Rock 'n' roll songstress, Imelda May, has told today's Independent on Sunday how she was given M&M chocolate by the Obamas and cancelled on the Queen because of a football match - both within a fortnight.

The 37-year-old explained why she had turned down the invite to sing for the Queen during the monarch's state visit to Ireland due to work committments. "But we were busy," she says. "We'd already committed to doing a gig for Sunderland FC, and Darrel (her husband) is a massive Sunderland fan, so we weren't about to back out of that."

Another invitation arrived just a week later. May says:

"We were asked back to Dublin to play for Obama, and that was great, surreal. We did our bit alongside everybody else, and then we all lined up to meet him afterwards: us, Daniel Day Lewis, Brendan Gleeson, Gabriel Byrne, even Jedward. And then your man himself comes in, Barack Obama, and he says hello, but he's quickly off, busy working the room. His wife, though, she hung around to chat. Lovely woman."

Just before the Obamas left, the guests were all given goodie bags:  "Guess what it was? Actually, don't, because you never will. M&Ms! Presidential M&Ms, stamped and sealed."

 "God, no! Kept them as a souvenir, haven't I? I ate Brendan Gleeson's instead..."

Imelda May's new album, 'More Mayhem' and her latest single, 'Roadrunner' are both out tomorrow. Her UK tour start in November.

Catch her official 'Roadrunner' video below: