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Charli XCX leads the nominations for the 2025 BRIT Awards, with nods in five categories – artist of the year, pop act, dance act, Mastercard album of the year for the zeitgeist-shifting Brat, and song of the year for “Guess,” her collaboration with Billie Eilish. The awards are scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 1, at The O2 Arena in London. The show will be broadcast live on ITV1 and streaming service ITVX, and hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall.
The Essex-born musician achieved global success with Brat, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 – her highest charting record to date. The album, released in May 2024, also scored major wins across the U.K. Singles Chart, with three of its tracks earning top 10 placements: “Sympathy Is a Knife” (No. 7), “Apple” (No. 8) and “Guess” (No. 3). This slew of new BRIT nominations takes Charli’s career total up to eight.
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Recent Billboard UK cover star Dua Lipa, The Last Dinner Party and jazz group Ezra Collective follow with four nominations each. Lipa has become something of a BRITs darling over the course of her career, having won seven from 16 prior nominations received since 2017.
Goth rock icons The Cure pick up three nods across Mastercard album of the year, group of the year and alternative/rock act. It’s the latter’s first nomination at The BRITs since 1993; the group bagged British group in 1991. Coldplay, meanwhile, add two nominations to its all-time tally of 30.
Superstars including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and more all feature in the international categories, though Ariana Grande is shut out at this year’s ceremony despite her past success at the awards.
The Beatles have secured the group’s first BRITs nomination since 1977 in the song of the year category for their final song “Now and Then.” The BRITs were first held in 1977 to celebrate British music over the past century, and became a yearly event in 1982.
In December, the BRITs announced Luton-born singer-songwriter Myles Smith as the recipient of the 2025 BRIT Rising Star award — a new music prize that is handed out to the British act that the voting academy believes will make the biggest impact on music in the coming year. Smith has also earned nominations for best new artist and song of the year for his global hit “Stargazing.”
Other first-time nominees include Leeds art-rock band English Teacher, who scooped last year’s Mercury Prize, alongside indie-pop artist Rachel Chinouriri. Appearing in the pop act lineup, Lola Young – who is currently enjoying U.K. chart success with breakthrough single “Messy” – earns her first BRIT nomination since 2022.
The winners of the honorary songwriter of the year and producer of the year awards will be revealed over the coming weeks, alongside the ceremony’s performers.
The nominees are compiled by the Brit Awards Voting Academy, its membership made up of musicians and industry figures, but the public will decide on the winners of the genre categories, with voting taking place via a WhatsApp campaign which will open in the coming weeks.
Here’s the complete list of 2025 BRIT Awards nominees.
Mastercard album of the year
Charli XCX – Brat, Atlantic/Warner Music Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching, Partisan RecordsDua Lipa – Radical Optimism, Warner/Warner MusicThe Cure – Songs of a Lost World, Polydor/Universal MusicThe Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy, Island/Universal Music
Artist of the year
Beabadoobee, Dirty Hit Central Cee, Columbia/Sony MusicCharli XCX, Atlantic/Warner MusicDua Lipa, Warner/Warner MusicFred Again.., Atlantic/Warner MusicJamie xx, Young/XL BeggarsMichael Kiwanuka, Polydor/Universal MusicNia Archives, Island/Universal MusicRachel Chinouriri, Parlophone/Universal MusicSam Fender, Polydor/Universal Music
Group of the year
