Michael Kiwanuka

Michael Kiwanuka was born and raised in Muswell Hill, a middle-class area in North London, after his parents fled Uganda during Idi Amin's brutal regime. He's quite popular in the UK, where his second album, Love & Hate, released in 2016, went to #1. He's had a harder time breaking through in America.

Kiwanuka studied at the Royal Academy of Music when he was 18 but dropped out because "I just wasn't as good as everyone else." But he kept at it, and a few years later the songs he posted to MySpace got the attention of Communion Records, which signed him and released his first two EPs in 2011. This led to an opening slot on Adele's tour, setting the stage for his debut album, Home Again, in 2012.

Before releasing his debut album in 2012 he won the BBC Sound Of 2012 poll, defeating Frank Ocean and Azealia Banks. This is a prestigious honor; other "Sound Of" winners include Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith and Haim.