Breaking Artist: Ingrid Michaelson

Who: Staten Island, New York singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson got her big break when "Keep Breathing" was discovered on MySpace and used during a pivotal moment of the Grey's Anatomy season finale. The twenty-seven-year-old also scored an Old Navy commercial with "The Way I Am," helping to rocket her second LP Girls and Boys to the top of both Billboard's Heatseekers and Alternative New Artist charts -- despite the fact that she has never signed to a label.

Sounds Like: Feist with a bit of Regina Spektor's quirk. On Girls and Boys, Michaelson tap-dances between piano-based ballads with pristine vocals and a few attitude-heavy guitar-centric tracks that show off her more rockin' side.

Three Things You Should Know:
1. After Old Navy ran with "The Way I Am," Michaelson started a forum on her MySpace to open discussion on selling out vs. succeeding. She says it's difficult for developing artists to turn down big breaks but, "If a big bad corporation comes up to me and wants me to be their mascot hopefully I'll be able to do my research and do what I know in my heart to be the right thing."
2. Girls and Boys is about (surprise) relationships. "I sing about those kinds of issues but in very boiled down simple terms," she says. "I listen to every kind of music and I have no idea what some people are talking about, but I still enjoy it. I want to say a lot with as few words as possible."
3. After being raised on pop-free diet of folk, classical music and the Beatles, Michaelson took to show tunes as a kid. "My parents put me in theater when I was nine. I did Guys and Dolls, a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan, Into the Woods," she says, adding that she studied musical theater in college but is actively trying to move away from such theatrics in her newer songs.

Get It: Girls and Boys was re-released in September and is in stores and available on iTunes.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Satisfied”

Tom Waits | 2011

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter