The 20 to watch in 2020

With this project, we are able to capture a lot of creativity from all over the world. In order to start a new with a lot of a new creativity in a clear overview, I start this year with the ‘The 20 to watch in 2020’. In this article you’ll find a list of 20 musicians (in random order) who (in my opinion) will kick-ass during 2020.

ÁSLAUG

Áslaug Vigfúsdóttir is an Icelandic singer, songwriter and music producer born in The Netherlands. Áslaug’s music is characterized by dynamic 80s drums, polyphonic vocal arrangements and synths. Inspired by artists as The Japanese House, HAIM, MUNA, and Lykke Li.

After graduating at the Conservatory and recertificating in Copenhagen, Áslaug ended up feeling insecure about her musical career. She decided to take a side job and lock herself in her room, just focusing on writing music. During this writing process, Áslaug found out that writing songs and playing music was not her only creative outlet. She also learned to appreciate the visual aspects that often accompany the music, such as music videos and photography. This realization gave her newfound creative energy.

CELESTE

Soul singer Celeste Waite is a brilliant young singer from Brighton, England. Even though Celeste is in the early stages of her career, she has already made significant strides in the music industry. Her beautiful, chilling voice often complements her jazzy, soulful instrumentals, and has drawn comparisons to the likes of Amy Winehouse.

Born in Los Angeles, Celeste moved to Brighton with her mother as an infant. She began writing music and performing in bands as a teenager. Age 16, she was discovered by a manager after she posted her first song online. He encouraged her to take professional writing classes; she started working with writers and producers at Trevor Horn’s Sarm studios. Celeste’s career took off from there: she released various songs over the next few years and has supported Michael Kiwanuka, Janelle Monáe and Neneh Cherry live. 2020 will be the year this rising star will perform sold out shows all by herself.

BLACK PUMAS

Black Pumas are a soul-funk duo from Austin, Texas, that consists of guitarist-producer Adrian Quesada and singer Eric Burton. The pair united after Quesada launched a search in 2017 for a vocal collaborator and discovered Burton through a mutual friend. The duo formed in 2017 and released their debut album, Black Pumas, on June 21, 2019. They performed at South by Southwest in 2019 and won a best new band trophy at the 2019 Austin Music Awards. On November 20, 2019, they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. With an amazing album released and a lot of buzz already gained, I expect that this duo will do well during 2020’s festival season.

ARLO PARKS

Arlo Parks is a 19 year old poet/singer from London. In her words she spent most of school feeling like that black kid who couldn’t dance for shit, listening to too much emo music and crushing on some girl in her Spanish class. Her songs are confessional and tender, mainly inspired by Portishead and Earl Sweatshirt. Parks performed her first-ever gig at The Great Escape in Brighton in May 2019, and has gone on to perform on the BBC Music Introducing stage at Glastonbury Festival in late June 2019 and embarked on her first tour supporting Jordan Rakei on the UK leg of his tour in September 2019.

INHALER

Dublin quartet Inhaler consists of four friends who formed the band in school: Elijah Hewson (son of U2’s Bono), Robert Keating, Ryan McMahon and Josh Jenkinson bonded over a love of similar groups, taking in The Stone Roses, Joy Division, The Strokes, Depeche Mode, Interpol, Kings Of Leon, The Cure and more. The group already did a UK and European tour last year, but will return worldwide in 2020, the year in which this group will put themselves on the map.

ROSALÍA

Rosalía Vila (aka Rosalía) is a Los Angeles-based, Catalan-born, nuevo flamenco and Latin pop singer from Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Spain. Her voice was described by no less a talent than flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela as “sharp and sweet, but with a bite, like the old ones.” Rosalía has been involved in the margins of popular and traditional music since her teens and has continued her other musical pursuits, from hip-hop and soul to trap and pop. She has collaborated with James Blake, Travis Scott and Latin pop star J Balvin, to name a few. In 2019, this artist already did a kick-ass tour and during 2020 I expect this artist to continue her victory lap and develop herself even more in an artistic way.

