5 rising music stars you need to know in 2024

• Here are five rising stars to watch this year, according to BI's senior music reporter.

• The list includes Chappell Roan, Tate McRae, The Last Dinner Party, Towa Bird, and Tyla.

• Roan, who's set to open for Olivia Rodrigo, already earned the No. 1 spot on our 2023 song ranking.

Just as 2023 gave us breakout stars like Ice Spice, Sabrina Carpenter, and Zach Bryan, 2024 will bring a new slate of upstarts bound for bigger things.

Keep reading to see my top picks for musicians to watch this year, listed below in alphabetical order.

Chappell Roan is a cult-favorite singer who's already got an acclaimed album under her belt.

Chappell Roan may not be a household name just yet, but in 2023, she cemented her position as a critical darling.

Roan's debut album, "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess," was featured in a mass of year-end lists by esteemed publications, including Time (No. 4), Rolling Stone (No. 12), and Billboard (No. 13). "Red Wine Supernova," one of its many standout tracks, was named the best song of the year in Business Insider's own ranking.

While this flood of acclaim might've come as a surprise to casual onlookers, anyone paying close attention to the pop world can see that Roan has "next big thing" potential — including the singer herself.

"I'll be honest, and I know this sounds cocky, but I'm not that surprised people like it because it's really good," she recently told Dork.

I recommend experiencing Roan's ecstatic music for yourself on the Midwest Princess Tour, which has been extended into April — but she'll also perform for arena-sized crowds this year when she opens for Olivia Rodrigo. The young women share a producer, Dan Nigro, and have already collaborated on the sly; Roan is credited with background vocals on Rodrigo's song "Lacy."

Thanks to viral hits like "Greedy" and "Exes," Tate McRae is quickly becoming a phenomenon.

Tate McRae's star power has steadily grown since 2016, when she earned third place on "So You Think You Can Dance?" season 13.

After the show, McRae expanded her purview by releasing a steady stream of moody pop ballads. She even caught the attention of fellow teen phenom Billie Eilish and her brother-slash-producer, Finneas O'Connell, who cowrote track four on her debut EP, 2020's "All the Things I Never Said."

Later that year, "You Broke Me First" became McRae's first chart entry on the Billboard Hot 100 — but the pandemic stalled her chance to show her stuff on a bigger stage.

"I'm in disbelief a lot that people are gonna know any of my songs, and then it really, genuinely does shock me when I get onstage and they know the words," McRae told me backstage at Gov Ball in 2021, once live music had become an option again.

Finally, as 2023 came to a close, McRae's moment arrived. "Greedy," the catchy lead single from her sophomore album "Think Later," went mega-viral on TikTok and propelled her to late-night TV fame; she was quickly booked by the Billboard Music Awards, "The Tonight Show," and "Saturday Night Live."

Armed with sticky pop hooks and her self-described "emo-girl-turned-dancer" performance style, McRae's momentum is undeniable, and 2024 is sure to become her biggest year yet.

The Last Dinner Party has been described as "the UK’s most talked-about new band."

The Last Dinner Party released their debut single in April 2023 (the infectious, irreverent "Nothing Matters") and immediately began generating buzz. Just seven months (and three more songs) later, they landed on the cover of NME and won the coveted BRITs Rising Star award.

Much like Wet Leg before them — who won the 2023 Grammy Award for best alternative music album after a similar sprint to stardom — the all-female band hails from the UK with a vivid, fresh take on the current pop-rock wave.

Don't be surprised if you start hearing their music everywhere soon; the fivesome's debut album "Prelude to Ecstasy," set for February 2, is already one of the year's most anticipated drops.

After building a loyal fan base online, Towa Bird's live shows prove she's got rockstar potential.

Towa Bird forged her early career in the fires of TikTok and YouTube, playing funky riffs over Supertramp's "Breakfast In America" hook and Tame Impala's "The Less I Know the Better." She covers Blur in concert and her guitar chops have been compared to Jimi Hendrix.

However, even though Bird wears her influences on her sleeve, her solo music is wholly unique. Singles like "Drain Me!" and the yet-to-be-released "B.I.L.L.S." make for thrilling mosh pit fodder — evinced by Bird's new EP, "Live from Terminal 5," which was recorded during her opening slot on Reneé Rapp's Snow Hard Feelings Tour.

Bird, whose music is unabashedly hot, anti-capitalist, and sapphic, is exactly what rock fans need in 2024. She is expected to release her debut album, "American Hero," this year.

"When I think of those two words together, I think of a 6'4 white guy, Captain America — blonde, blue-eyed," she told NME. "That's nothing that I represent as an androgynous queer person. I am the anti-American hero, but because I'm an immigrant, that almost makes me an American. I'm sharing parts of my life I've never told anyone before; because I'm being vulnerable, I'm almost a hero."

Legends like Rihanna and Aaliyah have influenced Tyla's cross-continental appeal and genre-blending sound.

If you don't know Tyla's name, you almost certainly know her voice; "Water," released in July, was one of the defining hits of 2023. The afrobeat-pop smash debuted at No. 67 on the Hot 100 — making Tyla the first South African soloist to chart since the late '60s — and earned a Grammy nomination for best African music performance.

When asked about the nod, Tyla simply told Variety, "It makes sense. I've been ready for this moment."

Indeed, the 21-year-old singer got a taste of global attention with her 2021 single "Getting Late," which led to a contract with Epic Records.

Since then, she's been steadily building toward her debut album, set for release on March 1, 2024.

"I've been recording for basically two years trying to make the project that I'm happy with," she told Cosmopolitan. "That's gonna be a moment."

Read the original article on Business Insider