{"id":163762,"date":"2025-12-02T08:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/163762\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T08:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:14:07","slug":"bbc-radio-1-sound-of-2026-longlist-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/163762\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Radio 1 Sound Of 2026 longlist revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The longlist for\u00a0BBC Radio 1<\/a>\u2019s Sound Of 2026 has been unveiled \u2013 check out which 10 artists have made the cut below.<\/p>\n

The prestigious annual list has been running since 2003, and this year\u2019s candidates have been whittled down by a panel of over 170 industry experts and artists, including Elton John<\/a>,\u00a0Dua Lipa<\/a>, Jade<\/a>,\u00a0Olivia Dean<\/a>,\u00a0Yungblud<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0former winner\u00a0Sam Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The top five will be revealed on Radio 1 throughout the week starting on Monday 5 January 2026, with the winner set to be crowned on Friday 9 January.<\/p>\n

The 10 artists on the longlist are:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alessi Rose\u00a0
\nChloe\u00a0Qisha\u00a0
\nFlorence Road\u00a0
\nGeese\u00a0
\nJim\u00a0Legxacy\u00a0
\nKwn\u00a0
\nRoyel Otis\u00a0
\nSasha Keable\u00a0
\nSkye Newman\u00a0
\nSombr\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn art rock band\u00a0Geese<\/a>,\u00a0breakout pop singer\u00a0Alessi Rose<\/a>, alt-R&B singer Kwn <\/a>and Malaysian-British artist Chloe Qisha<\/a>, Aussie guitar\u00a0duo\u00a0Royel Otis<\/a> have all featured on NME\u2019s The Cover<\/a>, while\u00a0NME\u00a0has recently interviewed Irish indie rockers Florence Road<\/a> and London neo-soul star Skye Newman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NME\u00a0has also\u00a0reviewed recent releases from\u00a0South London rapper and producer\u00a0Jim Legxacy<\/a>, New York singer-songwriter Sombr<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0South London R&B singer\u00a0Sasha Keable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jim\u00a0Legxacy,\u00a0Florence Road,\u00a0Geese,\u00a0Kwn\u00a0and\u00a0Sombr\u00a0have all\u00a0also released songs that have landed\u00a0in\u00a0NME\u2019s list of the 50 best songs of 2025,\u00a0which you can explore here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s poll was topped by Chappell Roan<\/a>, ahead\u00a0of\u00a0Ezra Collective<\/a>, Barry Can\u2019t Swim<\/a>, Myles Smith<\/a>,\u00a0English Teacher<\/a>,\u00a0Confidence Man<\/a>, Doechii<\/a>, Good Neighbours<\/a>, Kneecap<\/a>, Mk.gee <\/a>and Pozer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sound Of\u2026 has a long tradition of identifying major future stars in the industry, with previous winners including Adele<\/a>, The Last Dinner Party<\/a>,\u00a050 Cent<\/a>,\u00a0Ellie Goulding<\/a>, PinkPantheress<\/a>,\u00a0Years & Years<\/a>,\u00a0Pa Salieu<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0HAIM<\/a>. Other major stars such as Lady Gaga<\/a>, Billie Eilish<\/a>, Florence + The Machine<\/a>, Frank Ocean<\/a> and Stormzy<\/a> have also made the shortlist in the past.<\/p>\n

Radio 1\u2019s\u00a0Jack Saunders\u00a0has said: \u201cRadio 1\u2019s Sound Of list\u00a0showcases\u00a010 of the most exciting names to watch out for over the next 12 months. In a time when artists feel like they are disposable to the algorithm, a list like Sound\u00a0Of continues to champion the stars of the future and put its weight behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow DJ\u00a0Sian Eleri\u00a0added: \u201cRadio 1\u2019s Sound Of list is always a compass for what\u2019s next, and 2026 is heading somewhere special.\u00a0 From the genre-blurring brilliance of Jim\u00a0Legxacy, to Skye Newman and\u00a0sombr\u00a0lighting up the UK charts; Florence Road tearing up the live scene alongside Wolf Alice and Olivia Rodrigo; and\u00a0Kwn\u00a0flipping the script on R&B \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s a joy to follow their journeys on the radio and see them soar like this. The future has arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0the eligibility rules for the Sound Of list were revised<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 previously, an artist would not\u00a0have been\u00a0considered if they had been the lead on a UK Number One or Number Two album by the cut-off point, but\u00a0the new rules meant\u00a0artists\u00a0could not\u00a0have had more than two Top 10 albums.<\/p>\n

However, Roan\u2019s victory caused some controversy due to\u00a0some fans believing she was too\u00a0established\u00a0by the start of 2025 to be considered a \u201crising\u201d act<\/a>. As a result,\u00a0the rules have been tweaked once again<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 they now specify\u00a0that artists should not have had a significant public profile in the past two years to be eligible for the award.<\/p>\n

As seen in criteria sent to judges, artists cannot have had more than three Top 10 singles in the Official UK Singles Chart by October 6 this\u00a0year, and\u00a0cannot have been a lead artist on a Number One album in the UK charts before the same date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The longlist for\u00a0BBC Radio 1\u2019s Sound Of 2026 has been unveiled \u2013 check out which 10 artists have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1705,146,85,46,409,98140],"class_list":{"0":"post-163762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-radio-1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}