexy, groove-led number that thrills with cool keyboards and hot lyrics, while "Sacrifice" is a stripped-down acoustic affair- one guitar, one voice-with the power to give goose-bumps. Her first single, the defiant "Nobody's Wife," is a passionate expression of personal liberation.

Anouk is irreverently candid: "I am not like anybody else... I am Anouk!" Indeed her voice is more evocative of those she heard growing up. "My mother was a singer in a blues band, and that's what I always adored," she says. "Etta James, Irma Thomas, Janis Joplin...."

When Anouk's independent streak kicked in big time, and she found herself in the children's home, her talent was discovered and nurtured for the first time. "One of the guys who worked there played guitar. He heard me sing one day and asked if I wanted to do it in front of people," she recalls. "We did a couple of gigs together and the reaction was very positive."

Shortly thereafter, Anouk was invited to join an R&B cover band in her hometown, The Hague. By night, she belted Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner tunes; by day she "cleaned toilets, worked in a bakery, was a secretary.... I did everything," she says. Two years later, she quit: "I had a lot of ideas and nobody wanted to listen because I was so young."

Then Anouk got a call from her casual friend, Barry Hay, lead singer of Holland's Golden Earring ("Radar Love"), which remains one of the most in-demand acts in Europe. "I asked him if he would play a gig with me," she says. "He must have thought, 'Ah, well, she's just a little blonde singer.' So I decided to really open my mouth, like 'Raaaaooh!' He was surprised, like amazed."

Once Hay recovered from the shock, he and Golden Earring guitarist George Kooymans wrote "Mood Indigo" for Anouk. The Earring being "like the Rolling Stones of Holland" according to Anouk, record companies were eager to listen. The next thing Anouk knew, "I was driving in the car, listening to the radio, and I heard this intro. I was like, 'This sounds familiar,' so I turned it louder. It was Mood Indigo. I felt like putting the window down and screaming, 'Listen! This is me!' I was so freaked out behind my wheel."

The strength of the single led to an album deal... and Anouk discovered a hidden talent. "Some songs were written for me but not enough for an album," she explains. "I had never written songs before, but I asked my friend Bart van Veen to try writing with me. I just let it come out of me. We wrote six songs in three days, and I thought, 'Well, maybe they'll use one.'" They wound up using all six on Together Alone.

As the album yielded hit after hit, the subject of the States naturally came up. "When people first talked to me about America, I felt, 'Who's waiting for a chick from Holland? They have enough artists in America, they don't need me!' I didn't think there was a chance." Fortunately, a Sony Music executive, who happened to be in the Netherlands, caught Anouk's "Nobody's Wife" video on his hotel TV and immediately knew Anouk had more than a chance.

Despite every indication that Anouk will succeed internationally, she's keeping a cool, philosophical head. "When I played all over Holland with my first band, audiences were very difficult... they would stand with their back to me. Now I have hits and there are thousands of people in front of me," she relates with a shrug. "But my image is who I am, the way I am on the stage is the way I am during the day... it's just me. I never expected any of this but it all feels very natural to me. It feels right."