2 December 2025

Mark SavageMusic correspondent

BBC

The nominees for 2026 include (L-R): KWN, Skye Newman, Chloe Qisha, Royel Otis and Sombr

The soundtrack to the next 12 months will match cutting-edge pop with jangly guitar anthems. That's according to the shortlist for BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2026, which tips new music for the coming year.

The nominees include US singer-songwriter Sombr, whose lush harmonies and yearning pop-rock songs have already earned him a clutch of UK top 10 singles.

Also in the running are Aussie skate-rock duo Royel Otis and nervy post-punk outfit Geese. They're joined by up-and-coming pop singers Chloe Qisha, Skye Newman and Alessi Rose - who supported Dua Lipa on tour this summer.

Previous winners include Adele, Haim and Chappell Roan. The 2026 winner will be announced in January on Radio 1 and BBC News.

This year's list was compiled from votes by an international panel of more than 170 industry experts and artists including Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa, Jade, Olivia Dean, Yungblud and Sam Smith.

It is open to acts who have yet to score a number one album or more than three top 10 singles by 31 October 2025. Artists who already have a "significant public profile" are also ineligible.

The remaining nominees for 2026 include breakout rap star Jim Legxacy, Irish rockers Florence Road, R&B singer Kwn and singer-songwriter Sasha Keable - a former collaborator with Disclosure and Jorja Smith.

The list has been running since 2003, when US rapper 50 Cent was the first winner.

Since then, it has also predicted success for Stormzy, Frank Ocean, Wet Leg, Florence + The Machine, Raye, Fred Again, Vampire Weekend and Yungblud.

Here's what you need to know about the 10 nominees on the Sound Of 2026 shortlist.

Alessi Rose

Getty Images

• Derby's Alessi Rose taught herself the rudiments of music production while working as a barmaid to save up for university.
• A poetry student, she turned her talent to lyrics - writing universal anthems of infatuation, heartbreak, lust and turning the tables on hopeless men.
• "If people don't want me to write songs about them they shouldn't do bad things," she explains on her social media bio.
• Working with A-list pop writers like Amy Allen (Sabrina Carpenter) and Sam de Jong (Gracie Abrams), her sharply-observed pop missives have seen her described as "Derbyshire's Olivia Rodrigo".
• In the last year, she's gone from playing 300-capacity shows to supporting Tate McRae and Dua Lipa; and recently sold out two nights at London's 2,500-capacity Kentish Town Forum.

Chloe Qisha

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• Chloe Qisha has a simple, understated goal. "I want to show people I'm the master of all pop," she told The Line Of Best Fit last year.
• Born in Malaysia, based in London, the 26-year-old took a convoluted path towards music, studying psychology before realising she was "not emotionally stable enough to be anyone's therapist".
• A voracious pop fan, she started posting "really horrendous covers" to YouTube, where she was spotted by producer Rob Milton, known for his work with The 1975, CMAT and Holly Humberstone.
• Singles like 21st Century Cool Girl, Sex, Drugs & Existential Dread and So Sad, So Hot have already marked her out as a major talent - with a savvily-mixed cocktail of pop melodies, off-kilter production and compelling lyrics.

Florence Road

Warner Music

• Named after the street where they went to school, Florence Road are four childhood friends from Bray, in County Wicklow, Ireland.
• They comprise lead singer Lily Aron, guitarist Emma Brandon, bassist Ailbhe Barry, and drummer Hannah Kelly.
• Formed in 2019, they progressed from practising in a garden shed to playing Dublin's Olympia Arena, just one week after their secondary school mock exams.
• Inspired by Wolf Alice, The Kinks, Paramore and Billie Eilish, they've crafted a grungy, pop-friendly brand of rock that's destined for festival stages worldwide.
• Known to their fans as "Flo Ro", their signature songs include the scream-along anthem Heavy; and a deliciously spiteful break-up rant called Goodnight.

Geese

Getty Images

• The most prolific act on the list, New York rock band Geese have released three albums since 2021, with the latest, Getting Killed, positioning them for a mainstream breakthrough.
• Raised on the sharp-elbowed sounds of Television, Talking Heads and Modest Mouse, the four-piece features childhood friends Emily Green (guitar), Max Bassin (drums), and Cameron Winter (vocals, keyboards) and Dominic DiGesu (bass).
• "The band was going to end when we graduated high school," Green told The New York Times. Instead, their demos sparked a record label bidding war.
• Endlessly inventive and musically restless, their songs are given focus by Winter's "barbarically blunt" lyrics, about superficial relationships, state propaganda, and social divisions.

