Named the BBC’s Sound of 2012, Michael Kiwanuka follows in the footsteps of Adele and Jessie J. Andy Welch reports

A YEAR ago, Michael Kiwanuka was an unknown entity. The 24-year-old had been performing with various grime artists around the city for a few years, all the while quietly working away on his own music.

At the same time, he was studying music at college, with the hope he could turn his love of guitar playing into a full-time teaching job, or, if he was lucky, session work for other artists.

“I just didn’t see how it could happen, me becoming a singer-songwriter,” he begins. “I didn’t know people, or meet the right people at gigs. Being an artist on my own wasn’t something I knew about, and I thought it was too difficult for someone like me.

“But, you know, I loved the gigs and I had to make money,” he concludes, giving a taste of his happy-go-lucky nature.

By 2012, however, things had drastically changed for Michael, the son of Ugandan parents, who grew up in a well-to-do area of north-west London.

Momentum gathered throughout 2011 – with Lauren Laverne at BBC 6Music, XFM and Radio 2 getting behind his sepia-tinged, soul-inspired music – and came to a head in early January when Michael was announced winner of Sound Of 2012, the BBC’s annual poll to find the new artists most likely to succeed in the coming 12 months.

Jessie J, Ellie Goulding, 50 Cent, Keane and Mika have all topped the list in the past, while a certain Adele won in 2008. Life didn’t pan out so badly for her.

“Things have changed since that announcement,” he says, smiling. “People at recording studios are a lot nicer to me, for a start. Some people have recognised me in the street.

“And I used to have to argue to have more musicians with me and for choices I wanted to make, but I don’t have to as much any more.”

He first noticed a shift in his career trajectory after appearing on Later . . . With Jools Holland last year, his gentle performance of I’m Getting Ready winning an army of new followers. But the biggest turning point came while supporting Adele on her UK and European tour last spring.

“I’d never done more than three gigs one after another before that tour,” he explains. “I really had to dig in for people to notice me. I knew I had to get past the power of her songs for anyone to remember me even being on before her, let alone what I sounded like.

“When I got back and started playing my own solo shows again in London, I didn’t notice the difference, but other people were saying how much more confident I was on stage.”

The spring in Michael’s step didn’t vanish once he returned to playing his own shows in much smaller venues, either.