MTV Brand New Announces Next Year's London Stars

Chris Lockie
By Chris Lockie Last edited 112 months ago
MTV Brand New Announces Next Year's London Stars

MTV Brand New

Around this time of year large media organisations start declaring the runners and riders in the race to fame over the next 12 months or so. The difference with MTV's list is that, if their last one is anything to go by, they do seem to know what they're on about - Sam Smith, Royal Blood, George Ezra and The Vamps all featured, and each has leapt a considerable distance from obscurity in 2014.

This year's list features 10 hopeful acts and three of those are from London, with a fourth who more or less count. Here are London's possible stars of the future, who you can expect to hear battering the airwaves during 2015.

Sinead Hartnett

Fresh out of Finchley; words that seem almost sarcastic given that area's relative quietude. But twenty-something singer Sinead Hartnett may be set to make leafy Finchley proud with her brand of soulful electro-pop, summed up gloriously in the lead track from her debut EP proper, N.O.W. You can check out No Other Way below.

Sinead has already teamed up with the likes of Rudimental and Disclosure, and her own debut album was previously slated for a 2014 release, though the avalanche of publicity that's likely to hit might delay that a bit.

Krept and Konan

Casyo 'Krept' Johnson and Karl 'Konan' Wilson, of Gipsy Hill and Thornton Heath respectively, met nearly a decade ago but first started making music seriously with the release of a 2010 mixtape entitled Redrum, featuring various underground rappers from the London scene. A second mixtape upped the ante by including well-known figures such as Giggs and Wretch 32, before their third release, Young Kingz, brought mainstream success. Here's Don't Waste My Time from Young Kingz, featuring a London-heavy video and swearing aplenty.

Though we're not sure how or where to verify the claim, Young Kingz allegedly broke the world record for 'Highest-Charting UK album by an Unsigned Act'. Whether it's true or not their next release is likely to be the one that takes Krept and Konan stratospheric thanks to a major record deal and now the backing of MTV.

George the Poet

A bit of a surprise inclusion on a list of music acts is spoken word artist George Mpanga, otherwise known as George the Poet. Born and raised on the Stonebridge Park estate in Harlesden, George had long been involved with rap music before he made his way to Cambridge University to study Human, Social and Political Sciences. It was the lyrical aspect of rap that appealed to him more than the culture, however, and spoken word and poetry became his medium.

His latest EP, Chicken and Egg, is out now and here's the single from it, entitled 1,2,1,2.

We first noticed George two years ago, so it's great to see him get the recognition he deserves. You can catch him on tour at Oslo in Hackney on 23 February next year.

Years & Years

You can judge whether Years & Years count as London or not. Bassist Mikey Goldsworthy moved here from Australia and met synth king Emre Turkmen in London, before Yorkshireman Olly Alexander completed the jigsaw on vocals. They've been based in the capital since then and have released three EPs and a batch of singles, the most recent of which, Desire, you can hear below.

If you're keen to see Years & Years live you'd best get your skates on — the first of two shows at Heaven next March has already sold out, and tickets for the second (on 6 March) are still available from Songkick but probably won't last long given the likely burst of interest in a trio we'll claim as ours if they become famous enough, as is our right.

The 10 nominees will fight it out to the death Running Man-style before the winner is announced on 30 January, and we wish the best of luck to London's four contenders. The full list and further details of MTV Brand New are available at the MTV website.

Last Updated 25 November 2014