Emeli Sandé

Hundreds of millions of people around the world watched Sandé take the stage in London during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

“I think, like many of the artists, the exposure from the Olympics on an international level has been astounding,” Paradigm’s Marty Diamond told Pollstar.

Sandé also spent the summer supporting Coldplay in Europe and North America.

“To some degree, it widened what we were already doing,” Diamond said. “And certainly, from the marketing and the greater exposure, it helped her a great deal. But there was already a base that was well in motion.”

Sandé, who has been writing songs since she was a child, started receiving recording offers as a teen after she was named one of the winners of a BBC talent contest. She held off on signing with a label to study clinical neuroscience at the University of Glasgow. During college she started writing with songwriter/producer/rapper Naughty Boy.

One of their first tunes, “Diamond Rings,” became a Top 10 single for British rapper Chipmunk in summer 2009, featuring guest vocals by Sandé. Since then she’s signed with Virgin Records (and put her medical studies on hold), won the critics’ choice award at the 2012 Brits, and written songs for artists such as Alicia Keys, Leona Lewis and Tinie Tempah.

Her debut album, Our Version of Events, is the best-selling album of the year so far in the U.K. and is doing well on charts in Europe, North America and Australia.

She’ll close out 2012 with headline dates in Ireland, the U.K. and Canada. More than a dozen U.S. gigs are scheduled for early 2013, followed by more shows in Europe.

“In markets we’ve played we’re growing. We’re introducing her to a bunch of new markets,” Diamond said. “We’re looking at building her career in America.”