The Scottish singer and songwriter Emeli Sande is breaking sales records in her native UK, with 3 million albums already sold worldwide, and is now taking the US by storm with piles of critical acclaim. The New York Times' Jon Caramanica hailed Our Version Of Events as "unerringly beautiful," placing it at No. 1 on his year-end Top 10 list. Emeli is also garnering the admiration of her musical peers. Alicia Keys called her a "magnificent new artist." Elton John stated "I predict that by next year she will be a multi-Grammy Award winner," and Adele said simply "How incredible is she?" Emeli has made dozens of TV appearances, has 100 million+ views of her videos on YouTube and a performance of her smash hit "Next To Me" recently was seen on Glee. Her debut album, Our Version Of Events, just spent its 63rd straight week in the Top 10 of the U.K. album chart and thus has broken the 50-year-old record held by none other than the Beatles' Please Please Me for the debut album with the most consecutive weeks in the UK Top 10. It was the best-selling album of 2012 in the U.K., where it is also the top-seller of 2013 to date. Now she has a new concert special that was filmed at the legendary Royal Albert Hall and includes performances of all of her hit singles so far including "Daddy," "My Kind Of Love," "Heaven," "Beneath Your Beautiful" and the international smash "Next To Me." Filmed at the culmination of her fall 2012 tour, the live concert spectacular, directed by Paul Dugdale (whose previous work includes Coldplay Live 2012), is an amazing multi-camera spectacular showing off both the stunning venue and the electrifying performances including special guest Labrinth ("Beneath Your Beautiful") on his UK No. 1 duets with Ms. Sande. Emeli Sande is one of the UK's top selling artists and became world famous after her stunning performances at the 2012 London Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. As evidenced on her debut album Our Version of Events, she holds a deep affinity for all the heart stuff and soul stuff as well. A fervent songwriter since the age of 10, the 24-year-old Sande gracefully flaunts her rich voice and penchant for sophisticated melody on Our Version of Events. The album reveals her to be an uncompromising creative force in the vein of Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, and Lauryn Hill (each of whom Sande names as a key influence on her unforgettable sound). It's clearly having an impression as the early awards, accolades from the press, and admiration from other artists have already begun to pile up. She has already been announced as the winner of the coveted BRIT Critics Choice Award for 2012 (recent winners include Adele and Florence + the Machine) and, in an unprecedented twist, was also nominated as Breakthrough Artist at this year's BRITs as well. The Times of London notes that she "combines Winehouse sass and Nina Simone purr "and ID magazine counters that "Emeli Sande is not the next so and so, she's the person other acts will be compared to in the coming years."
