Katie Melua (GB)

About

Also known as: Kate Melua, Katie Mela, Katie Meloua, Ketevan Melua, ქეთევან მელუა, ქეთი მელუა, ケイティ・メルア

Katie Melua has a knack for making jazz and blues feel completely accessible without dumbing them down. Born in Kutaisi, Georgia, she came up under the wing of composer Mike Batt, signed to the small Dramatico label, and within three years of her 2003 debut she was the best selling female artist in both the UK and Europe. Her first album, Call Off the Search, hit the top of the UK charts and shifted 1.8 million copies in its first five months. Its follow up, Piece by Piece, went four times platinum. Melua's mezzo soprano sits somewhere between smoky jazz club and late night folk session, and songs like Nine Million Bicycles and The Closest Thing to Crazy have become genuine modern standards. She has kept on releasing music through the years, building a catalogue that runs from orchestral pop collaborations with Batt to the William Orbit produced studio album The House. Her third album Pictures and the later Secret Symphony cemented her place as one of the more quietly consistent acts in European pop.