Somebody That I Used to Know. It’s the global hit – complete with number one spot in the Triple J Hottest 100 and a cover featured on Glee – that shot Gotye to international recognition, making for the ultimate grassroots-indie-dude-hitting-it-huge story, et cetera, et cetera.

But how much do you know about the velveteen vocals that coat the second verse; the gorgeous lady who stood starkers next to Wally whilst paint crept over her body; the second dimension that alleviates the song to its pivotal levels of tension?

Kimbra

That would be Kimbra, and damn, that girl is a talent.

Kimbra Lee Johnson’s image and sound is a mixture of sweet yet smouldering, cute yet fierce, mature yet youthful. On her debut album, Vows, the twenty-one year old took elements of the unconventional and the classic, moulding the two together into her own brand of versatile quirk.

She said in an interview with BMA Magazine “…it’s not like I set out like ‘I’m going to tackle every genre on this album.’ I just listen to a really varied amount of music and different style of production so that’s just naturally what happened.”

There’s sassy funk on the Mariah-esque Call Me and slinky jazz on Good Intent. There’s brooding ballad Old Flame and the simmering soul of Plain Gold Ring. Settle Down, Vows’ opener, was written back in her teens with vocal loops as instruments. The slick Cameo Lover stirs together pop and disco, winning the 2011 Vanda &Young Award for International song writing (beating Gotye!) and snagging 25^th spot in the Triple J Hottest 100.

Influence iceberg aside, Kimbra’s most defining characteristic is her momentous voice. It bottles itself up, unravelling out of her tiny figure, sweeping low and grazing high in perfect pitch.

“She works really hard on vocal performance to get something out of it,” François Tétaz told Rolling Stone. “Sometimes she’ll fall flat on her face, but she will work through the right approach for it, and that’s quite unusual; with a lot of singers they have their shtick and they just refine it, but Kimbra doesn’t do that.”

Her stage presence is energetic and contagious. Her petite body is clad in gorgeous kitschy costumes, ruffles, glitter and colour; her bright lips, dark curls and pale skin giving her a doll-like quality. She bops, jumps, boogies, bounces, sincerely has fun and wants the onlookers to have fun too. Me and a friend were lucky enough to see an older fan seemingly so lost in her show at a local festival that he grooved, waltzed and twisted around us in large vague circles.

She can count a raft of collaborations, upcoming overseas tours and three ARIA’s under her belt. A stunner of a voice, a wardrobe of cute dresses and an engaging way with the stage: Kimbra is a pop tart that the world is just starting to tuck into.

Check out her kicking butt in Warrior, a recent work created with Mark Foster and A-Trak thanks to Converse. I cannot describe the fangirling that took place when I found out she toured with Foster the People in the US.

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