Dubai-based singer-songwriter Gayathri won't be Dubai-based much longer. She's heading to London in March to pursue her dreams of a career in music. "This is my life," she says. "It's all I truly want." Why London? "I know how it works. It's a wonderful scene." With the help of friends like musician, composer and producer Nithin Sawhney, she's hopeful of success.

Gayathri's single "Champion of Broken Hearts" claimed Rolling Stone Middle East's highest-scoring review for an unsigned artist in 2011. She shot the video in India, using most of her savings for the two-day shoot. "I was watching a lot of Woody Allen films at the time," she says of the song. "The idea of turning pain into humor is very appealing to me, and that's what 'Champion of Broken Hearts' is trying to achieve."

Swerte is the founder of U.A.E.-based hip-hop collective The Recipe, which has gradually transformed (and slimmed-down) to become a four-piece group. Following two "very experimental" mixtape releases in 2011, the band are currently working on their debut album. So you won't see much of them in 2012. "We kind of have to stop doing live shows now," says Swerte. "Just lock ourselves in the studio and write. We're taking this album very seriously. We're trying to take everything we've learned – all the best bits – and put it on there. This is something that – we hope – people are going to paying money for, so it has to be something that deserves that money."

Dubai's not an easy place for an alt-country-influenced singer-songwriter to get a break. Tim Hassall is doing better than most – at least able to make music a career rather than a hobby. But he recognizes he's got a long way to go to reach a larger audience here: "I think I need to define my sound a bit more," he says. "The market for what I do just doesn’t exist here. It’s such a fickle crowd: If it’s jazz week, everybody’s into jazz; if it’s film festival week, everybody’s into films. I believe if Ryan Adams – who I’m a huge fan of – played here, there’d be a whole lot of Ryan Adams afficianados. But if you’re trying to put out music of that genre here, I don’t think you’d get an audience."

After establishing that we weren't contractually obliged to pay the stylist double-time for dealing with Malikah's unruly hair, the Beirut-born rapper tells us how working full-time (she started a job in a Dubai-based ad agency last year) has messed with the plans for her debut album. "I was a bit lazy about finishing it. By the time I get home, I quite often just wanna sleep," she says. "But there are other reasons: I’ve matured a lot, traveled and performed, and I find some of my older tracks kind of not who I am now. I’ve got like 25 tracks now, I think I need to stop and just do it." At the moment, she reckons she'll settle for two more tracks before wrapping it up.

It may be that her debut album isn't the first record we'll hear from Malikah this year. She says her newly formed group Lyrical Roses, featuring female rappers from Kenya, Germany and Colombia (as well as Malikah) will be releasing an E.P. soon. "I really want to get them over here to play and to finish the recording," she says.

The Juliana Down frontman hopes 2012 will be the year his band finally break out of the Middle East, as they've been threatening to do for a while. Their management deal with Above and Beyond should help, as well as their distribution deal with Sony Music. While their last album, Empires, has only been (officially) on sale for around eight months, the band are eager to get their next one out and plan to head to London to record it.

Another shot of Gayathri on set at our BlackBerry sponsored photoshoot

Another shot of singer-songwriter Tim Hassall at our BlackBerry sponsored photoshoot