Singer Alice Glass of the Toronto-based band Crystal Castles. British music magazine NME put Glass at the top of its "cool" list, ahead of hip hop star Jay-Z and rocker Liam Gallagher. (Last Gang Records)

In a strange twist of reverse-colonialism, Alice Glass, frontwoman of Toronto electro band Crystal Castles, has been named the coolest person of 2008 by British music magazine NME.

"I'm flattered, thank you, but back in school the people who held themselves in the same regard were also the biggest waste of skin I've ever met," Glass told the magazine.

Glass joins the ranks of such notable former winners as Justin Timberlake (post 'NSync of course), Pete Doherty (of Babyshambles and formerly The Libertines), Beth Ditto (of The Gossip), Alex Turner (of The Arctic Monkeys) and Jack White (of The White Stripes).

She's also become a part of a time-honoured Canadian tradition: Now that a foreign country has given approval, it is officially acceptable for Canadians to like Crystal Castles and brag about being the land that spawned them. We have the French to thank for one-time Paris resident Feist and Germans for electro-rapper and Berliner Peaches. Glass can now proudly (or more likely, in the true Canadian way, humbly) carry the torch.

--Vicky Tam