Susheela Raman

World music's latest darling and 2002 winner of the BBC Radio 3's Newcomer Award, Susheela Raman flipped the script on world music hybrids when she released Salt Rain in 2001. The album was everything you could want in a cross-genre effort: intelligent, nuanced and, best of all, never watered down. Born in South India and raised in Australia, Raman grew up singing Carnatic classical music and later studied under the great Hindustani vocalist Shruti Sadolikar. But classical music wasn't her only focus; she also fell in love with blues and jazz, and it was her desire to stay true to all her musical influences that led to the genre-pushing Salt Rain and 2003's Love Trap.