From London’s premium dance pop party-starter Rose Gray to soul’s brightest spark Sienna Spiro, and Scottish folk sensation Jacob Alon: Wonderland meets the three artists who the BRITs think are next up.

Since its 2008 genesis, The BRITs Critics’ Choice Award, otherwise known as the Rising Star Award, is one of music’s only certified stamps of approval. Chosen by industry experts – the brains of the business – you need only look at past winners and nominees to gather that, if you feature on the yearly illustrious shortlist, it’s more than likely that artistic prosperity lies directly in your path. From previous winners like Adele, Sam Fender, The Last Dinner Party, and last year’s victor Myles Smith, to nominee alums such as Lewis Capaldi, Dua Lipa, and Michael Kiwanuka, the pantheon of talent attached throughout the years is a peerless representation of the eclectic and enduring vitality of British music.

“It’s reassuring,” chuckles one of this year’s triumphant trio of nominees, Rose Gray, speaking exclusively on the eve of the award being announced, slightly jaded from the British Fashion Awards the night prior, but nevertheless in good spirits. “I’ve been trying to complain today and then I’m remembering that I’m being announced for the BRITs tomorrow, so I shouldn’t be complaining.” 

The North London-born-and-bred dance-pop party-starter is the most experienced of the triad who are honoured with a nod from the UK’s ubiquitous annual music award for emerging artists for 2026, but is certainly no less deserving, nor less ambitious for what opportunities will ensue. “I put out [my debut album, Louder, Please] at the beginning of the year and – although I wouldn’t say it’s anything crazy – I have been feeling a lot of love for the album. I definitely think I’ve got fans now,” she quips with a quiet confidence. “It’s a bit of a nod to say, ‘Yeah, you’re on the right track.’ I don’t like the word underdog, but I have felt a little bit misunderstood. I’ve been making music for nine years, full-time in the studio nearly every day, grafting. So it’s nice to know that I’m not mad.”

While Gray is a near decade deep in the industry – having, somewhat poetically given this current turn of events, dropped out of the famed BRIT School 10 years ago “almost probably to the day” to sign a record deal – her fellow nominee Sienna Spiro has shot straight into stardom before leaving her teen years. The fellow Londoner has just turned 20, and only shared her first original music and played her first show last year, but has already found widespread acclaim for her rich and resplendent soul pop. Her music oozes with sonic naturalism and lyrical sophistication, anchored by the singer’s powerful yet tender, devastatingly affecting voice. Her swift and viral rise culminated in February with the release of her debut EP, “SINK NOW, SWIM LATER”, which has already amassed hundreds of millions of streams. 

“I definitely didn’t expect it at all,” she marvels down the phone, calling in from sunny LA, discussing her instantaneous success. “This is kind of a tangent, but I’ve really been thinking about expectations recently, and when it’s the right and wrong time to have them. As an artist putting music out and writing music, it’s your job to be most authentic and honest. Everything you put out, you need to be confident in, and you need to love because you have no idea what’s going to happen. You’re the person who has to live with it, you’re the person who has to sing it, you’re the person who has to believe in it. And, for me, everything I write is a document of my life.”

Completing the triple threat of artistic excellence, Scottish singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Jacob Alon is well-versed in using music as a tool for understanding life and the emotional rollercoaster it provokes. Take their late May-released, jaw-droppingly beautiful, Dan Carey-produced, Mercury Prize-nominated debut LP, In Limerence, as indubitable proof. “I think I’m drawn to softness,” the musician says, explaining their fascination with folk music. Their voice is as soft as cotton, their words a tapestry of endearment; unguarded and bustling with mediation. “I’m drawn to tender vulnerability, and I have a deep curiosity with the acoustic guitar. I can’t quite put my finger on it, it’s ineffable maybe, but there’s something in the harmony, the rhythm, the melody, the richness of the sound that tickles me in a way that feels really right.”

While Gray’s amalgamation of heady, experimental electronica and undeniably catchy pop maximalism pulls at the current zeitgeist’s heartstrings (thanks Charli), and Spiro’s classy and compelling soul has a timeless tenacity tied to its core essence, Alon’s understated, ruminative Nick Drake-inspired folk has, at least in recent history, been a sound that floats on the mainstream’s periphery. But, for the non-binary Scot who went from training to be a doctor to living in a van and pursuing their musical dream, championing the outsider is second nature. 

“It’s vital to have representation,” they say. “Being someone who is queer and Scottish, I feel lucky to be able to represent my communities. I want to show up for my community in the way that they show up for me all the time. Because I am them and they are me. There’s extreme under-representation of so many marginalised groups – not that the Scottish people necessarily are a marginalised group [laughs] – but you know, I think there’s so much music going on in Scotland that has yet to be heard and it doesn’t always get the same spotlight as other parts of the UK. And there’s so much incredible boundary-pushing, expansive art within the queer world that often trickles down and influences wider pop culture in ways that so many people don’t even realise. To be able to represent that community makes me so unbelievably proud.” 

Gray also proudly celebrates the person that she is through her music; in her case, it’s a love for nightlife – where she “found a lot of my people” – and her unabashed Londonness. “It’s who I am, it’s all I know” the 28-year-old says. “From a really young age, I have been quite in love with my city. Some of my core memories, nights discovering myself in Hackney… I don’t really know anything different. But I do know that my mates all say that I’m really obsessed with London.”

