With all of its challenges, difficulties and harshness, 2020 is deemed to be one of the best years for music so far. It is a year that is going to be defined by crossover stars, multi-hyphenates, and Internet-bred icons. So, without further ado, we present to you our list of acts set to make a splash in the coming months. These are our top 7 artists to watch for closely in 2021.
1. Becca Mancari
Becca Mancari is an American indie-folk musician from Staten Island, New York, now based in Nashville, Tennessee. After she spent time touring after the release of her 2017 solo album, Good Woman with her friends Brittany Howard and Jesse Lafser in the band Bermuda Triangle Mancari realized she needed to grapple with the emotions and painful memories she’d been carrying around the whole time. It was through exploring those complicated feelings that she created her latest album, The Greatest Part.
2. Sunflower Bean
Sunflower Bean have been making moves since 2013 but 2021 is definitely going to be their year. Julia Cumming (vox/bass), Nick Kivlen (vox/guitar), and Jacob Faber (drums), are all about 25 years old but are already veterans of the Brooklyn DIY scene. Using rugged lo-fi sounds, they have adapted the Black Sabbath’s dark rock theme to fit their own generation’s indie ethos.
3. Amirah
In this time of massive political change, singer-songwriter Amirah is asking everybody to unite despite the existing differences. She is doing so with a unique sound, blending traditional elements such as tanpura, gamelan, and tabla with modern pop production, giving her songs a timeless quality that allows her pacifist message to truly shine.
4. Hatchie
Long before performing under the name Hatchie, singer-songwriter Harriette Pilbeam was content milling about behind the scenes. In her hometown of Melbourne, she served as a tangential member of various friends’ bands, such as Go Violets and Babaganouj. These early days were Pilbeam’s first exposure to the industry, and thus significant in their own way; however, she knew deep down she longed to be center stage.
5. Gabriela
Gabriela Riojas is a 20-year old R&B Singer/Songwriter from McAllen, Texas who is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. Her passion for music continued to grow and over the years, Gabriela worked on fine tuning her craft and learned to play both the guitar and the piano. In parallel, she greatly developed her songwriting skills, and most importantly, she found her signature sound as an artist. Her musical talent has been nurtured and skyrocketed while learning from some of the music industry’s best in Nashville TN. Gabriela is currently at work on a full-length album, while also working with the likes of Grammy Award-winning Mix-Engineer Tre Nagella at Luminous Sound Studios in Dallas Texas. Gabriela’s music is a powerful form of self-expression, a way to make people feel less lonely in the world, and bring immense joy to crowds. Gabriela hopes that her music may be able to provide one or all of these things, and is excited for what is to come.
Today, following on her debut single ‘Grow Up,’ Gabriela released her second track titled ‘Sun & Earth,’ have a listen below:
6. King Princess
Mikaela Mullaney Straus known by her stage name as King Princess, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Brooklyn. In February 2018, she released her debut single “1950” which charted on multiple charts, most notably #17 on the US Alternative Song Charts. Later, she released her debut EP Make My Bed on June 15, 2018, and then album Cheap Queen in 2019.
7. Lux Beauregard
Kentucky-born Lux Beauregard started writing her own songs when she was very young and hasn’t stopped since. After moving to Nashville to study graphic design at Belmont University, Lux found herself in such close proximity to so many talented writers and musicians that this passion escalated, leaving her fixated on how badly she wanted to write and make music too. Lux has a self-described “complicated relationship” with her brain and emotions, but she found that she can write and sing things that she wouldn’t necessarily know how to say in conversation. Some of her favorite artists are Queen, Florence and the Machine, and The Neighbourhood, all credited with influencing Lux Beauregard’s signature sound. Sitting at the intersection between indie pop, chamber pop, and baroque pop, she describes her music as dreamlike and cinematic, and loves a huge, lush, ethereal sound.
