Emeli Sandé, Emily King, Jenna Andrews

[SOUL] She has a mohawk Billy Idol would’ve grown if he had the balls and a voice like Beyoncé without all the showy flourishes, and Nina Simone is her idol. Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé seemed destined to join the ranks of these superstars from the start. For one, her lyrical content is as fierce as her mind. Shortly after dropping out of medical school, Sandé and her sister recorded her first video, an original song titled “Nasty Little Lady,” and it became a hit online. If that wasn’t enough to prove her predestined stardom, her birth name is Adele. Our Version of Events, Sandé’s 2012 debut, places her firmly within the pop spectrum, though exactly where is hard to tell. Soul—the warm, innocent kind—shines out while her energy level fluctuates from sleepy Joni Mitchell to energetic, “Rolling in the Deep”-style anthems. Sandé isn’t doing anything new in pop, but she’s doing a whole lot pretty damn well.