MTV Brand New For 2015 Nominees Revealed!
MTV and Emporio Armani Diamonds are stoked to share with you our Brand New For 2015 shortlist featuring the ten acts we’re sure are set to take the UK industry and the charts by storm next year.
Get familiar with these acts now because we’ll be asking you to vote for your favourite soon!
[related]MTV Brand New and Emporio Armani Diamonds 2015 Shortlist:
Becky has spent the last two years writing, performing and singing with the likes of Bondax, Gorgon City, Rudimental and MNEK. She was a semi-finalist on The Voice, recently scored a UK No.1 single with Oliver Heldens on Gecko (Overdrive) and now steps into the solo spotlight with her debut Losing…
George Mpanga is just 23-years old, but has already worked with some of the biggest names in music. He’s performed on tracks by Emeli Sande, Labrinth, Naughty Boy and Wretch 32, supported Nas on tour as well as performed on Later with Jools Holland. He doesn’t want you to think he’s just a rapper. But he doesn’t want you to think he’s just a poet. In fact the only thing George The Poet wants you to do, is think...
Rising star James Bay is currently gearing up for the release of his debut single, the impressively infectiousHold Back The River. The lead and title track from James’s third EP received its first play as Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record and was also made the show’s Single of The Week, a rare occurrence for any artist and one that firmly cements Bay’s fast growing reputation as one of the most exciting young talents around...
Krept & Konan began 2013 as unsigned rappers with a relatively small but highly engaged fanbase. Thanks to their mixtape, Young Kingz, they closed the year with a Top 20 chart position, a MOBO award, a sold-out tour and a record deal with Virgin/Universal. Now, Krept and Konan are working on their major label debut with the likes of Naughty Boy (Tinie Tempah, Professor Green), Dahi (Drake, Kendrick Lamar), Zaytoven (Future, Usher, Migos’ ‘Versace’) and the largely unknown production team behind Young Kingz: ADP, Scholar & Stix, AdotSkitz and Rhymez...
Unlike many of her contemporaries, Bradford born singer Steel isn’t concerned with catering to the current trend of House and Electronica. Instead the 21 year-old is one of the only debut singers – male or female, UK or otherwise – offering her own take of R&B infused Reggae. Particularly influenced by Aaliyah, with whom she shares a similarly syrupy R&B vocal, Steel wrote her first song at 11 years-old and, ten years later,her track Kisses For Breakfast charted at No.10 in the UK Singles Chart in August.Combined with an ability to deliver something different to the conversation of mainstream music and a vocal full of adlibs and scale-defying runs, Steel is a genuinely innovative, exciting prospect for 2015.
Inspired by artists as diverse as Ray Charles and Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters and Arcade Fire, Nothing But Thieves are a rare beast indeed – a band with the talent, integrity and vision to create heartbreakingly beautiful music entirely on their own terms.
Nottingham’s newest and brightest rising star Saint Raymond (aka Callum Burrows) combines the uniquely British idiosyncratic energy of Foals with the arena-sized appeal of Vampire Weekend, boasting melodic anthems that pack an immediate punch from their infectious choruses with lyrics that pithily address the poignancy and euphoria of life in your late teens. He's just supported Ed Sheeran on tour...enough said.
Already having tasted the limelight with Disclosure and Rudimental, Sinead Harnett isn’t the sort of singer to be seduced by the promise of pop stardom in exchange for a little selling of the soul. Sinead has taken her time, two years in fact, to consider the artist that she wants - and doesn’t want - to be. A soul, or certainly a soulful, singer, Sinead is working with Chris Loco (Rita Ora, Emeli Sandé) and others on her debut album, due later this year on Virgin EMI.
Don’t ask Sunset Sons to choose between music and surfing. Surfing was what brought them together, what still shapes how they live their lives and what inspires them to make the music that they do. Without surfing, there wouldn’t be songs.In Britain, the buzz began in February, when their self-funded debut EP, Le Surfing, unexpectedly entered the iTunes rock chart at No.6, where it nestled in-between BRIT Award winners and drew comparisons to the poppy output of Kings Of Leon and the sleazy funk-rock of primetime Chili Peppers.
Having toured with Sam Smith, Clean Bandit and Mø, "soulful electronic pop" trio Years & Years round off our Brand New For 2015 list. Busy letting their debut album take shape familiarise yourself with infectious singles Take Shelter, Desire and their recent feature on Top 10 dance hit Sunglight by The Magician.
Voting opens on December 1.
Last year the MTV Brand New shortlist revealed the biggest acts to emerge in 2014 including Sam Smith, Ella Eyre, Kwabs, George Ezra, Royal Blood and The Vamps.
Also announced today is the winner of our MTV Brand New For 2015 Unsigned competition… Of Empires!
The Brighton based rock foursome were selected out of hundreds of applicants who entered the competition by sending a fifteen second clip of themselves performing via Instagram.
They’ll get the opportunity to record their very own MTV Newsroom Session early next year and will be rubbing shoulders with some of this year’s nominees at our launch event next week. Well done guys!
MTV Brand New For 2015 is presented by Emporio Armani Diamonds.
