I am by no means an expert on the contemporary music scene. So when I tell you 20-year-old singer Alex Young has what it takes to be very, very successful, it is not based on my abilities a la Simon Cowell.

This one is all about gut.

Young is an old soul housed in a vibrant, slim frame. She speaks with ease, whether it’s about the Bossa Nova, her decision to take a break from Sarah Lawrence College to pursue her music career, or her worthy cause -- conflict-free diamonds. She has known she wanted a singing career since age 7 and calls the feeling of performing in front of a crowd “indescribable.”

We met recently at Café Lalo -- known for its appearance in the film You’ve Got Mail -- on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Young lives nearby in her godmother’s furnished apartment.

“I love the Tibetan vibe,” she said of the apartment, adding with a laugh, “There were a lot of marionettes there on the bureaus. They sort of stare at you. There are fewer displayed now, but there are still some around. They remind me of an old Charlie Chaplin.”

And so we began with culture, and not just from her godmother. Young’s grandmother -- with whom she vacationed for two weeks in Paris when she was 10 -- made sure she spent a good deal of time at Carnegie Hall from a young age. Young’s parents are very musical and she was exposed to a variety of genres from day one.

“The Bossa Nova became one of my favorites,” she said. “Jobim. It has such a calming feeling, very soothing.”

You get the sense Young could list her favorite musicians for hours. Cab Calloway. Sinatra. Guggenheim Grotto. Scissor Sisters. Aretha. Celine. And there’s a special place for Mariah.

“She’s one of my role models,” Young said. “She has a voice like a bell, a bird song. I listen to her in my room and try to figure out how she does certain things with her voice.”

That, of course, is what ambitious people do. They dissect the work of someone whom they admire.

“The analytical process becomes incredibly enlightening,” Young said. “You learn and then you create your own style and nuances.”

Which brings us to her debut with a soon-to-be released CD called Amazing (http://www.myspace.com/alexyoung1). Her press materials call it “an amalgam of pop, R&B, funk and dance.”  With writing and producing help from a team consisting of Philip “Taj” Jackson (two-time Grammy nominee and 2008 ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award), Michelle “Bizzy” Bell, Cuttfather, Deantoni Parks, Jonas Jeberg and Mysto & Pizzi, every day is like a classroom for Young.

“It’s been just incredible,” she said. “You just try to be the most observant sponge you can be.”

It was the intensity of recording, working with a vocal coach and making videos that prompted her to pursue her music career full force and leave Sarah Lawrence, at least for a while.

“I couldn’t do both at the same time,” she said. “I’m a goal-oriented person who likes to take the right steps in the process.”

As for her goals, well, they’re simple, really.

“To make the world a better place,” she said. “And to inspire people through music.”

Sounds cliché, right? But there’s an earnestness there that left me with no doubt of her sincerity. Young wants to be a different kind of performer from some of the stereotypical starlets out there.

“I really do feel you can be classy and still be sexy,” Young said. “They’re not mutually exclusive terms.”

The sparkles emanating from her ears and right index finger didn’t hurt the classy, sexy cause either. Her earrings, a dragon’s tail design, consisted of garnet, a canary yellow diamond and about two inches of white diamonds in between. On her finger were three rings with square-set diamonds, stacked so the canary yellow, chocolate and olive diamonds complemented each other in a trendy, casual look.

These dazzlers came courtesy of White Diamonds International, for which Young is a spokesperson.

“I’m working with Brandon White,” Young said. “We met through a friend. He asked me to do this, to spread awareness and to inspire people to choose bloodless diamonds.”

This is how the company’s Web site (http://whitediamondsinternational.com/) explains the concept: [We] personally travel to select countries and hand-pick the best quality rough diamonds. These free market systems allow us to purchase diamonds directly from the artisanal miners in most cases. The miner thus is fairly compensated for his labor and time, directly benefiting from his labors.

“It’s restoring dignity and prosperity to these African people,” Young said. “It’s a better existence for them. I’m going to Sierra Leone soon to meet the people, the diggers, the children. It’s an honorable cause and it would be great to even create a small dent in these people’s lives.”

The empathy, the ability to see a world outside of herself, it’s all there in this energetic up-and-comer.

“I always want to have perspective,” Young said. “It’s dangerous to be myopic.”

See what I mean?

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.