BREAKOUT STAR OF THE YEAR
SAM SPARRO
Perhaps Chaka Khan summed it up best: "That white boy can sing." The compliment came when the R&B titan heard a 12-year-old Sam Sparro belting out a gospel hymn at a church performance in east Los Angeles. Thirteen years later, Sparro is responsible for one of 2008's most exhilarating dance tracks, the pensive electro-funk charger "Black and Gold," which scored the rising gay soul star a top-five single in the U.K. and his birthplace of Australia. Sparro admits he was unprepared for the runaway success of his self-titled debut and the new celebrity praise that followed. "The biggest surprise for is me is how people I've admired are now aware of my music," he says. "When I met Pharrell Williams at a TV show we were filming in London and he told me how much he digs what I'm doing, I thought, Wow, I've made it."Brandishing a wicked sense of humor (yes, "Cottonmouth" is about smoking weed), a voice that has earned him comparisons to Cee-Lo and Prince as well as a wardrobe full of gold leggings, African prints, and leather trousers, Sparro was this year's refreshingly flamboyant pop hero. Next year the songsmith, who has been touring exhaustively overseas, will head home to L.A. to craft what he calls his masterpiece. "I'm going to really take my time on my next album and be bold and experimental," Sparro says. "I really want to spread out and spend more time in the States."
