Emeli Sandé

Emeli’s father travelled across the earth from Zambia to study at Sunderland Polytechnic, where he met Emeli’s mother. When Emeli was born, her parents played her Nina Simone records. The deep ache of the tuba spun gold from the speakers and the rich melancholy of Nina’s voice wound its way around Emeli’s tiny body.

Emeli always knew she wanted to be a musician. She wrote her first song for a primary school talent show when she was 11. A strange silence settled over the school hall when she got up to sing. The words poured like water from her mouth and the teachers blinked in wonder at the complex melodic structure she pushed from her tongue.

When she was 16, Emeli took the train to London, where she sang gospel in the shiny MTV Studios, stumbling down Camden High Street afterwards, dazzled by the bright lights and glittering promises. She was offered a record deal but turned it down because she wanted to study neuroscience at university, claiming that she needed a backup, in case her music career didn’t work out.

Citing Frida Kahlo, Joni Mitchell, Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys as some of her influences, Emeli has since performed at countless glitzy concert halls, festivals and awards ceremonies across millions of flickering televisions, including the London 2012 Olympics. Her silky soprano won her 4 Brit Awards and an MBE. She believes in the power of music to promote social justice and uses her platform to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and breast cancer.

She wrote ‘Mountains’ about her parents living in Sunderland in the 80’s, trying to build a better future. ‘I’m going to have a bed with lots of pillows’, she sings, ‘and we’re going to build a house with lots of windows, and when we have kids, we’ll tell them to remind we, of where we were now so we never get lazy.’