Chappell Roan Crowned BBC Radio 1 Sound of 2025 Winner

Chappell Roane Wins BBC Radio 1 Sound Of 2025

Chappell Roane has been declared the winner of the BBC Radio 1 Sound Of 2025 competition.

• READ MORE: Chappell Roan on the cover: a pop supernova who feels like one of the girls from Drag Race

The pop sensation from Missouri, who has topped the UK album chart, attracted record-breaking festival audiences and opened for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS tour, clinched the esteemed title nearly 16 months post the release of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess.

Shortlist Highlights

The shortlist countdown has been ongoing throughout the week, showcasing notable talents including the Mercury Prize winner. NME cover stars The English Teacher secured fifth place, while Miles Smith, the 2025 BRIT Rising Star winner, came in fourth.

Scottish electronic producer and DJ Barry Can’t Swim nabbed third place, and the London jazz quintet Ezra Collective took the second position on January 9.

The longlist, initially published late last year, also featured artists like Kneecap, Confidence Man, Mk.gee, and NME 100 2023 alum Doechii.

Jack Saunders from BBC Radio 1 praised Roane, stating, “No one deserves this accolade more than Chappell Roan. She has been the biggest artist of the last 12 months and is now set to be the artist of the next 12 months. Her success is all her own, standing in the face of doubters and connecting with her community to fuel the energy of her shows and musical movements. Congratulations Chappell, 2025 is your year!”

The Sound Of… list, established in 2003 and featuring past winners like 50 Cent, Adele, and The Last Dinner Party, aims to highlight the acts with the “best chance of mainstream success” in the next year, as selected by a panel of 180 music industry experts, including Elton John, Dua Lipa, and former winner Sam Smith.

Following its release two months ago, the 2025 longlist has faced mixed reactions from fans on social media, with many arguing that the chosen names are already too established to be considered “upcoming” acts.

Among the top five, Barry Can’t Swim, The English Teacher, and Ezra’s Team were nominated for the Mercury Prize, with the latter two winning the prestigious award. Meanwhile, Miles Smith has already been recognized as the 2025 BRIT Award winner.

In other news, Mk.gee recently appeared on Saturday Night Live, while Croydon star Poser made history as the first British rapper to achieve two debut singles in the top 40.

Leading the list is Roane, who celebrated a UK number one album in August, won Best New Artist at the MTV VMAs the following month, and received six nominations at the 2025 Grammys. She has also been announced as a headliner for the upcoming Reading & Leeds and Primavera Sound festivals.

Her inclusion in the list follows a rule change for 2025: previously, artists with a number one or number two lead album in the UK at the cutoff date were ineligible, but now artists cannot have more than two albums in the top ten of the UK Official Albums Chart by September 30, 2024.

Addressing the rule change, a BBC Radio 1 spokesperson stated to NME: “The Sound Of list has a long history of predicting future superstars, and we periodically revise the criteria to better reflect how audiences consume music.”

2024 is set to be a significant year for Roan, who released the single “Good Luck, Babe!”, recently named NME as the best song of the year.

Additionally, she has taken a stand against toxic fan culture, openly discussing her rapid rise to fame while reflecting on the normalization of extreme fan behavior, which she describes as “stalking” and the incessant remarks from internet users who “won’t leave you alone.”

Roane compared her fame to an “abusive ex-husband” and shared her concerns about her “weird” and “creepy” followers in a TikTok video, addressing the “predatory behavior” of so-called “superfans,” including “inconsensual physical and social interactions.”