Bring Me the Horizon, RCA/Sony MusicColdplay, Parlophone/Warner MusicEzra Collective, Partisan RecordsThe Cure, Polydor/Universal MusicThe Last Dinner Party, Island/Universal Music
Best new artist
English Teacher, Island/Universal MusicEzra Collective, Partisan RecordsMyles Smith, RCA/Sony MusicRachel Chinouriri, Parlophone/Universal MusicThe Last Dinner Party, Island/Universal Music
Song of the year
“I Like the Way You Kiss Me,” Artemas, Parlophone/Warner Music“Kisses,” BI3SS x CamrinWatsin (ft. Bbyclose), Atlantic/Warner Music “BAND4BAND,” Central Cee (ft. Lil Baby), Columbia/Capitol/Motown/Sony Music“Guess,” Charli XCX (ft. Billie Eilish), Atlantic/Interscope/Warner Music“Backbone,” Chase & Status (ft. Stormzy), 0207 Records/EMI/Merky/Universal Music“Feelslikeimfallinginlove,” Coldplay, Parlophone/Warner Music“Training Season,” Dua Lipa, Warner/Warner Music “Alibi,” Ella Henderson (ft. Rudimental), Atlantic/Warner Music“Angel of My Dreams,” Jade, RCA/Sony Music “Kehlani,” Jordan Adetunji, Warner/Warner Music“Thick of It,” KSI (ft. Trippie Redd), Atlantic/Warner Music“Stargazing,” Myles Smith, RCA/Sony Music“You’re Christmas to Me,” Sam Ryder, East West/Rhino/Warner Music “Somedays,” Sonny Fedora/Jazzy/D.O.D, Solotoko/Ada Warner Music “Now and Then,” The Beatles, Apple/UMR
BRITs Rising Star
Myles Smith [WINNER], RCA/Sony MusicElmiene, Polydor/Universal MusicGood Neighbours, Polydor/Universal Music
International artist of the year
Adrianne Lenker, 4AD/XL BeggarsAsake, YBNL NationBenson Boone, Warner/Warner MusicBeyoncé, Columbia/Parkwood Entertainment/SonyBillie Eilish, Interscope/Universal MusicChappell Roan, Island/Universal MusicKendrick Lamar, Interscope/Universal MusicSabrina Carpenter, Island/Universal MusicTaylor Swift, EMI/Universal MusicTyler, the Creator, Columbia/Sony Music
International group of the year
Amyl and The Sniffers, Rough Trade Records/XL BeggarsConfidence Man, Chaos/Universal MusicFontaines D.C., XL Recordings/XL BeggarsFuture & Metro Boomin, RCA/Sony MusicLinkin Park, Warner/Warner Music
International song of the year
“Beautiful Things,” Benson Boone, Warner/Warner Music “Texas Hold Em,” Beyoncé, Columbia/Parkwood Entertainment/Sony“Birds of a Feather,” Billie Eilish, Interscope/Universal Music“Good Luck, Babe!,” Chappell Roan, Island/Universal Music“End of Beginning,” Djo, AWAL/Djo/The Orchard “Houdini,” Eminem, Interscope/Universal Music “Too Sweet,” Hozier, Island/Universal Music“Lovin On Me,” Jack Harlow, Atlantic/Warner Music“Stick Season,” Noah Kahan, Republic Records/Universal Music“I Had Some Help,” Post Malone (ft. Morgan Wallen), Republic Records/Universal Music“Espresso,” Sabrina Carpenter, Island/Universal Music“A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey, American Dogwood/Empire“Fortnight,” Taylor Swift (ft. Post Malone), EMI/Universal Music“Lose Control,” Teddy Swims, Atlantic/Warner Music“Million Dollar Baby,” Tommy Richman, ISO Supremacy/Pulse/Stem Disintermedia
Alternative/rock act
Beabadoobee, Dirty HitEzra Collective, Partisan RecordsSam Fender, Polydor/Universal MusicThe Cure, Polydor/Universal MusicThe Last Dinner Party, Island/Universal Music
Hip-hop/grime/rap act
Central Cee, Columbia/Sony MusicDave, Def Jam/Universal Music Ghetts, Warner/Warner Music Little Simz, AWAL/Sony MusicStormzy, 0207 Records/EMI/Merky/Universal Music
Dance act
Becky Hill, Polydor/Universal MusicCharli XCX, Atlantic/Warner MusicChase & Status, 0207 Records/Universal MusicFred Again.., Atlantic/Warner MusicNia Archives, Island/Universal Music
Pop act
Charli XCX, Atlantic/Warner MusicDua Lipa, Warner/Warner MusicJade, RCA/Sony MusicLola Young, Island/Universal MusicMyles Smith, RCA/Sony Music
R&B act
Cleo Sol, AWAL/Sony MusicFlo, Island/Universal MusicJorja Smith, FAMM/The Orchard/SonyMichael Kiwanuka, Polydor/Universal MusicRaye, Human Resources/The Orchard/Sony
Bad Bunny can do a lot of things — rap, act and wrestle, to name a few — but he couldn’t get through the spicy wings challenge on Sean Evans’ Hot Ones.
