Craig David's 5 best collaborations as chosen by... Craig David

"It was that seminal garage record that changed my life and changed their lives. It’s funny how it was more than just a song. When I think about what it represented, in terms of opening the floodgates for other artists in and around the country to think ‘oh this guy from Southampton who’s not signed is having the biggest record ever - maybe I can do that too?' I think not only that, but it opened up the opportunity for the grime scene to come through. If you look at the Skeptas and the Wileys and the Stormzys and the Kanos - everyone who’s come through, it opened something that was bubbling and I’m just so grateful to have been part of that time."

"Working with Sting on Rise and Fall was a huge moment for me because to be working with a legend like Sting - using such an iconic guitar riff from 'Shape of your Heart' - and then for me to have gone through first hand what the lyrics of the song were portraying, it was unbelievable in so many ways.

"At one point the song was in the third person and I remember bringing that into the first person to give it more poignancy. I embodied it so much it very much became my story. I remember when I stood up at Glastonbury and was singing out to 100,000 people back in 2016, I got to the middle 8 of that song and it was almost so verbatim. It was unbelievable. It shows you the power of music."

"I’d say that 'I Know You' was all about inclusion. It embodied everything I’m about - let’s bring everyone together. You’ve met someone, you’re stumbling through the night and that I-don’t-know-you-but-I-do feeling - we have a connection without even knowing the ins and outs about each other. I think we need more of that. It's why my Ibiza Rocks TS5 stuff is so fun - people don’t know each other but they’re all there for the same common good, they all wanna have a good time and look in each others’ eyes and think ‘are you feeling the same way about this song as I am?’ And for it to uplift, that’s wicked too."

"I've worked with AJ Tracey twice - once on his album, once on a song called 'Somebody Like Me' from the My Time Is Now album. What I like about that was AJ was really on the come-up - people were talking about how it was all about to blow for him."

"It gave me so much pleasure to see AJ’s album Ladbroke Grove do so well, 'cos everyone was like ‘yeah, he is that guy’ - and then his song with Dave. It’s great when you’re ahead of the curve and someone already has that star element in them and you’ve just got to stick with it and everyone will see it too. Isn’t that the way with every artist?! You’ve got all the talent, all the soul, you’ve got it and people say ‘I’m not seeing the number 1 yet’ and you’re like ‘it’s in there, it will come!’."

"Working with Ella Mai was awesome - we did a song called ‘Talk To Me Pt. II’ which was on The Time Is Now album. Again, this was just before she had 'Boo'ed Up' and that ended up being her break out single and it became huge - in America in particular. But working with someone like that with so much talent and hearing her voice on that mic in the studio - I was just left thinking ‘It’s going to happen, it just has to’ because the cream always rises to the top.

"It’s just those moments you walk away and think - I knew you were going to blow. I knew it was going to happen. It’s so nice for me, because I’d rather be on that wave than people being like ‘Oh, now you’re working with them ‘cos they’ve already had the success’ - which is fine, but I love that moment when you can tell it’s all about to take off."