Joss Stone has given her British critics two fingers by landing the highest-ever chart debut by a UK female in the US Billboard charts.

'Introducing... Joss Stone', which scraped to just No 12 in its first week of release in the UK, has burst onto the US charts at No 2, selling 118,000 copies.

This means that much-mocked Joss has beaten Amy Winehouse's No 7 entry on the Billboard charts for 'Back To Black', two weeks ago, and Corinne Bailey Rae's No 4 album spot earlier this year.

Joss - who has had the mickey taken out of her for speaking with a US twang and bemoaning her pop star status - slammed the UK press for picking on her, last week.

She said, "It is funny that the only press that has been mean is my home. They are mean and it's not fair. So what if we want to dance on tables? So what? What you going to do about it? Why does that hurt you?

"It's crazy. They expect you to be one, indestructible, and two, just like not human whatsoever. We are not allowed to have fun or cry or be too happy. You can't be too happy. You can't be too sad either. You kind of have to be middling. That is just not real."

We reckon Joss'll be pretty happy with this latest news though.

'SLJ'
'29/03/07'