Michael Kiwanuka

Michael Kiwanuka can justifiably call himself the greatest asset to British pop in years. The Londoner of Ugandan origin is a venerable sage in a young man’s body. His sound is as much 1974 as 2024. He discovered his musical destiny when he first heard Otis Redding’s ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’. He ditched his Nirvana and Radiohead records in favour of the works of Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder. Kiwanuka is all about beauty, simplicity and eternality. The three are perfectly encapsulated in 2016’s ‘Cold Little Heart’. The song has been a permanent fixture in all-time music lists for several years, despite it being nearly ten minutes long, and the fact that Kiwanuka doesn’t start singing until five minutes in.