6 Women in Music to Watch This Year

Although hardly ‘up-and-coming’ with her 8.9M Instagram followers (correct as of January, 2020) and endorsements from stars including Frank Ocean and Kylie Jenner, 2020 could very well be Rosalía’s biggest year yet. The award-winning Catalan-Spanish singer already released her first single of the year, Juro Que, and has even teased music with global 18-year-old sensation Billie Eilish.

Set to tour with none other than Dua Lipa, Lolo Zouaï is definitely one to watch this year. With her delicate vocals, catchy rifs and trap beats going viral, and having recently collabed with boundary-pushing artist Blood Orange on Jade, Zouaï is set to continue furthering her success. If you haven’t already, go listen to High Highs to Low Lows.

Morroccan-American artist Dounia is releasing new music like there’s no tomorrow, having already brought out two new singles this month. Her unapologetic attitude and style have accrued her a huge following of 227k loyal fans on Instagram (correct as of January, 2020), and she’s showing no signs of slowing down her music production either.

Koffee’s impressive reputation in the British afrobeat music scene just got a whole lot bigger. Her collab with homegrown superstar J Hus, Repeat, features on Hus’s much-anticipated new album Big Conspiracy. Koffee also toured with R&B artist Daniel Caesar last year, and has even been endorsed by the Obamas.

After the huge success of collaborations Simmer (feat. Burna Boy) and What You Did (feat. Ella Mai), and her album LOVE AND COMPROMISE last year, Mahalia’s influence isn’t going anywhere soon. The Birmingham-based singer-songwriterchas accrued more than 3.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and continues to champion body-positivity to her 403k Instagram followers (correct as of January, 2020). We love to see it.

London-based singer and poet Arlo Parks only released her first single, Cola, to Spotify in 2018, but has since built up a following of nearly 900k monthly listeners. She’s got the least following of this list, but her fans include none other than British pop icon Lily Allen. And her tender, confessional lyrics are unrivalled.