SAM FENDER

Born and raised in North Shields, just outside of Newcastle, Sam Fender came from a musical family. After gigging locally, he was discovered by Ben Howard’s manager, who helped pave the road for his debut single, “Play God.” Moody in tone and socially conscious, it was followed by two more singles, “Greasy Spoon” and “Millennial,” before the BBC named Fender along with acts like Sigrid and Lewis Capaldi for their Sound of 2018 list. Tours with Hozier and Catfish and the Bottlemen followed, and in 2019 Fender released his debut album Hypersonic Missiles. Due to illness, the singer had to cancel a lot of his gigs, so 2020 is the year Fender will take revenge for that.

GIRL RAY

Inspired by C-86-style indie pop, singer/songwriters, the North London trio Girl Ray formed while still in school. After releasing a few well-regarded singles, they signed a recording contract, graduated high school, and soon after, released their debut album, 2018’s Earl Grey. By the time of their second album, 2019’s Girl, they had jettisoned almost all aspect of their previous approach in favor of something much more modern and radio pop influenced.

ARI LENNOX

Ari Lennox, is an American singer and songwriter from Washington, D.C. She is the first woman to be signed to J. Cole’s record label, Dreamville Records. Her debut studio album Shea Butter Baby was released on May 7, 2019. Lennox describes her own voice as “vulnerable but soulful; imperfect but pretty.” She names Ella Fitzgerald, Erykah Badu, Whitney Houston, Aaliyah and Lauryn Hill as her biggest influences. The Gateway described Ari Lennox’s sound as “successfully blends individual slices of classic Motown, modern R&B, and new-age soul into one seamless product.”

QUEEN’S PLEASURE

Put the Dandy Warhols, Blur, The Ramones and the Smits in a big blender, and the Amsterdam act Queen’s Pleasure will be the final result. Raw, energetic, pure and an act with an already excellent live-reputation: after a succesfull start in 2019 (Popronde, Amsterdamse Popprijs, support shows) these four guys are now more than ready to kick some ass in 2020.

JOY CROOKES

Joy Crookes seems an older soul than her 20 years. Tender but assured, the singer-songwriter’s soft, husky vocals meld sophisticated soulfulness with rich instrumentation; gentle guitars, punches of brass, glimmering piano and intriguing trip-hop percussion all find a home in her entrancing sound.

Identity and honesty are keystones of her work, and their timelessness give Crookes a sense of longevity. As she said to creative platform the Slog last year: “I’m not here for five minutes and I want to make sure of that. I see myself growing, getting older and having more and more to write about.”

OSCAR JEROME

25 year old self made artist Oscar Jerome has been honing his craft as a musician and writer since a young age. He has worked as vocalist, guitarist and composer with countless acts and grown through the thriving South London music scene since he moved there 6 years ago.

In his solo project Jerome brings all of his influences together, sighting artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, George Benson, John Martyn, The Clash, Ali Farka Toure and Jay Dilla. Oscar’s song writing is motivated by politics, spirituality within music and life experiences. His creative vision is to always make music with sincerity and pay homage to his countless inspirations.

KORANTEMAA

In 2012 Johanna Karlsson wrote a song, called ‘Ung & Dum’, recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube. She was just 12 years old. Over the next couple of years she would continue writing songs and play around with covers and in 2015, using her Ghanaian middle name Korantemaa, she uploaded her first cover song to her newly started YouTube channel. Showcasing an incredible emotional depth and a seemingly prodigal musical talent, Korantemaa’s songs soon started resonating with fans all over the world. Now, she’s making her music available on all streaming platforms and while she’s still in high school, she’s currently working hard on her debut record, hopefully releasing it later this year.

