Rumored to be the great-granddaughter of the 19th century U.K. monarch Queen Victoria, folk-pop singer/songwriter Emmelie de Forest won the famed Eurovision Song Contest in May 2013. Born in Randers, Denmark to a Swedish father and Danish mother, de Forest gained several years singing and conducting experience when she joined the Steve Cameron Gospel Choir. Aged 14, she met the Glaswegian folk artist Fraser Neill -- a Danish resident since the mid-'90s -- at a festival in Ajstrup and the duo spent the next five years touring small venues, ultimately selling around 100 copies of the self-pressed album, Emmelie de Forest & Fraser Neill. Although the duo moved to Copenhagen in 2012 they stopped performing together to allow de Forest more time to study at the city's Complete Vocal Institute. In January 2013 she took part in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, the competition which ultimately sent her to Malmö, Sweden as the Danish entrant to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Released through Universal a week before her victory, Only Teardrops contained the pipe and drum-fueled winning song of the same name and reached the Top Five of the Danish album charts. ~ James Wilkinson