Pop star Chappell Roan wins BBC Sound Of 2025

Pop prima Chappell Roan has won BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2025 – the station's yearly canvass to place music's biggest rising stars.

Her triumph caps a chaotic 12 months successful which she rocketed from comparative obscurity to the apical of the charts, acknowledgment to her colourful, 80s-influenced marque of synth-pop.

She was named victor by a sheet of much than 180 musicians and experts, including Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa and Sound of 2014 victor Sam Smith.

Jack Saunders, who hosts Radio 1's New Music show, said: "No 1 deserves this accolade much than Chappell Roan. She was the astir breathtaking creator of the past 12 months and is present acceptable to beryllium the creator of the adjacent 12 months."

The 26-year-old has had a agelong way to success.

Born Kayleigh Amstutz, she was brought up successful the blimpish metropolis of Willard, Missouri, wherever she attended religion 3 times a week and was taught that being cheery was a sin.

She signed her archetypal grounds woody successful 2017, based connected the spot of a opus she had uploaded to YouTube called Die Young.

Cast arsenic a singer-songwriter successful mould of Lorde and Lana Del Rey, she failed to marque overmuch of an impact, and was dropped by her statement during the pandemic.

But by that stage, she had already recorded a opus that would go her calling card.

Titled Pink Pony Club, it was inspired by a sojourn to an LA cheery club, and helped her specify a caller dependable - camp, liberated and packed with singalong choruses.

The acquisition besides spawned her campy signifier persona, which she has described arsenic a "larger-than-life, resistance queen mentation of myself".

After uncovering a caller grounds label, she released her debut album, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, successful September 2023.

A slow-burning success, it lone sold a fewer 1000 copies successful its archetypal week of release. But connection began to dispersed - and erstwhile she played California's Coachella Festival past April, the assemblage that turned up for her mid-afternoon acceptable was huge.

More importantly, the amusement was broadcast connected YouTube - going viral aft Roan leaned into the TV cameras and declared: "I'm your favourite artist's favourite artist." The show has subsequently been watched much than a cardinal times.

Around the aforesaid time, she released a stand-alone azygous called Good Luck, Babe, that talked astir her acquisition of falling successful emotion with her champion friend.

"It's a popular opus with a bittersweet constituent to it," she told BBC News past year.

"It's precise communal successful queer relationships, erstwhile idiosyncratic is inactive coming to presumption with their queerness, [that] they'll buss 100 boys to 'stop the feeling', arsenic the opus says.

"And it's like, 'Sure, OK. Your clip volition come.'"

The azygous yet reached fig 2 successful the UK charts, and The Rise And Fall Of The Midwest Princess became a fig 1 medium aft it was re-released connected vinyl past summer.

Since then, Roan has been nominated for six Grammy awards, including medium of the year, and won champion caller creator astatine the Billboard Music Awards successful December.

She has besides experienced the downside of her abrupt fame, and spoke retired astir the "creepy behaviour" of definite fans who "yelled" and "harassed" her astatine backstage moments; and who had approached her household and friends.

The vocalist has taken clip disconnected astatine the commencement of 2025 to enactment connected caller music, but volition header the Reading & Leeds festival this summer.

Previous winners of the BBC's Sound of database see Adele, Ellie Goulding, 50 Cent, PinkPantheress and miss radical Flo.

Art-rock radical The Last Dinner Party took the rubric past year, and went connected to apical the charts with their debut album, Prelude To Ecstasy.

Runners-up for this year's prize included jazz outfit Ezra Collective and creation shaper Barry Can't Swim.

To qualify, artists could not person had much than 2 UK apical 10 albums oregon 2 UK apical 10 singles by 30 September 2024.

The rules were relaxed this twelvemonth to recognise the challenges of achieving crossover occurrence successful the streaming epoch - erstwhile an creator tin scope fig 1 without becoming a household name.