Jagger sings to beat the blues

Mick Jagger has said that throwing himself back into his work as a performer has helped him to deal with the death of girlfriend L'Wren Scott.

Scott, 49, committed suicide in her Manhattan apartment on March 17.

She did not leave a note and her sudden death prompted speculation about the financial health of her business and the state of her relationship with the rock star.

Jagger, who is promoting Get On Up, a film he produced about the life of fellow musician James Brown, said he had endured a traumatic 12 months.

Speaking on NBC's Today Show, the 70-year-old rocker said: "It's a difficult, very hard year, but I got back into it by working on touring with the Stones in Europe and doing other things, including doing this great movie."

His remarks were the first he had made about Scott's death since the immediate aftermath of her suicide, when he issued a statement saying he was still struggling to understand "how my lover and best friend could end her life in this tragic way".

In recent months, newspapers have claimed that Jagger was in a relationship with Melanie Hamrick, a 27-year-old ballerina with the American Ballet Theatre company, which is based in New York.