Missy Higgins

Although singer-songwriter Missy Higgins is a star in her native Australia, she's little known in the U.S. So prior to the stateside release of On a Clear Night, a CD that's already successful back home, she relocated to Los Angeles — and the move has required some adjustments. In Melbourne, where she grew up, she often bicycled to the beach. But if she tried that from Silver Lake, the funky L.A. suburb where she settled, "I'd be fearing for my life the whole time," she admits. Higgins won a major tunesmithing contest for "All for Believing" while still a high-schooler, and the song attracted label interest after influential Santa Monica station KCRW started spinning it. Down Under, full-length debut The Sound of White (released domestically in 2005), and Clear Night eventually earned her a gaggle of music-biz awards and celebrity of the double-edged variety. (She eventually put unwanted speculation about her private life to rest by revealing her bisexuality.) Here, though, the commercial high point has been the appearance of her single "Where I Stood" on Grey's Anatomy...so far.