In the episode posted Thursday (Jan. 23), the Puerto Rican musician gave a valiant effort while taking on the wings of death — but the signs that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the end were present throughout. “I’m feeling it, and I don’t like it, because I’m worried about my colon,” Benito said after a few increasingly hot bites of chicken.
“I think I will be at the bathroom the whole trip from here to Puerto Rico,” he added.
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Despite lapping milk like a cat and icing his taste buds with ice cream, the “Titi Me Pregunto” rapper had to call it quits before he reached the end of the show’s hot sauce lineup. “There’s no way I’m going to eat all of those,” he said breathlessly, saying that his whole face felt hot. “There’s no way.”
Though Evans comforted Bunny in person, Hot Ones made sure to tease him a little bit in post-production. Editing a picture of the Grammy winner onto its “Wall-Most Made It,” the web series officially inducted him into its academy of past guests who didn’t reach the finish line — including Ice Spice, DJ Khaled and Ricky Gervais.
Bunny’s Hot Ones appearance comes a few weeks after the release of his new album, Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its second week. Before he succumbed to spice overload, the musician talked about his signature sound with Evans, saying, “Especially on this album, there’s a lot of salsa, there’s all the rhythms that I’ve never done before.”
From appearing on The Tonight Show to staging a surprise performance in the New York subways, Benito has also been doing a lot of press in the United States for the LP — something he says he enjoys, though he’s “still struggling with the English.”
“I need to put a lot of attention to you to understand you,” he told Evans, before exclaiming with a numb tongue, “But now I’m struggling with the f–king spicy on my mouth.”
Watch Bad Bunny try — and fail — to conquer Hot Ones above.
If Post Malone pulls it off, “c’mon!” could be the next “whazzup?!” The rapper-turned-country-star appears alongside comedian Shane Gillis in a preview of the pair’s Super Bowl LIX ad for Bud Light that dropped on Thursday (Jan. 23). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The 23-second teaser […]
Country music was shaken, and stirred, and chilled by Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” during 2024.
The breezy interpolation of a 20-year-old hip-hop song has spent 30 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs in the third-longest run thus far in history. It’s been certified quintuple-platinum by the RIAA. And now Luminate recognizes it as the most streamed country song of 2024, as well as last year’s top-selling country digital song.
Luminate’s 2024 year-end report, released Jan. 15, showed country expanding in the United States and growing significantly in foreign markets as well. The report also underscored the genre’s growing footprint in nontraditional demographics, with Beyoncè‘s Cowboy Carter ranking as the year’s top-selling country album, and finishing No. 6 among the top 10 country albums when tracked by total-equivalent album (TEA) units.
It marked the first time that either Shaboozey or Beyoncè appeared on a year-end Luminate country list, though their emergence within country did not mean the disappearance of familiar sounds and faces. Morgan Wallen repeated in the top two positions among country albums by TEA units with One Thing at a Time and Dangerous: The Double Album. Zach Bryan landed three titles among the top 10: Zach Bryan (No. 3), American Heartbreak (No. 5) and The Great American Bar Scene (No. 7). And Luke Combs finished at No. 9 and No. 10 with This One’s for You and Gettin’ Old. It marks the seventh straight year that This One’s for You finished among the top 10.
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The shift from the traditional purchasing economy to streaming continued, as country compiled 118 billion on-demand audio streams during 2024. Digital album sales in the genre were a mere 1.7 million units.
Two anomalies make it imprudent to compare year-to-year numbers. Luminate changed its methodology for tracking physical album sales. Plus, the tracking period —from Dec. 29, 2023, through Jan. 2, 2025 — covered 53 weeks, rather than the typical 52 weeks.
Still, 2024 was only the second year that on-demand country streams exceeded 100 billion. (The genre logged 113.1 billion in 2023.) And the 1.7 million album sales are a far cry from a decade ago, when country moved 33.3 million albums. In fact, the top two albums from that year — Eric Church‘s The Outsiders and Luke Bryan‘s Crash My Party — sold 1.6 million albums on their own that year, nearly matching the digital total for the entire genre in 2024.
