Rachel Platten

Rachel Ashley Platten studied classical piano from the age of 5 and dreamt about music as a career but never really thought it could happen in real life. "I grew up playing classical piano and I knew I could sing but I had no model to follow creatively," she said. "The idea of growing up to be an artist seemed impossible."

As a teenager, Rachel gravitated towards, and began to become affected by what on the face of it are two completely different genres; hip-hop and female singer-songwriters. "My CD collection was Tori Amos and Patti Griffin but then A Tribe Called Quest and Nas," she recalled. The link between the two was confessional and vulnerable songwriting.

She graduated with a degree in international relations in 2003, but the electricity Platten felt on stage meant that the 22-year-old knew she had to pursue music full-time. Rachel immediately moved to New York City where she took up residence in the very apartment building on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village where Bob Dylan once lived.