Last year, we saw female domination across the charts, headliner slots and festival lineups. Most notably, we saw the rise and fame of the Midwest princess herself, Chappell Roan, whose achievements over 12 months were simply unprecedented. Sabrina Carpenter was another highflyer of the year, with hit after hit, and the world takeover of ‘Brat’ by the 365 party girl Charli XCX.
I truly think it was one of the most exciting years in music I have ever witnessed in my lifetime—certified banger after banger, it was almost difficult to keep up with the amount of carefully crafted art that was on access to us. With this in mind, 2025 has a lot to live up to, in my mind, so let's see who are the ones to watch this year.
Ceechnyaa
If you were on social media during the last month of 2024, you’d probably have heard Ceechynaa’s unbeatable bars. On the 5th of December, the London rapstress released ‘Peggy’. This was the first track of hers to reach the UK singles charts. It went viral on the app TikTok as well, with 293.2K videos and billions of views in total, which were mainly lip-syncing to the fiery lyrics. It wasn’t just the general public and social media users who loved ‘Peggy’, so did many other big artists, including Cardi B, Ellie Golding and Charli XCX who all posted videos lip-syncing to the track as well.
Ceechynnaa has released two singles previously to this one, but ‘Peggy’ was the most notable and made a name for herself in the industry. Her controversial lyrics, which centre around opposing gender roles after years of men writing lyrics which sexualise women, are incredibly refreshing to hear. As GRM Daily described her approach “she doesn’t hold back, addressing hot topics with her trademark sharpness and unfiltered style” — it makes you excited to see what she’s got planned for 2025.
Lola Young
Another artist who found fame by going viral on TikTok last year was Lola Young. Her track ‘Messy’ was inescapable, with 1.3M videos made using this sound alone, despite the fact she’d released it months before in May. Many A-listers and celebrities used this track as well, including Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Sofia Richie, which no doubt favoured Lola’s exposure for the better. Her voice is sweet but with an unlying power to it which I’m hoping she explores further this year. ‘Messy’ has these lyrics everyone in their 20-somethings can relate to “'Cause I'm too messy and then I'm too fucking clean / You told me get a job then you ask where the hell I've been”. She even went on to thank users in a video, describing the reaction to her song as “surreal”.
The Grammy’s described her music as “infusing every lyric with anger in search of release. And she finds it”. She also set for her Coachella debut this year and I hope this powerhouse succumbs to the ‘Coachella Effect’ many greats have experienced and gone on to succeed with.
The Dare
Until Charli XCX released the track ‘Guess’ with the lyrics “Send them to The Dare, yeah, I think he's with it” many of us had never heard of The Dare. He also went on to join Charli on her ‘Brat’ tour in LA, as well as producing ‘Guess’ feat Billie Eilish alongside Finneas, which debuted at number one on the UK singles chart.
He then released his debut album ‘What's Wrong with New York?’ which was received well by critics and the public. One track in particular titled ‘Girls’ has around 145.5K videos on TikTok using this track. Many users were drawn in by his funky sounds and catchy lyrics “I like the girls that do drugs / Girls with cigarettes in the back of the club”, with the imagery created in this track in particular, it felt a similar vibe created from the ‘Brat Summer’ phenomenon characterized by a carefree, party-girl attitude, and a Y2K-inspired fashion style meaning this went track went in the same direction the industry was heading at the time.
The Dare has been described as the poster boy for the so-called ‘indie sleaze revival’, a genre I think many were begging for the return of. This year The Dare is set to perform at Charli’s LIDO festival alongside 070 Shake and A.G. Cook, and he is also set to appear at Reading and Leeds, which should further the brilliant exposure he claimed last year.
Royel Otis
One band that I’m utterly sure will be their year is the Aussie-artists Royel Otis. Despite moving to South London, the band has kept their sunny sound from down under in the heart of every track they create. Last year the band went viral with their cover of ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ on Triple J. Their video of this performance on the app racked up over 14 million views, this left fans pleading for the band to put this on Spotify which they finally released on 29th of January and has over 60 million streams to date. This cover mostly set them on the thank to international recognition and was cemented by their performance of their original track ‘Sofa King’ live on Jimmy Kimmel.
Following their success in the US, the band were signed to Capitol Records towards the end of the year and surely setting them up for a great start to 2025.
Fontaines D.C.
Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. had a picture-perfect year in 2024. The band revealed they would be releasing their fourth studio album ‘Romance’ this year, followed by the first single from this album ‘Starburster’ which was given five stars by NME, praising how it "captures that shock of trying to grasp reality amidst all the chaos”. Once the band released their eagerly awaited album in debut at number two on the UK charts, which is seemingly their highest achievement to date. If this wasn’t brilliant enough for Fontaines, ‘Romance’ received two nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance for "Starburster". Fontaines D.C. have been compared to some of the biggest rock artists from the UK including The Smiths and Blur. Time Out and The Independent listed ‘Romance’ as their number one album of the year.
Fontaines D.C. show no signs of stopping with another phenomenal year set to take place, including a Global Tour including Japan, United States and Australia. They also have a headline slot at Finsbury Park in London taking place in July, alongside Amyl and The Sniffers.
Doechii
For rapper Doechii, 2024 was the year she finally started receiving the recognition she had been working towards for previous years. She released her album ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal’ which was received incredibly well by critics, with Pitchfork describing it as “playful and melodic sides without skimping on hard-hitting hip-hop”.
Her album was so well received that she bagged herself a nomination at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. Her ‘Tiny Desk’ was praised by millions and drew people further into Doechii’s art, it has 7.1 million views and counting. The story-telling element of her music is so incredibly refreshing to hear and I’m not the only one who loves it as her track, as ‘DENIAL IS A RIVER’ has gone viral on TikTok this year with around 140.7K videos using Doechii’s sound, and lip-syncing along to the fiery lyrics.
The rapper also appeared on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 with her track ‘Alter Ego’ featuring as the lipsync track for that episode. The song’s exposure on this episode has been widely recognised and boosted with 250,000 streams on the day after this aired and sending the track flying up the charts. She is set to play at All Points East alongside RAYE, Tyla and JADE in August this year.
I’m sure this year is set to be another exciting one in the industry just looking at who’s on our radar right now, and it leaves us begging to find out who else will excel and breakthrough this year.
