News: Natasha Khan [Bat For Lashes] To Win Best Female At Brit-Awards 2010?

Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes) will be the only British Asian nominee at the Brit-Awards tonight. We look at who Natasha Khan is and her hit singles which led to a Brit-Award 2010 nomination...

Natasha Khan was born in London on 25 October 1979. Until the age of five she was raised in Wembley where her parents had met and married several years before. However her father, Rehmat Khan, a former professional squash player, decided to relocate the family to the commuter town of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire to help with his coaching of future squash world open winner Jahangir Khan, Natasha's uncle

During her teens Khan was a victim of racism. Speaking about her time in after-school clubs she claimed “the kids there totally ripped me to shreds.” This rejection led Khan to rebel, making the decision to “bunk off” school and stay at home listening to music. “My mum would take me to the train station and I pretended to get the train; she'd drive to work and I would go home and play a tape of Nirvana all day”

After spending three months touring through the US and Mexico Khan returned to Britain and settled down in Brighton to study a degree in music and visual arts at the University of Brighton.

She went on to work as a nursery school teacher, and it was during this period that she began writing the material for her first album.

Khan's debut single, "The Wizard", was released digitally through Drowned in Sound records and on seven-inch vinyl through Khan's own imprint, She Bear Records. She then signed to the record label Echo, alongside Feeder and former Moloko singer Róisín Murphy, and released her debut album, Fur and Gold, on 11 September 2006. In 2007, Bat for Lashes parted company with Echo and signed to Parlophone records. Fur and Gold was re-released with the addition of bonus material. A limited vinyl version was released by Los Angeles indie label, Manimal Vinyl in May 2007.

On 17 July, Fur and Gold was announced as one of the albums nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize, losing out to Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future despite being a favourite of British media to win the award. Bat for Lashes version of the The Cure's "A Forest" appeared on a charity album called Perfect As Cats on Manimal Vinyl in late 2008. After the success of Khan's second album Two Suns, sales of Fur and Gold in the UK increased and it was certified Silver by the BPI on 29 May 2009 for sales of 60,000.

Khan’s second album, Two Suns, was released 7 April 2009 and produced by Natasha Khan

Two Suns focuses on Khan’s desert born alter ego Pearl, whose personality she adopted while staying in New York

Two Suns went on to debut at its peak position of #5 on the UK Albums Chart. The first single off the album “Daniel” became a top 40 hit, while the second single "Pearl's Dream" was released on 22 June.

In their review for Two Suns NME awarded it 8 out of 10 describing the album as “epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms.” Rolling Stone also rated it favourably stating, “Khan proves she's a powerhouse under her billowy sleeves. She could be the next Kate Bush.

On 1 May 2009 Two Suns was certified silver by the BPI for sales of 60,000 in the UK and on 31 July 2009 the album was certified Gold for sales of 100,000 in the UK. Also, for the second time in a row, Khan has been nominated for the Mercury Prize for her album Two Suns[18] and for the single "Daniel," which was also nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for breakthrough video of the year.

Following an immense Glastonbury show, an epic Somerset House performance (not just musically but meteorologically) and a packed-out headline set at Latitude, a full UK tour has been announced for October with two nights at the Roundhouse in London. Khan continues to delight audiences and critics alike with her magical live shows, with Johnny Depp being the latest in a long line of high profile fans proclaiming Two Suns to be a “masterpiece” when interviewed on Radio 1 recently. Added to that, Coldplay have asked Natasha to join them for two dates in Europe this September.

Live Performance: Bat For Lashes – Daniel