Jim Legxacy

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• He's the "new David Bowie". He's the "'06 Wayne Rooney". He's Jim Legxacy, one of the UK's most innovative new rappers. Actually, scratch that. He's one of the UK's most innovative new musicians.
• Born James Olaloye, he collapses entire genres into his mixtapes, drawing on sped-up soul samples, mournful folk harmonies, glitchy acid house beats, languid guitars and slinky Afrobeat grooves.
• As a producer, he's already scored a UK number one for his work on Dave and Central Cee's Sprinter.
• Lyrically raw, his songs have addressed everything from periods of homelessness to the tragic death of his younger sister last year.
• "I think what music in London has been missing for a long time is vulnerability," he told the YouTube channel Kids Take Over. "I always try to emphasise in my music that there is a sensitive side, and there is a place to tell the truth."

KWN

RCA Records

• Pronounced "K-One", KWN is the pseudonym of East London R&B artist Khyra Leah Wilson.
• Although she grew up around music - her father was a DJ - she had stints as a footballer and a chef before settling on a career as a singer-songwriter.
• Her late-night R&B jams recall the sensual sounds of Janet Jackson and D'Angelo, brushed with a British sense of melancholy.
• But it was the video for Worst Behaviour, her duet with US star Kehlani, that went viral. Released on Valentine's Day, it featured an extended shot of the real-life couple making out against a car. The song has now been streamed more than 50 million times.
• "We decided to shake the internet a bit and get this song really popping off – and that's what we did," KWN told Billboard.

Royel Otis

Capitol Records

• Known for their sunshine melodies and chiming guitar riffs, Royel Otis are Sydney duo Royel Maddell (guitar) and Otis Pavlovic (vocals). Hence, as they say, the name.
• Introduced by their girlfriends at a bar where Royel was serving drinks, they bonded over their love of classic rock and skateboard soundtracks.
• After early singles Oysters In My Pocket and Bull Breed earned them acclaim at home, they went viral after a radio session where they covered Sophie Ellis Bextor's Murder On The Dancefloor.
• Their 2024 debut album Pratts & Pain earned them two trophies at Australia's Aria Awards. They quickly followed it up with this year's Hickey, described as "a bunch of songs about goodbyes".
• Rapidly on the rise, they made their Glastonbury debut this summer and recently sold out three nights at London's Brixton Academy. "It's been pretty crazy," says Royel.

Sasha Keable

RCA Records

• It's been a long road to success for Colombian-British R&B singer Sasha Keable. After graduating from the Brit School, she sang with Disclosure and toured with Katy B, but it's taken 10 years for her solo career to take root.
• That changed last year, when her song Hold Up exploded on TikTok. Since then, everything she's released has racked up millions of streams - from the smooth vocal riffs of Move It Along to the irresistible rain-patter groove of Can't Stop.
• Her latest EP, Act Right, was written "after the person I loved most in the world stabbed me in the back". The NME called it "gold standard R&B".
• Even Beyoncé is a fan – she listed Sasha as one of the artists she "loves and respects" in a 2024 interview with GQ.

Skye Newman

Getty Images

• With soul-baring lyrics and a voice that thrums with barely-contained emotion, Skye Newman has already scored three hit singles in the UK.
• Her ample pipes and charisma are on full display on Family Matters, a big bruise of a song that details a chaotic upbringing, with lyrics about substance abuse and police raids.
• Her striking honesty and hooky melodies have won the hearts of Ed Sheeran, who personally invited her on tour, and Sir Elton, who interviewed Newman on his Rocket Hour radio show.
• Not everyone is happy. An ex-boyfriend bristled at the lyrics on her debut EP, SE9 Part 1.
• "It was a song I wrote about us being quite toxic and he wasn't very happy," she told Radio 1. "It caused a whole explosion."

Sombr

Getty Images

• Sultry alt-pop star Sombr struck gold by fusing the panache and poise of indie to stacked harmonies and propulsive rhythms of pop.
• The New Yorker, real name Shane Boose, first came to attention with the lo-fi, lovelorn ballad Caroline, written about an old flame. After catching fire on TikTok, it earned him a deal with Warner Records.
• His mainstream breakthrough came at the start of 2025 with the singles Back To Friends and Undressed - two perversely memorable songs about the anguish of moving on from a relationship.
• Debut album I Barely Know Her arrived in September, peaking at number 10 in the UK charts.
• The speed of his ascent prompted i-D magazine to ask whether Boose "can save rock and roll", describing him as "someone with an intuitive understanding of the internet, but with a face and sonic style from the '70s, alluring and classic".