5 ARTISTS TO WATCH IN 2019
SASHA SLOAN
The 22-year-old may have named her 2018 EP Loser, but she’s already racked up plenty of music-industry wins, including scoring a minor US hit with the fluttering attempt-at-redemption single “Ready Yet”, co-writing for major pop stars (Camila Cabello’s “Never Be the Same” and “OMG”, Charli XCX’S “Track 10”), and dropping two sleeper EPS in one year ( Sad Girl and the aforementioned Loser). Next up: a full-length debut and (possibly) another EP.
BILLIE EILISH
Billie Eilish is the most popular artist you’ve probably never heard of (if you have, you’re under the age of 20 or know someone who is). The just-turned 17-year-old singer has already secured 2.5 billion streams thanks to her evocative lyrics, hushed tones and patented I-don’t-give-a-f--- attitude (see: Eilish’s acclaimed 2017 EP, Don’t Smile at Me). She’s also put in appearances on Ellen and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. With a flair for the outrageous, a preternatural instinct for introspective songwriting, and a debut album dropping some time in 2019, expect her to be popping up everywhere over the next 12 months.
THE SHINDELLAS
This trio of talented ladies – Stacy Johnson, Tamara Chauniece and Kasi Jones – are a cocktail of retro-’60s girl-group fizz with a tart, modern lyrical twist. Songs like “Reconsider” and “Ain’t That the Truth” may evoke The Ronettes and The Supremes, but the women have contemporary sass to spare. The Shindellas plan to hit the road in early 2019 on the Love Takeover tour with their producers Louis York – the Grammy-nominated songwriting production duo of Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly (Bruno Mars, Janet Jackson).
RACHEL WAMMACK
The Alabama native comes by her ear for details naturally, having logged time working behind a bar, the setting for her moving piano ballad “Damage”. That song and the others on her four-track self-titled 2018 EP offer a glimpse of a singer-songwriter with a strong pop sensibility and a skill for melding it with contemporary country. Wammack was recently chosen as one of CMT’S “Next Women of Country” and plans to release her debut album – produced, like her EP, by heavy hitter Dann Huff – in 2019. Tour details are yet to come, but she will appear at the mammoth Stagecoach festival in April.
NORMANI
Normani already experienced a star-making turn with her work in the X Factor- created Fifth Harmony. Now, like former fellow Harmoniser Camila Cabello, the Atlanta native is ready to step out on her own. In 2018, she scored a US top 10 hit with “Love Lies”, a duet with Khalid from Love, Simon. She also released “Waves” with 6lack, dropped an EP with Calvin Harris and had Nicki Minaj come to her defence after a playful jab by Tiffany Haddish at the MTV VMAS. There will be more spotlight moments in 2019, like current Sam Smith collab “Dancing with a Stranger”, a rumored solo album and an opening slot on Ariana Grande’s Sweetener world tour.