The History of Rock Music. Bat For Lashes: biography

Khan was born to English mother and a Pakistani squash player Rehmat Khan. She is the step-daughter of singer Salma Agha, step-sister of actress Sashaa Agha (born as "Zara Khan"). She is the niece of World Open winner Jahangir Khan and Torsam Khan, and paternal grand-daughter of Nasrullah Khan, a squash player. Khan attended many of the squash matches, which she felt inspired her creativity: "The roar of the crowd is intense; it is ceremonial, ritualistic, I feel like the banner got passed to me but I carried it on in a creative way. It is a similar thing, the need to thrive on heightened communal experience." After her father left the family, Khan, aged 11, taught herself to play the piano, which became "a channel to express things, to get them out".

George Ezra

George Ezra (Born George Ezra Barnett, June 6, 1993) is a singer songwriter from Bristol, United Kingdom. Ezra grew up in Hertford, attending Simon Balle Secondary School.
Ezra released his first EP "Did You Hear the Rain?" in September 2013, and released the accompanying music video on Vevo.
He has played support spots for Lianne La Havas and Tom Odell.Ezra was longlisted for the BBC Sound of...2014, where he eventually finished in fifth place. In the summer of 2013 he played the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury Festival. He achieved airplay on BBC Radio 1 in late 2013, with songs "Did You Hear the Rain?" and "Budapest" regularly featured. He was included in MTV's 'Brand New for 2014',Vevo's 'DSCVR Ones to Watch 2014' and iTunes' new artists 2014.

Mika

Mika (/ˈmiːkə/; born Michael Holbrook Penniman, Jr.; 18 August 1983), stylized as MIKA, is a Lebanese-British singer-songwriter.
After recording his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday, Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007. Life in Cartoon Motion sold more than 5.6 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit Award—winning Best British Breakthrough act, and receive a Grammy Award nomination. In 2006, Mika started up his company, Dodgy Holiday Tours Limited. Two years later Mika released his second extended play, Songs for Sorrow, of which limited edition copies are now sold out worldwide. In 2009 Mika released his second studio album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much. Finishing his worldwide tour, Mika recorded his third album, The Origin of Love, stating it would be "more simplistic pop, less layered than the last one". The album was released internationally on 16 September 2012 and in the UK on 8 October 2012.

Francesca Michielin

Francesca Michielin (born 25 February 1995) is an Italian singer-songwriter. She rose to fame after winning the fifth series of the Italian talent show X Factor. Her first single, "Distratto", debuted atop the Italian FIMI Top Digital Downloads chart and was certified double platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry. Michielin's debut studio album, Riflessi di me, was released in October 2012, preceded by the single "Sola".

Birdy

Birdy was born on 15 May 1996, in Lymington, Hampshire. Her mother is a concert pianist, and Birdy learned to play the piano at the age of seven, and began writing her own music at the age of eight. Birdy studied at Brockenhurst College in Brockenhurst, a sixth form college in the New Forest, as of 2013. She sings and plays the piano. Her great uncle was the actor Sir Dirk Bogarde. Her great-great-great grandfather was Belgian, the rest of her ancestors were English and Scottish.
Her stage name comes from the nickname her parents gave her as a baby, because she opened her mouth like a little bird when fed.^{[citation needed]} Her family and friends call her Birdy while only teachers call her Jasmine, her given name.

Damien Rice

Rice was born to George and Maureen Rice, and raised in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland.
Rice began his music career using the stage name Dodi Ma^{[citation needed]} and formed the rock band Juniper along with Paul Noonan, Dominic Philips, David Geraghty and Brian Crosby in 1991. The band met whilst they were attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge, Co. Kildare as students. After touring throughout Ireland the band released their debut EP Manna in 1995.
Based in Straffan, Kildare the band continued touring and signed a six album record deal with Polygram. Their recording projects generated the singles "Weatherman" and "Single of the Fortnight" which received favourable reviews.

Lorde

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known by her stage name Lorde (/ˈlɔrd/), is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. Born in Takapuna and raised in Devonport, Auckland, she performed in various singing and drama classes as a child, and at the age of thirteen signed with Universal. Yelich-O'Connor adopted her stage name due to her fascination with "royals and aristocracy", but felt the name Lord was too masculine so added an 'e' to make it more feminine.

Her musical debut was an EP, entitled The Love Club, which was released in November 2012, and her first single, "Royals", debuted at number one on the New Zealand Top 40, and also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013, making her the first New Zealand solo artist to have a number one song in the United States. Her debut album, Pure Heroine, was released in September 2013, receiving critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide.