With localized rap scenes exploding in seemingly every city across the country, new rock bands revitalizing old, mythic movements of yore, and democratized technology giving anyone with a computer and a keyboard the ability to make festival-ready pop hits from the comfort of their bedroom, there’s no need to question if there’s any good music out there. Where to find it is the challenge.
That’s where Spotify comes in. Its Best New Artist annual event & campaign has proven time and time again to be a leading tastemaker, shining a light on the nominees who’ve put in hard work and officially hit the first of many career high points. Past honorees include Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, and Lizzo, for example. Because selection to the BNA category is such a prestigious honor, Spotify ends its campaign with an annual event that celebrates the artists, their music, and the incredible year they’ve had. With multiple performances and crowds full of the industry’s biggest and brightest, the event is a key moment in music’s biggest week. Each of this year’s nominees has a unique story and sound that won’t remain hidden for long. Keep reading to see what the next wave of superstars is all about.
Anitta
“It was a huge honor to represent Brazilian and Latin women everywhere when ‘Envolver’ reached #1 on the Global Spotify chart,” Brazilian superstar Anitta says, “because that had never been accomplished by a solo Latin artist before.” For anyone within earshot of a radio, though, this latest achievement felt more like an inevitability than any great surprise. Since releasing her debut album in 2013, the Brazilian pop star has repeatedly reached new pinnacles of fame, smashing the glass ceiling for what Latin artists can achieve on a global scale. Her latest record, 2022’s Versions of Me, amassed hundreds of millions of streams, while her stunningly choreographed music videos break the internet the second they drop.
Omar Apollo
Omar Apollo thrives in the liminal space where all sounds, no matter their origin, are free to mingle with each other. Combining old-school funk with new-school pop, traditional Mexican music with contemporary Latin trap, Apollo dissolves boundaries to create something new. “I recorded my first song in the winter in my garage,” the Indiana-born singer has said. “It was negative-degree weather and I had gloves and a winter coat on. I was in the garage because I was too embarrassed to record in my house where my family would hear me.” Now, with the release of his debut studio album, Ivory, in 2022, including hit single “Invincible” (feat. Daniel Caesar), Apollo can rest assured he’s found a mainstream audience eager to explore the unknown alongside him.
Muni Long
To call Florida-born songstress Muni Long a new artist would be slightly misleading. “I started singing at the ripe age of 2 years old!” she says. “I’ve always had an ear for music.” A proven superstar on both sides of the industry, the “Hrs & Hrs” singer has a knack for soaring melodies and emotionally astute lyrics. And that made her an in-demand songwriter for the likes of Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and Kelly Clarkson for more than a decade before she finally stepped into the spotlight with a string of successful releases in 2022. Now that her own powerful vocals have been unleashed into the world, it’s unlikely Long will find herself behind the scenes again.
Samara Joy
Samara Joy’s voice—rich and wise beyond her 23 years—seems to contain the past, present, and future of jazz within it. After winning the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2019, Joy found her name being mentioned alongside the likes of Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Though that sounds like a lot of pressure, you wouldn’t be able to tell by listening to her music. Songs like “Can’t Get Out Of This Mood” seem to float and churn, guided by the Bronx-born singer’s perfect vocal phrasing and delicate bursts of expression. To move a genre so rich with history forward into the new age requires a deft hand (and voice!). Luckily, Joy is up for the challenge.
Latto
2022 was a major year for 24-year-old Latto, who became the first female rapper to have a record (“Big Energy”) hit #1 at Pop, Rhythm and Urban radio. Other singles, such as “FTCU” (feat. GloRilla and Gangsta Boo), quickly caught fire, and soon the latest rap superstar to emerge from Atlanta was crowned. An outspoken critic of men in the music industry who wield their power to silence female artists, she creates swaggering flows that announce themselves with authority over bombastic beats. With a keen ability to dominate any song she’s on, Latto’s time is here and now.
Tobe Nwigwe
Tobe Nwigwe built his musical career from the ground up with no foreknowledge of the industry. Endowed with an acute clarity of purpose, Nwigwe began consistently releasing new music and content every week, building a canon of approximately 324 videos and multiple viral singles—including “I Need You To (Breonna Taylor Tribute)” and “Try Jesus,”— the latter of which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart. With a verbose yet never overwrought rhyming style and an unbeatable team behind him (including his wife, Fat Nwigwe, who’s featured on “Fye Fye,” and with whom Nwigwe originally went viral rapping alongside in online videos), this Houston hero is surely just getting started.
Molly Tuttle
In 2022, Molly Tuttle transcended her upbringing as a lifelong fan of bluegrass music to become perhaps the face of the genre for today's youth. Raised in the suburbs of San Francisco before studying music at Berklee College of Music, Tuttle finally landed in Nashville, where her proclivity for perceptive storytelling quickly made her a name to watch in the country-music hotbed. The “Dooley’s Farm” (feat. Billy Strings) singer is intent on fostering a welcoming community as she ushers her new supporters into the bluegrass fold: 2022’s Crooked Tree, the album that landed her on the Spotify BNA playlist, “is about loving what makes us all unique,” she proclaims.
Wet Leg
Remarkably adroit at delivering satirical skewerings of the in-crowd, Wet Leg is a band for everyone—as long as you aren’t too cool to have fun. Born on the Isle of Wight in England, the duo had their first show at the Rose Pub in Ventnor. “It’s shut down now, but it was famous for its watered-down spirits. According to our drummer, Henry, it always smelt like cabbage, which was odd, he thought, because they didn't actually serve any food there.” While their irreverent brand of indie rock made them a natural fit for these smaller clubs, debut single “Chaise Longue” quickly elevated the band into the next level of fame with multiple national TV appearances and a worldwide tour.
Måneskin
Italy’s Måneskin might be the new ambassadors of rock ’n’ roll for Gen Z —but don’t tell them that. “A great achievement for us is to keep making music without any kind of scheme or need to conform—and to always remember to feel free from conventions in the creative process.” After winning Eurovision in 2021 and releasing hit tracks like “Supermodel” and “The Loneliest” in 2022, the band’s stadium-ready mixture of pulsating drum beats, 1970s guitar grooves, and pop melodies firmly catapulted this four-piece into the mainstream. Based on their gender-bending live shows that contain more energy in one evening than most acts muster in an entire career, one thing’s for certain: As this band continues their rise from former street buskers to modern rock stars, they’ll do it their way.
DOMi & JD BECK
If DOMi and JD BECK’s habit of using memes, all-caps song titles, and social media soundbites to playfully introduce their music gives them an admirably lighthearted bent, don’t let it distract from the fact that these two savants are making some of the most forward-thinking jazz in recent years. “TAKE A CHANCE,” off their 2022 album NOT TiGHT, illustrates exactly what’s so special about the duo, as veteran musical heavyweight Anderson .Paak delivers smooth verses over a grooving, virtuosic soundscape that DOMi and BECK calibrate perfectly to their guest’s strengths. Untethered to any prescriptive genre mandates, this duo is updating jazz for the Zoomer age.
