Mark Ronson

Moving to New York when he was eight, Mark Ronson was inspired by local hip-hop mix-tapes to raid his father's record collection and start DJ-ing. Building a reputation for diverse, funky sets, he became a regular on the club scene before being asked to play at Puff Daddy's 29th birthday party and later Tom Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes. Ronson started producing tracks for Nikka Costa in 2001 before collaborating with Mos Def, Ghostface Killah and Rivers Cuomo on debut album Here Comes The Fuzz (2003). The album made little impact but Ronson became a regular DJ at Justin Timberlake's New York club Suede and started his own label Allido Records. Producing tracks for Robbie Williams, Lily Allen and Christina Aguilera, his reputation started to rise again until his work on Amy Winehouse's Back To Black (2006) album turned him into one of the world's hottest producers. Using a host of guest vocalists including Daniel Merriweather, Santigold and Lily Allen, his second solo album Version (2007) featured covers of mainly British indie songs being given the signature soul pop Mark Ronson treatment. Singles Stop Me (originally by The Smiths) and Valerie featuring Amy Winehouse (originally by The Zutons) both made it to Number 2 in the UK charts with the album also peaking at the same spot. Ronson returned to the studio to produce albums for Kaiser Chiefs, Daniel Merriweather and Duran Duran before recruiting Boy George, Q-Tip and Simon Le Bon for guest appearances on his third solo album Record Collection (2010).