From female drill to escapist country pop - meet your new music crushes

The turn of a new year always brings fevered speculation over the great new acts primed to make a splash over the next 12 months. Last year marked huge musical breakthroughs from the likes of Chappell Roan, Doechii and Tyla. So who could fill their rising star boots in 2025?

- EL HUNT

Whose single will we be playing on repeat all summer? Which bands will pack out festival tents across the land? And which emerging names will get almighty legs-up from completely nailing their stadium support slots, and become stars in their own right?

Read on for our acts to watch in 2025: all of these incredible talents deserve to have an absolutely massive year.

Rachel Chinouriri

Croydon indie-pop artist Rachel Chinouriri already played a blinder in 2024, reducing her early Sunday afternoon crowd at Glastonbury to a weepy puddle, and forging a unique voice with her exceptional debut album What a Devastating Turn of Events.

Though it lays bare challenging subject matter, such as depression, suicide and disordered eating, Chinouriri often tackles this darkness using the bleak, cathartic variety of humour that tends to rear its head so often when you’ve hit rock bottom. Fingers crossed 2025 will be the year things go properly stratospheric. Chinouriri is set to open for Sabrina Carpenter on the UK and Europe leg of her Short n’ Sweet tour; a slot which should win over even more new fans and cement her breakthrough.

For fans of: The Japanese House, Nilüfer Yanya

GloRilla

Memphis rapper GloRilla, right, first landed on a lot of radars when her HitKidd collaboration FNF (Let’s Go) bagged a wildcard nod at the 2022 Grammys, but it’s last year that things really levelled up. Yeah Glo! and Megan Thee Stallion featuring Wanna Be both broke into the Stateside Top 40, and a guest turn on Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia capped off a milestone 2024. Released in October, debut album Glorious should continue steaming right on through 2025; though GloRilla already has a massive following thanks to her US fanbase, she’s yet to break into the UK charts. Expect that to change very soon.

For fans of: Megan Thee Stallion, Missy Elliott