Even for a summer packed with high-profile arena shows -- Oasis, U2, Coldplay, and even Jay-Z -- there's really only one gig in London this week: Blur are back.

Night after night over the past couple of years, Norwegian singer Ida Maria Sivertsen has been hitting stages across Europe. And sometimes the stage hits her back: She's slashed her head on her guitarist's instrument and cracked her ribs while attempting a mid-gig somersault.

Lykke Li had a good South by Southwest. Mostly. The 22-year-old Swede (whose name is pronounced "Luke-ee Lee") played 11 shows in three days before "literally falling offstage and going eurrrrgh," she says, evoking the ailing larynx that made her cancel a 12th gig at the festival.

In a nutshell: Brought together in 2003 by a love of lager and lyrics about odd animals, singer/guitarist Matthew "Murph" Murphy, drummer/singer Dan Haggis, and bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen met while enrolled at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, cofounded by Paul McCartney.

In a nutshell: Thrown out of her school choir at age eight for being too loud, Welsh native Aimee-Ann Duffy poured all her energy into a pink karaoke machine, a gift from Santa. On it she recorded countless original songs, sending CDs off to record companies. "That machine was my dear friend for about six years," the singer says over a latte in a London café.

Heckling Bono as he gave a speech in London. Wobbling through a cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" on a British television show. Smacking a fan for bad-mouthing her after a gig. In the U.K., soul singer Amy Winehouse, well known for public displays of drunkenness, has been accused of all of these things. But when her former manager