Notably, country’s streaming footprint has widened during this decade. On-demand country streams in the United States are up a whopping 57% since 2020 and have also grown 7.7% outside of U.S. territories.
Following are the top 10 entries for five country consumption lists compiled by Luminate for 2024:
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Anyma is once again extending his residency at Sphere in Las Vegas. The Italian-American producer will now play the venue on Feb. 27 and 28 and March 1 and 2. These dates are being cited as his final shows at Sphere after a eight-date run that began on Dec. 27, wrapped on Jan. 11 and made […]
Nearly a decade after its release, Supa King’s “Tell on Me” is No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, debuting atop the Jan. 25-dated survey.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity Jan. 13-19. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
The latest TikTok Billboard Top 50 includes all available data in the U.S. from Jan. 13-19; the app was unavailable in the U.S. for multiple hours between Jan. 18 and 19.
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“Tell On Me” marks rapper Supa King’s first appearance on a Billboard chart and the second No. 1 debut in a row, following Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” which topped the Jan. 18 ranking and appears at No. 2 on the latest tally.
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The 2016 track from that year’s SKBP, Vol. 1 reigns thanks to a trend in which users dance to the song’s “tell on me” chorus often while doing so in strange positions, whether seemingly dangling from the ceiling, from the wall or in other acrobatic postures, often in a bathroom (understandably: many of the top-performing clips feature a disclaimer noting that “participating in this activity could result in you or others getting hurt”).
“Tell On Me” concurrently earned 717,000 official U.S. streams in the week ending Jan. 16, up from a negligible amount the previous frame, according to Luminate.
Its No. 1 predecessor “DtMF,” meanwhile, continues to thrive via TikTok clips highlighting the song’s sentiment of wishing one had taken more photos and given more hugs and kisses to a loved one who’s no longer with them. “DtMF” vaults to No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and to No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
Though “Tell On Me” is the only debut within the chart’s top 10, it’s far from the only newcomer. In all, six of the top 10 reach the region for the first time, with “Tell On Me” followed by Sage the Gemini’s “Gas Pedal,” which vaults 13-3 in its second week.
Released in 2013 and featuring Iamsu!, “Gas Pedal” was Sage the Gemini’s top-charting song as a lead artist on the Hot 100 in its time, peaking at No. 29 in September 2013. With lyrics that begin with “slow down, grab the wall, wiggle like you’re tryna make your ass fall off,” the song seems practically tailormade for an app like TikTok in retrospect, and over a decade later, “Gas Pedal” rises thanks to a dance trend (though a new one, rather than anything featured in, say, the original’s music video in 2013).
“Gas Pedal” sports a 52% increase in streams to 1.3 million in the week ending Jan. 16.
Another song that debuted on the Jan. 18 TikTok Billboard Top 50, So Supa, Tre Loaded and Big Boogie’s “Dumb Crasy,” also jumps into the top 10, shooting 34-5. Though newer than “Gas Pedal,” “Dumb Crasy” isn’t exactly brand new, having been released in June 2023.
“Dumb Crasy” benefits from a trend on TikTok in which one user (the cameraperson) pushes another person, who then does a quick dance, usually in response to a prompt related to something they like (“what would you do for some McDonald’s fries,” “when our least-favorite teacher is absent,” etc.).
The song is up 174% to 297,000 streams in the week ending Jan. 16. It’s So Supa and Tre Loaded’s first appearance on any Billboard chart.
SZA’s Kendrick Lamar collaboration “30 for 30” jumps into the top 10 for the first time, rising 17-7 in its third week on the list. From SZA’s deluxe version of SOS, SOS Deluxe: Lana, released Dec. 20, “30 for 30” is viral on TikTok by highlighting Lamar’s “But if it’s f–k me then f–k you/ And that’s the way I like it” lyric.
“30 for 30” appears at No. 26 on the latest Hot 100 (its peak so far is No. 22), garnering 14.2 million streams, 9.5 million radio audience impressions and 1,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 16.
