Lisa With an ‘S’--for Soul : England’s Lisa Stansfield gets annoyed when people make a big deal over her being a <i> white </i> soul singer

Yes, Lisa Stansfield is white. And yes, she does sing soul music--very well. So, what’s the big deal?

“That’s what I want to know,” Stansfield, 24, said during a recent interview in a hotel restaurant here. “If you are a soul singer, you are a soul singer. If you are a heavy-metal singer, then you are a heavy-metal singer. “What’s color got to do with it? I don’t go around thinking, ‘I sing soul music and I’m white.’ I just sing the way I feel.

“You don’t hear that much about me being white and singing soul music in England, but I get the feeling that in America it’s really a big thing. It’s like, ‘God, look at the color of her skin.’ ”

Stansfield, who lives in a suburb of Manchester in Northern England, was responding to frequent media descriptions of her as a blue-eyed soul singer. She’s especially annoyed at the thought that her involvement in soul music is merely a commercial strategy.

Pausing to light a cigarette, she said, “There was one magazine that said, ‘She’s got a thick Northern accent, so why doesn’t she sing with that.’ Well . . . Mica Paris (a highly regarded black singer from England) is a real Cockney. Why doesn’t she sing with a Cockney accent? You see how silly it gets?”

For the most part, however, critics seem enthralled with Stansfield’s soulful approach in the her debut album. (See PopMeter, below.)

Rolling Stone gave the collection, titled “Affection,” four stars (out of a possible five), declaring it an “ideal blend of club-land energy and the passion of soul music, a dance record you can listen to.”

Musician magazine was even more enthusiastic: “Stansfield is the genuine article, a vocalist of such undeniable ability that she leaves every other English soul singer seeming an utter pretender.”

The public is also caught up in Stansfield’s music. Highlighted by the silky, seductive single, “All Around the World,” the album has sold more than 1 million copies in the United States and an additional 2.6 million around the world. “All Around the World” is one of the few singles in recent years by a white artist to reach No. 1 on the black music charts in the United States.

Stansfield said her interest in soul music began as a youngster listening to her mother’s record collection. “Most of my influences were soul singers . . . Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, among the women,” she explained. “I also love people like Barry White and Luther Vandross.”

The dark-haired singer--who’ll make her Los Angeles concert debut Thursday at the downtown Mayan club--came across during the early afternoon interview as far more poised and confident than most artists experiencing widespread pop attention for the first time.

“The success happened really quickly when it finally came, but Ian, Andy and I (songwriter-musicians Ian Devaney and Andy Morris) have been working together for about six years and we’ve gained a lot of experience,” she said. “There were a lot of letdowns on the way, and that enables you to cope with the things we are facing now.”

Even before meeting her partners, Stansfield was eyeing a singing career around Manchester. “I did these social clubs where people would shout for me to get off so they could start the bingo game,” she recalled with a smile. “I was also on this TV variety show with comedians and jugglers. They made me up as a Joan Collins look-alike and I would sing.

“A lot of people would look at those things and go, ‘Oh, my God . . . I wish I hadn’t done that. I’m so ashamed.’ But I’m glad I did all that. It all helped me grow.”

The best growth experience, however, may have been an album Stansfield, Devaney and Morris made in the mid-’80s as members of a group called Blue Zone.

“We were really hungry for success,” she said, referring to the Blue Zone period. “We made an album that we thought would sell rather than one we cared about. That was totally wrong, but it taught us to think for ourselves and do what we wanted the next time we got a chance to make a record. That’s what we did with ‘Affection.’ We went into the studio and said we are going to make an album we want to play at home.”