Popular Music Nominations 2025
Lola Young - WINNER
This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway
This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway marks a remarkable shift in Lola Young's sound as an artist. Recorded in LA with collaborators including Solomonophonic, the album is a multi-faceted, fearless concept.
By blending deeply personal storytelling with innovative production and unapologetic authenticity, Young has crafted a landmark album that resonates with both youth culture and artistic ambition.
As irresistible as it is unexpected, the album is crackling with kinetic energy and lyrically fuelled by rage, passion, narrative flair and comedy derision. A contemporary break-up album, it encapsulates the sound of what it means to be young and in constant romantic chaos.
KNEECAP
Fine Art
KNEECAP'S breakthrough concept album was produced by Toddla T, and is set across a raucous night out, traversing a fantasy community pub called The Rutz, with adventures spilling out on to the streets of Belfast and London, and featuring guest appearances from Lankum’s Radie Peat, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten and Tom Coll, alongside Jelani Blackman, Nino and Annie Mac.
'Fine Art' is intelligent, hilarious and genuinely thought provoking. It uniquely immerses it’s listener in a world thus far unrepresented in modern music, with a blend of Irish and English language. It has been the catalyst for a new wave of Irish hip-hop and Irish culture and language.
Charli xcx
Brat
Avant-pop and electronic superstar Charli xcx has become an iconic figure in the arts having helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and mainstream with her artistic output. Over the course of a trailblazing career, the multi-hyphenate creative has earned critical acclaim for her innovative style and entrepreneurial spirit and seen her forward-thinking approach reshape pop culture in the process.
Her sixth album BRAT topped the UK charts, earned widespread critical acclaim, and ignited a cultural movement with viral campaigns, global DJ sets, and high-profile collaborations with Billie Eilish, Lorde, Addison Rae, Julia Fox, and more. She followed with ‘Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat’, reimagining tracks alongside Ariana Grande, Bon Iver, The 1975, and others. The album’s success brought five BRITs, three Grammys, and recognition as Wall Street Journal’s 'Music Innovator' and Variety’s 'Hitmaker of the Year'.
