This genre-bending 32-year-old ex-punk has been proving the pundits right this year, after bringing out her self-titled debut album in May. She was one of those lava-hot ‘ones to watch’ for 2008, and if the response to the Philadelphia-born lady’s colourful mash-up of reggae, hip hop bhangra, rock and electronica is anything to go by, she’s well worth the hype.

Fizzing with energy and 24-carat attitude, Santogold (real name Santi White) flips a middle finger in the face of anyone who dares suggest that soul, hip hop and ska won’t go together. In this lady’s world they certainly do, and it’s a blend which has brought about comparisons with her friend M.I.A., not to mention an album that sounds like a glittering magpie’s nest of robots, dreadlocks and tacky animal prints.

She’s learned her trade doing A&R for Epic Records then leading a ska/hip hop outfit Stiffed and fulfilled a longtime ambition when she guested on Mark Ronson’s Version with ‘Pretty Green’, but it’s her own ‘LES Artistes’, ‘I’m a Lady’ and ‘Shove It’ that are bound to get the Hydro Connect crowd really going radio rental.

Oyster Stage, Sun