Iyaz

With inventive re-imaginings of the reggae-splashed hook-heavy soul popularized by acts like Sean Paul and Sean Kingston in the early half of the 21st century's first decade, Virgin Island-born singer Iyaz swiftly built up a hearty cult following on MySpace.

Kingston, in the process of forming his own Time Is Money label, stumbled upon Iyaz's site and snapped up the 21-year-old singer as the maiden signee of his new imprint.

Iyaz's debut single, "Replay," an iPod name-checking musical stew adding splashes of classical and electronica to his usual island pop, soared to the upper regions of the Billboard Hot 100 in November 2009.

~ Jason Thurston, Rovi

Pop star Iyaz admits to loving Miley Cyrus' music and writes his chart topping songs on ''spur of the moment.''

(BANG) -

Iyaz has is inspired by Miley Cyrus.

The 'Solo' singer has said that he enjoys listening to the `Hannah Montana' star's music and a whole host of other pop stars' songs.

When questioned about his musical taste , he told ilikemusic.com: "Miley Cyrus. I like her song 'When I Look At You'. A load of Drake. I'm still listening to some Michael Jackson stuff. Chris Brown. Lady GaGa, of course. A little bit of everything. Green Day for sure."

Iyaz - whose real name Keidran Jones- had instant chart success with his first single 'Reply' going top five in both the UK and US - also admitted he never sits down to write songs and most of his material is penned on the "spur of the moment".

He added: "Most of my songs are spur of the moment stuff. I have to be in the mood. Or if I do have a little idea I'll record it onto my phone and wait until I get back into the studio."

The singer was spotted by music maker Sean Kingston over MySpace and still takes tips from the 'Beautiful Girls' star.

He said: "Sleep when you die. No-one's going to work harder for you than yourself, so you've got to always go out there and put your best foot forward at all times."