Zee Avi

Despite tracing its origins to Portugal, the ukulele seems characteristic of the Hawaiian islands. The dreary, light-hearted and carefree sounds that are spawned from this instrument are extremely soothing and when listening to the ukulele, it conjures up images of white sand beaches, glorious Polynesian cocktails, bikinis and tropical fish. While the music created by indie pop songstress Zee Avi, originally from Malaysia, isn't necessarily "island music," there are traces thrown into her tunes because she uses the ukulele on many of her tracks.