A key English woman (5)
I believe the answer is:
adele
'woman' is the definition.
'a key english' is the wordplay.
'key' becomes 'del' (del key on a keyboard).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'a'+'del'+'e'='ADELE'
(Other definitions for adele that I've seen before include "Female English singer-songwriter, b. 1988" , "Singer with albums titled 19, 21 and 25" , "Female singer from London" , "girl" , "Popular female singer" .)