Songstress directed backing in American English (5)
I believe the answer is:
adele
'songstress' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'directed backing in american english' is the wordplay.
'directed' becomes 'led' ('lead' can be a synonym of 'direct').
'backing' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'led' back-to-front is 'del'.
'a'+'e'='ae'
'del' placed into 'ae' is 'ADELE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adele that I've seen before include "Singer with albums titled 19, 21 and 25" , "girl" , "Performer" , "Female English singer-songwriter, b. 1988" , "Popular female singer" .)