Sexyy Red’s “She’s Back” and Neton Vega’s “Loco” are the final two TikTok Billboard Top 50 top 10 newcomers, ranking at Nos. 8 and 10, respectively. “She’s Back” leaps back onto the ranking after referencing TikTok’s return in the U.S. following its brief service outage (the app was removed late Jan. 18, citing a law banning it in the U.S., but returned the next day, with President Donald Trump signing an executive order on Jan. 20 temporarily pausing the ban). “Loco,” meanwhile, caps a four-week rise to the top 10, with its trends including one where creators write comments about themselves or about love and relationships, often with a city skyline passing them by.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
There’s a certain feeling Nimino has always been looking for in the music he listened to and then eventually made.
“You know when you listen to a song and there’s a moment that like, a chord strikes and you can’t explain why, but it just pulls a tear from your eye?” he asks rhetorically while speaking to Billboard over Zoom. “And no matter how many times you listen, you’ll get that moment in that song and be like, ‘Oh, f–k.’”
It’s a wave of emotion the London-based artist born Milo Evans loved experiencing, one he’s worked to create since he started producing music at age 13 and one he identified when he first heard “I Only Smoke When I Drink,” a brassy soul song by American outfit Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact, from the group’s 2019 album Running Out of Time.
“I would listen to that song and as soon as it would get past [the title line] I’d lose interest,” Nimino says. “It’s a great tune, but I would just listen to that one bit over and over, because it’s such a crazy little line.”
Enjoying the feeling it gave him and sensing he could do something with it, he grabbed the acapella of the Rebecca Jade vocal “but couldn’t find anything it would fit with, so I had it sitting on my computer for ages.” He was later working on another that song “that was quite dark and felt quite melancholic and definitely had this clubby vibe to it, but I don’t know what needed to be put in it.”
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Eventually, in December of 2023, he thought to pair the pieces “so it was like a call and response between the synth playing and the vocals chatting. Once those were together, it was just like, ‘This is obviously a very exciting song.’”
The internet agreed. Before its August 22, 2024 release on Ninja Tune’s Counter Records imprint (where Nimino signed in the spring of 2024), clips featuring the single generated more than 15 million views, two million likes and 313,000 saves across TikTok and Instagram. He previewed the song online only after a lengthy sample clearing process, as he knew audiences would want to know the release date immediately upon hearing it.
“I was kind of careful with it,” he says, “then as soon as we had the thumbs up, I teased it. It went crazy literally the first night.” While the song went wild online, Nimino celebrated its release in very IRL fashion. The night before the song came out, “a guy hit me up online and was like, ‘Yo man, we’re throwing a house party in London. I’d love for you to come DJ and play that new song. I was like, ‘Yeah, f– it. Why not?’”
Celebrating was appropriate. Since August, “I Only Smoke When I Drink” has generated 17.9 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 87.2 million official on-demand global streams, according to Luminate. The song is in its 21st week on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs and currently sits at No. 15, its highest position thus far.
But this success “hasn’t changed the strategy so much as it expedited things,” says Gon Carpel, the founder of Noted Management who co-manages Nimino alongside Eli Bieber. “The focus remains building a long-lasting artist career by focusing on the fundamentals and making strategic decisions for the long term.” (On the agent side, Nimino is represented by UTA’s Jamie Waldman.)
“But of course, Carpel adds, “the success of the song has allowed him to reach more people in more places much faster, and that discovery is expediting his growth across the board – opening up new opportunities in touring, publishing, sync, etc. The biggest strategy change has probably been in having to be even more considerate with where and when to spend his time and energy, as the whole globe has opened up to him.”
When we speak Nimino is in New Orleans for a show at Republic NOLA. While he’s been touring in the U.S. for the last few years (he says his shows do especially well in New York, Los Angeles and Denver), sets are now selling out much faster. “And I mean, even just selling out is a big jump from last year,” he says. He’s got shows in Nashville, Austin and Orlando this weekend (Jan. 24-26) and says while he can’t reveal much yet, there are big festival plays on the summer calendar.
Warm, funny and generally fairly calm seeming, Nimino doesn’t seem too preoccupied with his virality or with trying to top it. “I’ve had a few viral moments before,” he says. “Never to this level, but I’m relatively well versed in how it feels.” (How does it feel? “Very overwhelming. It’s hard to get off your phone.”)
