british girls

Daisy Dares You is a 16-year-old future pop sensation from a sleepy little village in rural Essex. "I might be young, but I'm really not some blonde little dolly girl," she says. "And I'm not gonna be a helpless artist. I know what I want, and the only way it'll come out that way is if I do it. That much is true and may go some way to explaining how someone born in 1993 (1993!) has already managed to craft a clutch of surefire pop hits.

There is nothing complicated about the Paper Shades, a duo in which both Sarah Dollar and Jon Rixon sing and play guitar, but from this simple formula, our panel found some great results.

Seventeen year old, Bristol-born Lauren Aquilina, is a songstress armed with melancholic piano-driven melodies, propelled by her formidable lyrical ability, all delivered with an overwhelming honesty, something rarely found in an artist so young. Singing as soon as she could speak, writing songs since the age of five and playing the piano since the age of seven, music is all Lauren has ever wanted to pursue.

Linda Thompson (born Linda Pettifer) started her singing career in the 1960s, doing advertising jingles for money and singing in folk clubs for enjoyment. She changed her name to Linda Peters, and was romantically linked to Martin Carthy before working with Richard Thompson, whom she married in 1972. As part of Richard & Linda Thompson she sang on a string of critically acclaimed albums until a bitter split in 1982.