Many singers say that they love playing Glasgow.

Few have the dedication of Lucy Spraggan to proving it though – as she got a tattoo of the Saltire after her last shows here.

“It’s my favourite place to tour,” raves Lucy, who is back at the O2 ABC this coming Sunday.

“The last time I was in Scotland I loved it so much I got a tattoo on my wrist of the Scottish flag afterwards. It’s because the crowds are great, and so are the people in general – if you’re out and about and doing things then everyone’s nice to you.”

Things are going pretty nicely for Lucy in general these days. The songstress might have first come to people’s attention when she appeared on the X Factor back in 2012, but while many contestants have vanished quicker than the Invisible Man afterwards, she’s reeled off four albums, with her most recent effort, I Hope You Don’t Mind Me Writing, only just missing out on the Top 10.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” she says.

“We haven’t had any national radio play so I didn’t know what to think about the album being in the charts, because it is pretty difficult to get traction without that national radio support. I’m just hoping to keep selling records over a long period of time.”

Although she was left frustrated by the lack of radio play, the singer is in a good place these days. Last year she married her partner, Georgina Gordon, and although her new album touches upon serious topics like mental health and dementia, on the whole there is an upbeat confidence running through the record.

That doesn’t mean her songs themselves will start getting much happier, though…

“I think I was a lot happier with this album, so that’s maybe why it is a bit chirpier,” she says.

“With each album stuff develops musically and emotionally, and writing gets easier the older I get because I’m doing more and more of it. I’ll get an idea now and just build on that idea and because most of the time they (the ideas) are stories and need to end somehow, I always think what’s more effective, to get people to laugh or cry, and crying usually gets the edge!”

There’s a problem if the tears start to flow, though.

“I’m prone to being a bit of a crybaby myself, and when I see other people start to go I think ‘oh no, here I go too…’” she adds.

“But when you can provoke an emotion with your songs that’s nice.”

One of the album’s most serious songs, and earliest releases, was Dear You, a track that looked at mental health and featured a video starring This Is England actor Thomas Turgoose.

Lucy received a lot of feedback regarding the song, with people telling her how it had affected them.

“I was really touched by that,” she says.

“I had people saying they were inspired to make changes in their life or reach out to people that they were around after listening to it. I found that one really cathartic to write.”

Had Lucy followed the X Factor path she wouldn’t have had the creative freedom to write about topics like that. After finishing ninth on the programme she wound up on Colombia Records, who released her second album, before she moved on.

She reckons the TV show has lost its sparkle in recent years, but that it also offers a good indication of what the music business is like.

“I think it’s fair comment to say it’s not been as good over the last few years, probably since you had me and James Arthur and Union J – not to blow our own trumpet,” she laughs.

“But it’s still one of the most watched TV shows in the country, so it is still a superpower. People slag it off but in reality the record labels are just as bad as the TV programmes, and they treat people just the same. If anything the X Factor shows just how fickle the whole industry is.

“There’s no longevity included in a major label deal now and it’s the same for X Factor, longevity is something that you have to build yourself. That’s the number one thing I want to achieve, longevity, not being a superstar for five minutes and then disappearing.”

Lucy Spraggan, O2 ABC, Sunday, £14.50, 7pm

JONATHAN GEDDES