The aforementioned borough in East London is almost like a character in Gray’s January 2025-released debut album, Louder, Please. The work is an expansive, electrically-charged ode to her city, her connections, her adoration of club culture. It’s a project that has seen Gray’s stock rise unfathomably in the last twelve months, but beneath the surface has been built from a near decade of highs and lows, searching and discovering, climaxing in this glitch-laden symphony of humanity and hedonism.

“It’s taken years of making music and figuring out who my people are and what I want to say. I had this very intense feeling that I had to make an album. And my label at the time said, ‘You’re definitely not ready to put out an album yet; no one knows who you are.’ But I made it anyway. I was in my mid twenties, I’d been through loads, heartbreak, falling back in love. I’d watched it happen to my friends over and over. We were partying loads, experiencing the ups and downs of life. And I just felt very inspired.”

Spiro’s inspiration, in large, comes from the greats who preceded her. “I grew up listening to jazz and soul,” she remembers. “That’s what my dad showed me; he’s a huge Frank Sinatra fan, Aretha [Franklin], Nina [Simone]… I could go on. That was my pop music, that’s what I listened to growing up. I take so much inspiration from that, and I really try to be intentional with the things I do, as they were.” 

In October, in one of the surest signs of her limitless potential, Spiro was granted the opportunity to support another one of her favourite artists, Sam Smith, for a stint on their “To Be Free: New York City” residency at the Warsaw venue in Brooklyn. There, across six dreamlike nights, the young artist had the clearest affirmation of her soaring popularity and bountiful future. One moment in particular proved emblematic: “On one of the shows, [Smith] allowed me to sing “Lay Me Down”. A lot of things have happened that don’t feel real, when you’re like, ‘How does that happen?’ But this was something I genuinely never thought would happen. I grew up singing that song, and I grew up listening to Sam Smith. There’s always a little bit of imposter syndrome, but to have done that, I’ve just never felt more grateful or more in shock. It was the biggest compliment you could possibly get from anyone.”

Smith’s glowing co-sign added fuel to her fiery trajectory, as well as a recently shared new single, “Die On This Hill”, that amassed more than a million views in 24 hours and a UK top ten spot. The BRITs have now confirmed that Spiro is indeed one of the UK’s hottest new talents. She’s in disbelief, honoured and excited at the nomination, very much aware of the establishment’s impact on Britain’s musical circumference. 

“There’s so much talent that comes from here, and it’s such a specific but amazing talent. I think that British music, even though there’s such a variety of different genres, all have the same kind of essence and the same kind of grit to it. I think you can tell when a musician’s from England, even without knowing. I grew up watching the BRITs, seeing all my favourite artists receive these awards. It was just always something that I had so much respect and so much admiration for because I think it’s so important to highlight British music.” 

It’s similarly close to Gray’s heart – especially given the previously alluded to stretch at the BRITs’ eponymous school for creative and performing arts. “I don’t always talk about it, but I feel like now I’m up for one, maybe I should,” she says playfully. “But yeah, I grew up knowing that the awards are very iconic, and I love watching them. I love seeing the clothes on the red carpet. And it has always made me aware of emerging artists that I didn’t know before.”

Well, now that’s you. 

Now it’s me! I do have that feeling that people are gonna be like, ‘Who is this girl?’ I really didn’t expect it, I’m not just saying that. 

For Alon, who doesn’t identify as British and has never paid much attention to awards, the sentiment is different. “But to be given the appreciation and recognition means so much to me,” they smile warmly. “It feels super surreal… and quite bizarre. I’m so happy, though. It’s a really nice thing to have the work recognised. And it’s also not just me, I made this record with my friend Dan [Carey]. And all the people that I’ve ever grown up with, that have ever influenced me, I feel like I’m carrying forward the joy and excitement and the curiosity that I’ve picked up along the way, which is such a gift to me.”

So there you have it: only one of these very different but equally deserving artists will be crowned The BRITs Critics’ Choice Award winner for 2026 – but for all three, the nomination is a full-bodied confirmation of their unique brilliance, and an opportunity to enter the new year with momentum. 

So what is next? 

Gray has been flying the nest of late, far from her London habitat – recently embarking on South and Central America for some shows and supporting KESHA on her tour – although her home city still “has my heart.” She shared a deluxe edition of her debut LP, A Little Louder, Please, in October, and has been working on a sophomore album for most of this year. It’ll definitely be released in 2026, she claims. 

With each passing release raising the roof of expectation, Spiro’s ceiling is quickly becoming non-existent. She has today (3 December) announced The Visitor Tour, a run of headline shows across the UK and Europe, beginning in May and including a stop off at London’s legendary Roundhouse. “And I think I’m ready to write an album,” she states coyly. “So I’m going to start that next year. That’s been a goal of mine forever. And it will take me a while.”

For Alon, “hibernation for the winter, I think, is the first step.” They need a break from life’s chaos, a chance to reconnect. “I think I need to lock myself away for a bit and just have periods of nothing, that’s what my brain needs to come into flow, and I can already feel the formation of things. There are things that I’m working on that I’m really excited by. I just want to start building that world and get back into the studio because that’s when I feel the most alive, when I’m crafting.”

And now I guess there’s only one question remaining: who’s your winner? 

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Words – Ben Tibbits