5 DJANGO DJANGO BAND ON THE RISE
Now reaching 100,000 albums sold, their self-titled debut was nominated for a Mercury and voted one of the best albums of the year by the Guardian and NME. Labelled ‘Best New Act’ by Q, they played more than 120 concerts around the world, including a high-energy, safari-shirted set for The List when we invited them to headline RBS Museum Lates. They’re i nishing 2012 on a high too, after being coni rmed as headliners for the NME Awards Tour 2013. All hail the space-bop of Django Django. (CS)
4 EMELI SANDÉ MUSICAL OLYMPIAN
On a late evening in July, performing ‘Abide with Me’ to a worldwide audience at the Olympics opening ceremony, was when Aberdeen’s Emeli Sandé i nally came into her own as an artist of international standing. Yet she was well on her way to substantial fame before that, with the number one album Our Version of Events giving way to three more singles (two of them top three) and wins at the Brit, Q and Mobo awards, followed by a return to Olympics duty at the closing ceremony. (DP)
3 KELLY MACDONALD PIXAR PRINCESS
If there was one Scottish character who ruled the screen this year, it was feisty Princess Merida, the star of Pixar’s Highland-set fairytale Brave. Kelly Macdonald was the voice behind the character and is also credited with helping add some authenticity to the script by throwing in a few Scottish
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colloquialisms (including ‘manky’, ‘numpty’ and ‘Jings, Crivvens, Help Ma Boab!’). Her lofty position this year is further coni rmed by her performance as Margaret in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. (GT)
2 ANDY MURRAY LEADING RACKETEER
In less than a year, Andy Murray has become an unstoppable tennis giant. Even losing in the Wimbledon i nal had its upsides: his tearful defeat speech revealed a previously unseen sensitivity. And from then on we were with him every step of the way, from the moment he clinched the Olympics gold to the night he beat Djokovic in the US Open i nal. This was the year that Murray made Scotland a world class tennis nation for the i rst time. (CR)
13 Dec 2012–24 Jan 2013 THE LIST 29