She’s had over 22 million views on her MySpace page and has nearly 400,000 friends at the time of writing, but can Colbie Caillat carve out a market in fickle Britain?

With an acoustic guitar in one hand and an MOR backing track in the other, Ms Caillat has all the hallmarks to make easy-going, love-ridden tunes about partners causing her anguish and dreams of a happy ending, but has it come all too late?

The songs’ lyrics focus the attention of this tale around a guy who is giving her the royal runaround. She doesn’t want to be hanging around for him for much longer, but doesn’t want to give up on the man she’s fallen for. It’s a tale that many a person can relate to in some way, and is one more stereotype away from being slapped on the intro for the next summertime teen drama.

It’s a laid back tune, with the acoustic guitar strumming along at a steady rate, and a steady flow of backing singers helping to raise the song at the chorus and provide a soothing “oooh” on command. Everything about the song screams “by the beach”, even down to the rustic looking sleeve notes, and it’s this theme that is precisely why this song doesn’t work in the UK.

The chorus line calls of “Back up”, “Wake up” and “Give up” are sung so inoffensively it’s nearly painful, especially when Beverley Knight did a similar trick on Get Up! but with tonnes of attitude. Britain is awash with its own female artists, from Melua and Winehouse through to Nash, Marling and Lady Sovereign – you’re hard pressed to find a place in the industry without an independent woman or four.