With single and EP releases dating back to 2018, Nimino is more than a one-trick TikTok artist. His catalog has 56.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 179.5 million official on-demand global streams, according to Luminate. He calls 2023’s “No Sympathy” and 2022’s “Opening Credits” and “Save a Soul” pillars of his sets, which “for my listeners have always been very special moments.”
While “I Only Smoke When I Drink” is putting a lot more eyes and ears on him — earning him new followers, a turn making an Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 and a remix package featuring edits of the song by Claptone, Felix Cartel and more — he’s in a position to demonstrate staying power. “Virality helps, but virality is not a strategy,” Carpel says. “It still comes down to really great music from an artist with a strong voice and brand who connects with an audience, coupled with the right team and strategy around them.”
Tomorrow (Jan. 24), Nimino will release “Shaking Things Up.” Made from a ’60s soul sample and bouncy piano, the song is bright, but also laced with Nimino’s signature emotiveness. “It was very much a case of having done a song in one style, then saying, ‘F–k it. Let’s shake things up.’ ‘I Only Smoke’ was quite dark, quite clubby. ‘Shaking Things Up’ is so bright, so fun and such an outdoor festival kind of vibe.”
But whether one is a longtime fan or just now hearing his name, Nimino assures he’s got something for you.
“My favorite song of mine is genuinely always the one that’s about to come out, or the one I made yesterday,” he says. “So even if you can’t be bothered to check out the songs I’ve released, just follow the ride.”
Ariana Grande couldn’t be happier to be an Oscar-nominated actress.
Following the Academy’s unveiling of its 2025 nominees Thursday (Jan. 23) — revealing that the pop star is up for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Glinda in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, marking her first-ever nod — Grande shared an emotional reaction to the news on Instagram. Posting a photo of herself as a child, dressed up as Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz, the “Yes, And?” singer began by writing, “picking my head up in between sobs to say thank you so much to @theacademy for this unfathomable recognition.”
“i cannot stop crying, to no one’s surprise,” she continued. “i’m humbled and deeply honored to be in such brilliant company and sharing this with tiny ari who sat and studied Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow just before the big, beautiful bubble entered. i’m so proud of you, tiny.”
The Grammy winner also thanked Chu for “taking this chance on me and for being the most unbelievably brilliant leader,” as well as shouted out her co-leading lady Cynthia Erivo, who scored a nomination for best actress. “i am so proud of my Elphie, my sister,” Grande wrote of the Pinocchio star. “your brilliance is never ending and you deserve every flower (tulip) in every garden. i love you unconditionally, always.”
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“i don’t quite have all my words yet, i’m still trying to breathe,” added the “We Can’t Be Friends” musician. “but thank you. oh my goodness, thank you.”
Earning 10 nods total this year, Wicked ties with The Brutalist for second-most nominated project at the 2025 Oscars. Only Emilia Pérez has more, scoring 13 total.
Grande shares the best supporting actress category with A Complete Unknown‘s Monica Barbaro, The Brutalist‘s Felicity Jones, Conclave‘s Isabela Rossellini and Emilia Pérez‘s Zoe Saldaña. Erivo is running against Emilia Pérez‘s Karla Sofía Gascón, Anora‘s Mikey Madison, The Substance‘s Demi Moore and I’m Still Here‘s Fernanda Torres for best actress.
See Grande’s post below.
At just 17, Ty Myers has crafted a 16-song debut album (The Select, out Jan. 24 on RECORDS Nashville/Columbia Records) that blends country songcraft, blues-drenched guitar riffs and soulful, gritty vocals in a way that sounds far beyond his years.
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Myers was born and raised in Austin, a Texas city that boasts over 250 live music venues and has garnered the moniker “Live Music Capital of the World.” So, there’s little wonder that while many of his Gen Z musical contemporaries followed the bedroom TikTok-to-hit performer pathway, Myers’ roots extend back to the vaunted singer-songwriter haunts of Austin. His songwriter father regularly played in Austin’s local venues, while Myers’s grandmother played piano in church.
“My earliest memory is sitting at a bar top at four years old,” Myers tells Billboard. “I have pictures of me just passed out, sleeping on a bar top. I should not have been at that age, but I was always just locked in on music.”