ROBIN KESTER

Hypnotic melodies, sultry vocals and dreamy harmonies with open guitar tunings that are of a very pleasant and surprising nature: meet the wonderful Robin Kester from Utrecht. Kester hails from a heritage of enigmatic, dreamy folk-pop. Creating amazing melodies over luscious production, Kester’s voice is hypnotic and beguiling. After releasing her debut EP in 2018 and playing a lot of shows in 2019, Kester is ready to release new music and gain new thriumphs in 2020.

KIMBEROSE

Kimberose is the name of the French band fronted by Kimberly Kitson-Mills, a singer-songwriter with an uncommon biography. With her English father and her mother of Ghanaian origin, Kim lived in the London suburbs during her childhood. At the age of 12, her family moved to Paris and she completely immersed herself in the French culture. She says that she has always been a shy girl, uneasy about the idea of singing in front of an audience, which is quite unbelievable when you see her perform nowadays, with such a strong presence and charisma. Astonishingly, Kim never took any singing lessons. Her deep, sultry voice was like a rough diamond that she polished all by herself until it became a true gem – reminiscent of classic jazz divas such as Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Etta James, or modern soul-pop sisters like Amy Winehouse, Duffy or Adele.

WOLF & MOON

Wolf & Moon are a duo of modern day storytelling nomads who released their debut album ‘Before It Gets Dark’ in 2019. The duo came to life after Stefany and Dennis met in the Netherlands. Stefany was headed for the US, Dennis decided to join her on the trip. They wanted to explore the country through playing music together. That idea grew into their first tour with 20 shows from NY, to San Francisco down to LA. The duo has been on and off the road ever since, also touring Europe and Australia. In 2019 they got invited to perform at SXSW Festival in Texas. Wolf & Moon’s music lives of the dichotomy of their voices and marries dreamy folk-infused Indie with electronic elements.

LILY MOORE

Brighton-born Lily Moore spent the best part of her teens busking in the city, and after moving to London aged 19, the singer-songwriter established a space where she could perform on her own terms, setting up club night “More Moore” at West London’s music den Mau Mau.

Despite being barred from her school choir for having a loud, bluesy voice, she wasn’t put off. Inspired by her parents’ soul, blues and jazz records and emboldened by female voices like Adele, Amy Winehouse and Duffy as she entered her teens, Lily realised she could sing her own way.

SUZY V

Imagine the classic Godfather movies without a soundtrack. If there is one artist who could deliver the perfect score for these films it would be Suzy V! This lady is a Dutch/Sicilian singer-songwriter, raised in Amsterdam. Already from a young age she knew she wanted to make music her life. Past year she’s been working with producer Wieger Hoogendorp (Caro Emerald) recording her debut album ‘Sound of the Sea’. The album appeals strongly to the imagination: nostalgic, cinematic, bombastic and organic. A combination of contemporary pop and Sicilian folk.

EMILIE ZOÉ

Emilie Zoé has always done things by herself. She writes, records, and manages her work only following her precise feeling of what’s correct and what’s not. She published her debut (DEAD-END TAPE LP) already in 2016 and started gathering a solid team of trusted friends to follow that same precise feeling of where to bring her music. Projects have blossomed since then in all kind of directions and one can see Emilie now adapting her bluesy songs for theater plays, tv shows, live movie soundtracks, lectures, and so on.

Together with drummer Nicolas Pittet Zoé spent two years to find a way to lay her new sound and songs on tape. the final result: THE VERY START LP (2018), a touching brew of intimate melodies and narrative lyrics. If you’re in for something special, Emilie Zoé is the act you have got to discover.

GEORGIA

Georgia is a British electronic music producer and singer. Her father is Neil Barnes from the group Leftfield, and Georgia has previously been a drummer for Kate Tempest and Kwes.

Vice have described her sound as ‘euphoric, late-night dance’, while her 2015 self-titled album was compared to Missy Elliot and MIA. Talking about her 2019 single ‘About Work the Dancefloor’, Georgia told an interviewer that “I made this song after a weekend in Berlin entirely dancing in a few clubs and I realised how important the dancefloor is to people to give them a certain relief from their everyday activities”.