HomeEntertianmentChappell Roan, Doechii, Ezra Collective and more make longlist

Chappell Roan, Doechii, Ezra Collective and more make longlist


Getty Images Chappell Roan looks away from camera while wearing a necklace with a cross pendant and a black silk top, pictured at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York in September.
Getty Images

Chappell Roan has also been nominated for six Grammy Awards

BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2025 longlist has been announced, with breakout stars like Chappell Roan and Barry Can’t Swim joined by newcomers including Myles Smith and Good Neighbours.

The award is given to rising artists with “the best chance of mainstream success” in the next 12 months. Past winners include Adele, Sam Smith, Michael Kiwanuka, PinkPantheress and Haim.

Last year’s winners, The Last Dinner Party, went on to score a number one album and a Mercury Prize nomination for their debut release, Prelude To Ecstasy.

This year’s longlist also includes indie band English Teacher and Northern Irish rap act Kneecap. The winner will be announced on BBC Radio 1 and BBC News in January.

Watch clips of the Sound Of 2025 nominees

The 11 acts in the running are:

  • Barry Can’t Swim
  • Chappell Roan
  • Confidence Man
  • Doechii
  • English Teacher
  • Ezra Collective
  • Good Neighbours
  • KNEECAP
  • mk.gee
  • Myles Smith
  • Pozer

The nominees were chosen by a panel of more than 180 music industry experts and artists including representatives from Spotify, the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC; as well as musicians such as Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa, Jorja Smith, The Blessed Madonna and Sam Smith.


London rapper Pozer leaning on a music case on the set of Later... with Jools Holland

Pozer posing for the camera on the set of the BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland

US pop star Chapell Roan is the clear frontrunner, after an electrifying year that saw her go from Olivia Rodrigo’s backing vocalist to breakout pop star.

Rejecting the trend for whispery bedroom pop, her songs are full of cheerleader chants and exuberant hooks that document her coming of age and the discovery of her sexuality.

Last week, she was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including best new artist and album of the year, for her debut The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess.

Also hotly-tipped are London jazz ensemble Ezra Collective, who won the Mercury Prize in 2023 for their soulful and ebullient album Where I’m Meant To Be.

This year’s follow-up – tited Dance, No One’s Watching – is both an invitation and an invocation, with supple funk grooves that propelled the album into the top 10.

Shape-shifting rapper Doechii also makes the list, cementing her rise as one of hip-hop’s brightest new voices.

Born in Florida, she rose to attention with the viral 2021 hit Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, after which she toured with SZA and Doja Cat.

She is also nominated for the best new artist Grammy, and her recent mixtape Alligator Bites Don’t Heal was called “one of the year’s very best albums” by Rolling Stone.


Getty Images Kneecap's Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí (behind the DJ decks donning an Irish flag balaclava) performing at Tramshed Cardiff
Getty Images

Kneecap released both an album and a comedy-drama biopic film in 2024

There’s a second Mercury Prize winner on the list in the shape of Leeds band Englilsh Teacher.

Combining art-rock angularity with biting social satire, their debut album This Could Be Texas was called “one of the finest debuts of the decade” by indie publication The Line Of Best Fit.

Edinburgh producer Barry Can’t Swim also makes the longlist, following a summer of huge festival appearances that saw crowds swoon to his upbeat, elegaic brand of dance music.

The list is completed by rising singer-songwriter Myles Smith, who scored a top 10 hit with the gospel-infused pop hit Stargazing earlier this year; and US guitar prodigy Mk.gee (pronounced “ma-ghee”), whose debut album Two Star & The Dream Police has quietly become a word of mouth success.


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