Santogold

 

She arrives fashionably late: Santogold is nothing if not fashionable. The singer from Philadelphia (via New York) is currently being lauded by everybody from the style magazines, who adore her kaleidoscopic sartorial dress sense, to the NME, which recently called her "the queen of all pop in 2008".

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She is certainly well connected. Born Santi White, she used to work as an A&R woman for an American record label; she has written for Lily Allen and Ashlee Simpson, and supported Björk at Madison Square Garden. Her spiky version of the Jam's Pretty Green was widely regarded as a highlight of Mark Ronson's Version album.

Her visual impact is equally spectacular. Santogold materialises clad head to toe in shimmering gold, a flirtatious vision of bling and swagger. With her low-key band tucked away at the back of the stage, she is flanked by two women who wear gold capes, Christopher Biggins-style sunglasses and po-faced stares - a super-camp take on the Public Enemy offshoot Security of the First World.

Musically, her short but vivacious set incorporates everything from hip-hop to grime to indie to electro. Creator suggests Missy Elliott fronting the Ting Tings, and I'm a Lady incorporates yodelling. White's vocals swoop from Gwen Stefani squawk to Siouxsie Sioux growl, while her relentless energy papers over any cracks. This 21st-century Grace Jones exits with a bombastic nursery rhyme called Unstoppable. If she maintains these herculean levels of self-belief, that is just what she will be.

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