British R&B Star Climbs US Charts

“It doesn't matter if we're from a little place called Hounslow,” Jay Sean tells the BBC. “If you have some good music, you can make it anywhere.” That’s how the British R&B singer found himself collaborating with Lil Wayne, and climbing to No. 2 on the US charts—making him more successful abroad than he is at home in the UK.

Journalists “say, dude, we wouldn't expect you, a little Brit, to be signed to Cash Money. They love the fact that we're from two different worlds, and I love that as well,” Sean says. He gained the attention of Lil Wayne’s label after splitting from Virgin and then forming his own. The onetime med student now hopes to “clinch that No. 1 spot”—which would require unseating the Black Eyed Peas. (More Jay Sean stories.)