Migratory songbird Bic Runga

Bic Runga's fans include Elton John and Jimmy Page.

Bic Runga has made the jaunt from New Zealand to Europe twice this year.

After attending next week's New Zealand Music Awards where she's likely to pick up another sackload of Tuis, she's headed back north again.

She now has a second home in London: "It's getting pretty academic where I am based because I am on the road so much."

Her latest foray was a 35-date mostly sold-out solo tour through Britain, France, Poland (where her album Birds is top 10 - "things like Leonard Cohen are top 10 in Poland") and "home away from home" Ireland ("I actually sell records there; it's pretty wild").

That followed a tour earlier in the year with band in tow after Birds was released. Now she says she has more than a foothold Up Over, especially in Britain.

"It's kind of a cult following now - it's definitely a loyal fanbase."

If there seem to be many expatriate Kiwis at her London shows, Runga says her Brit following is widening.

Her previous album Beautiful Collision sold 60,000 copies in Britain, "so it's reaching outside [the expat community].

"I think it's definitely more English but I can't be sure. My shows outside London still sell out."

Runga says the reaction to her and the Birds album by the fickle British music press has been "pretty good". And then there are those famous folks she's encountered.

"You don't have your heroes coming to your shows when they don't know who you are. It's pretty massive - Mojo [magazine] published the photo of me and [legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist] Jimmy Page and that's pretty cool. Like my promoter said, 'You've made it'.

"And Elton John at a party said he's just bought my album and he basically knew my whole story. Sure, I don't have a number one single but I never set out to have that anyway."