Seasoned hit-makers McFly may occupy the UK's number one, but they've a way to go to catch the most successful record across the rest of Europe. Snappy (The Little Crocodile) has spent the summer at number one in 10 European countries, selling more than 1m copies. In Germany, it occupied the pole position for 10 weeks, staving off Robbie Williams. All this despite the fact that its chorus goes "Snip snap snappy, snappy snappy snap", and it features the inimitable singing talents of a nine-year-old German girl.

Now Cologne-based schoolgirl Joy - the youngest artist in European history to make it to number one - is bringing her Little Crocodile over here: it's being released by Universal on September 5. I speak to Joy at the airport; because she's only just started learning English, however, conversation is limited to a perfectly delivered "Hello, the Guardian". It's left to Aunt Iris to take up the story.

That's Iris Gruttmann, who co-wrote the song with children's TV songwriting colleague Rosita Blissenbach when Joy, then aged four, asked for a special song after seeing crocodiles at the zoo. The song was posted on the internet as a family joke, then picked up by a local radio station, and the rest is history.

Gruttmann speaks fairly good English, but we do have the occasional crossed wire. "No no . . . Joy is not a crocodile," she explains. In fact, Snappy is used to language difficulties. In the original German version, the teething croc gives his mother a playful peck on the leg, which has mysteriously become "bum" in the English version. "Something got lost in translation," says Gruttmann. "We thought it was hilarious."

While the aunt insists "Coldplay and Robbie shouldn't fear for their careers", Joy's vocal imagination will run free on a Christmas album and follow-up single. "It's about a lama who eats fish, but using chopsticks," Gruttmann reveals. "Which is very difficult for a lama."

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