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You need three things to be a big star: talent, looks and some quirky story about how you got started.

Paula Toledo has an excess of all three.

We know Paula Toledo is talented. Her 2003 self-titled EP had two songs featured in a television sitcom, gained her magazine coverage all over North America, and received high praise from critics and fans alike.

As for the looks thing, see attached photo.

And the quirky stories about how she got started? Take your pick. There's trading her sister maid services for guitar lessons. Her stint as the lead singer of a ska/punk band. Rediscovering her folk roots by spontaneously entertaining the clients of a sangria bar in Barcelona. Or my personal favourite, singing while painting her apartment and subsequently being taken to France as a back-up singer by her eavesdropping neighbour.

And now Toledo is about to release her full-length debut, Stay Awhile. Produced by Toledo, Jonathan Anderson and ex-Frames' guitarist David Odlum, Stay Awhile is the kind of album that makes household names out of talented, beautiful, singer/songwriters with quirky stories about how they got started.

Prediction: While appearing on the Tonight Show, Jay Leno and Paula will get in a fistfight backstage over which story of hers in indeed most quirky.