Return of Girl Power! The young British female acts who are driving an increase in music sales
It's enough to make the Spice Girls holler, as rising stars Olivia Dean and Lola Young lead a new Girl Power charge in the music charts.
By OLIVIA KEMP, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER
Published: 00:29 GMT, 31 December 2025 | Updated: 02:41 GMT, 31 December 2025
It's enough to make the Spice Girls holler, as rising stars Olivia Dean and Lola Young lead a new Girl Power charge in the music charts.
Young British female singers have helped drive one of the industry's strongest performances in more than a decade, a report has revealed.
Figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) also showed that overall consumption surged to a record high in 2025, making it the 11th consecutive year of growth.
More than 210million albums were bought or streamed this year – a rise of 4.9 per cent from 2024. And at the heart of the boom were young British female artists breaking through at home and overseas.
Ms Dean, 26, became the first woman to claim the UK's No 1 single and album in the same week since Adele in 2021, with her song Man I Need and album The Art Of Loving.
Her popularity also took off across the pond, with her album spending 11 weeks in the US's Billboard 200 Top Ten.
Ms Young, whose great-aunt is The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson, delivered the year's second-biggest single with Messy, while London-born Sienna Spiro, 20, also broke into the singles top ten for the first time with Die On This Hill.
Both Ms Dean and Ms Young, 24, attended the Brit School for Performing Arts and Technology and have been nominated for Best New Artist in the Grammys.
Olivia Dean, 26, became the first woman since Adele in 2021 to claim the UK's No 1 single and album in the same week
Lola Young, 24, put out the year's second-biggest single with Messy
The BPI revealed their success helped push annual audio streaming beyond 200billion for the first time, with that form of listening to our favourite tunes now accounting for nearly 90 per cent of all recorded music consumption in the UK.
Dr Jo Twist, chief executive of the BPI, said the figures highlight how British music remains one of the country's most powerful exports.
She said: 'From Olivia Dean and Lola Young to Sleep Token and Sam Fender, new British talent are now chart-topping sensations at home and are making their presence felt in key markets around the world.
'This impact should be a powerful reminder that British music is a global headline act and one of the crown jewels of the UK's creative industries.'