Melody Gardot

Her career began with a tragic event. In 2003, Melody Gardot was cycling through Philadelphia when an SUV driver failed to yield and fled the scene after the collision. She was hospitalised with severe head and spinal injuries and multiple pelvic fractures.

During her rehabilitation, music became central to her recovery. She started exploring jazz singing as part of music therapy, learned to play guitar and began writing songs. "I started recording because it was a way for me to remember what I had done. I had real trouble with my short-term memory - by evening I couldn't recall how the day had started," she once said in an interview.

Two years after the accident she returned to performing publicly, though the crash left her with a lasting sensitivity to noise and light that still requires her to wear tinted glasses. Since then, the singer-songwriter has released several albums - some Grammy-nominated - that span jazz and blues, French chanson, pop and Latin American music, reflecting the breadth of her artistic range.