Ben Howard, 25, an award winning singer-songwriter who was born in West London.  He was raised by musical parents who exposed him to their favorite records from singer-songwriter artists from the 1960s and 1970s at an early age, like Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Simon Garfunkel,  by which he was strongly influenced.

ITV.com: Ben Howard has won best British male and best breakthrough act at the Brit Awards.  As he collected his first award, he said: “I’m not very good at speeches. I’m not very good at dancing.”  He also thanked his mother, saying, “She’s rung a lot of old friends to ask them to vote for this.”