Myles Smith has been confirmed as the last artist to be named in BBC Sound Of 2025 countdown poll, coming in at Number Four.
The singer-songwriter was first announced as part of the longlist for the BBC Sound Of 2025, which was shared late last year and contained names like Kneecap, Ezra Collective, Chappell Roan and English Teacher. The list was chosen by a panel of 180 music industry experts, who named the acts with “the best chance of mainstream success” in the next 12 months.
English Teacher were the first to be announced in the list of the top five artists yesterday (January 6), with the rising Leeds four-piece kicking off the countdown and coming in at Number Five.
The countdown for the remaining four artists on the BBC Sound Of 2025 list will continue across Radio 1 this week, before the winner is announced on Friday (January 10).
Now, rising star Myles Smith has been confirmed as having come in fourth place and one of the year’s most promising talents. It also comes just weeks after he was confirmed as the winner of this year’s BRITs Rising Star Award – a title also held by Adele, Sam Smith, Florence & The Machine, Sam Fender, Ellie Goulding, Jessie J, Jorja Smith, James Bay and most recently The Last Dinner Party.
Smith first began his career with a self-funded, eight-track album called ‘Scars’ in 2020, although it was his 2022 cover of The Neighbourhood’s ‘Sweater Weather’ that saw him go viral.
He would release the cover independently in 2023 and it earned him a deal with RCA Records and his first song to appear on the UK Charts. In 2024 he released the EP ‘… A Minute’ and, now going into 2025, he is embarking on a number of live shows and preparing for a new album.
Upon the longlist being shared in November, some of the artists chosen led to a mixed response from fans on social media, with some being declared as already too established to be considered a “rising” act.
For instance, Chappell Roan was named following the release of her huge 2023 debut ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess‘ – an album that hit Number One back in August and has seen her attract millions of streams and rise to the rank of festival headliner.
The reason why Roan, and others like her, made it onto the list came as new rules were implemented for 2025. Previously, an artist would not be eligible if they had been the lead on a UK Number One or Number Two album by the cut-off point. However, this year that rule has changed so that an artist “cannot have had more than two Top 10 albums in the UK Official Albums Chart” by 30 September 2024.
When asked about the change to the rules, a BBC Radio 1 spokesperson told NME: “The Sound Of list has a strong track record of predicting future superstars and we periodically review the criteria to better reflect how audiences consume music.”
As for Myles Smith’s BRITs win, the announcement of his victory comes ahead of the 2025 ceremony, which will be held at The O2 in London on March 1. The event will broadcast live on ITV1 and ITVX and this year’s trophy was designed by Gabriel Moses.
