The music world is constantly changing, especially in the digital age when new artists can garner a following just by streaming a video. While there is always room for old favorites, let’s also keep track of some rising artists. These five singer/songwriters have burst onto the scene with music that promises great things to come.
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1. Fred Again
Fred Again is the stage name of Frederick Gibson, a British DJ, singer, and songwriter. While still in his 20s, Gibson became a songwriter to the stars, penning pieces for George Ezra, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, and Clean Bandit. He won Producer of the Year at the Brit Awards in 2020, breaking records as the youngest person to receive that honor. These days, Gibson performs his own music and collaborates with other artists. His high-concept, electronica-driven pieces are unique and thought-provoking, a rarity in the world of dance music.
2. Asake
If there is one thing apparent in the 2020s music scene, it’s that it is no longer centered on the Western world. Enter Nigerian singer Asake, whose real name is Ahmed Ololade. The young singer made waves in 2022 when he was just 27 when his newly-released album, Mr. Money with the Vibe, broke records for the biggest opening day for an African artist on Apple Music. But he’d made an impression as early as 2017 thanks to his complex music, which uses Afro and South African house styles and lyrics in both English and Yoruba. Asake is signaling a significant internationally flavored shift in mainstream music, and the world can’t wait to see what he does next.
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3. Elyanna
Israeli-Chilean singer Elyanna shows that the new generation of musicians knows how to use the Internet to jumpstart their careers. As a teenager, she started posting songs on SoundCloud, and that eventually led to her amassing an Instagram following. It’s not hard to see why her music has such an intense universal appeal. Skillfully combining Western pop music with Arabic folk music, cumbia, and other genres, Elyanna sings in English and Arabic. In 2023, she impressed crowds by performing a completely Arabic-language set at California’s Coachella festival, further proving that the future of music is solidly moving beyond just the Western world.
4. Brittney Spencer
Brittney Spencer is a rising country singer who gained significant attention thanks to viral videos on Twitter starting in 2020. Her cover of “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen was a particular attention-getter, but Spencer has quickly separated herself from the crowd with her own voice, showing a unique talent for both singing and cultural commentary. “Crowded Table” is a song about inclusion and breaking down barriers, a theme Spencer’s career has followed as she keeps building her career through Nashville. Her eclectic musical style and powerhouse vocal talents keep her fans guessing what might be coming next.
5. Ethel Cain
Ethel Cain is the stage name and alter ego of Hayden Silas Anhedönia, introduced in the concept album Preacher’s Daughter. The album tells the story of Cain, a deacon’s daughter in the American South, as she runs away from home and eventually falls victim to a psychopathic cannibal. Luckily for Anhedönia, her own story isn’t quite as macabre. But Preacher’s Daughter is rooted in the singer’s experiences as a queer woman in a devoutly evangelical Christian family. The avant-garde album bends countless genres in an expertly told story called one of the best albums of 2022 time and again.
[AS OF THIS WRITING: Ethel Cain Tickets Are Available! – Get ‘Em Right Here]
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