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Myers recalls first singing alongside his father at a now-defunct local Austin venue, Nutty Brown Café & Amphitheatre. By eight, Myers was writing his own songs, and by 11, he was doing full-fledged performances with his father.
“We would do songwriter swaps at local places, just trying to get my foot in the door a bit. Places aren’t usually too quick to let an 11 or 12-year-old come play for people who are trying to have a good time and drink,” Myers recalls. “My dad kind of had relationships at a lot of places and he helped me out.”
Beyond the musical talents of Myers and his parents, he is the nephew of Lonestar member Dean Sams, and Myers notes to Billboard that he also has a familial connection to George Strait’s longtime piano player Ronnie Huckaby.
Along the way, Myers soaked in the sounds of Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, George Strait and Chris Stapleton, channeling their influences. By high school, Myers was balancing playing music with playing baseball and football. After he tore his ACL playing football, and realized the recovery process would hinder him from playing for the rest of the season, Myers redoubled his efforts on music, pouring the dogged work ethic he learned growing up on his family’s cattle ranch into songwriting, live performance and guitar playing. He began recording with producer Tommy Detamore, known for his work with artists including Ronnie Milsap, Jim Lauderdale, and The Texas Tornados.
“Growing up, country was always my main influence,” Myers recalls. “So those first sessions were very country-based, which is Tommy’s bread and butter — he’s an old-school steel player. He played with everybody under the sun and he really perfected those first sessions.”
Those sessions created what would become Myers’s breakthrough songs including “Tie that Binds,” “Drinkin’ Alone,” and earnest love song about enduring affection “Ends of the Earth” — and are included on his full-fledged album, alongside songs produced by Brandon Hood, such as the R&B-inflected love song “Firefly,” the horn-laden “Can’t Hold Me Down” and the Americana/country-informed “Drunk Love.”
“I feel like this album is a real culmination of all of my influences,” says Myers, who is managed by Starstruck Entertainment. “I blended everything that I love into one, hopefully unique, sound.”
The album’s title nods to the fictional bar LA Select, featured in author Ernest Hemmingway’s book The Sun Also Rises. “That’s kind of where [the book’s characters] all go,” Myers says. “They leave the world behind, relax and have fun, and lay all their stresses to the ground, which is kind of what I want people to do when they listen to the album.”
The CAA-aligned Myers just launched his 45-show headlining The Select Tour, which is largely sold out and added 19 new dates. Among the tour stops are shows at revered music venues including Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, and New York City’s Bowery Ballroom.
Myers, Billboard’s January Country Rookie of the Month, told us about the making of his album. navigating his musical breakthrough, and some of his favorite past-times beyond music.
“Tie That Binds” was the song that first caught fans’ attention after it was featured on the TikTok Bonfire Specials. What was it like seeing that initial reaction from both fans and the industry?
It was surreal. We were on family vacation in Key West and that day we were going to drive from Marathon Key to Key West. It’s like a 45-minute drive. And in that time, three labels reached out in 25 minutes—it almost felt like somebody’s playing a prank on you and you don’t know what to expect, going from zero to a hundred like that. And in the days that followed, it felt like every day was a different call.
You are signed with RECORDS Nashville and Columbia. How did that joint deal come about?
It was coming down to either RECORDS or Columbia and we had a meeting in New York. The day before the meeting, we were told, “We want to do a joint meeting with RECORDS and Columbia,” and it turns out they wanted to do the deal together and it couldn’t have been any more perfect.
What advice has your uncle given you about navigating the music industry?
He told me that he was the only one out of the group there at an awards show one time, and he went up [onstage] to accept the award. He saw the video two years later and said he didn’t remember accepting the award, and that’s because he was always thinking about what’s next. So he told me to appreciate the moments.
You wrote “Ends of the Earth” by yourself. What was the writing process for that song like?
I wrote it in my room. I would say about 90% of the songs I write are in my room, but I with that, I knew I wanted to write kind of a soul song. That old-school intro, kind of “boom, boom, boom.” The “Ends of the Earth” idea came next, kind of a play on words that I do in the chorus. I just built it off of that and wrote that one probably within an hour.
How does your live show inform your approach to songwriting?
That’s the number one thing I think about when I’m writing songs, because when you’re performing live, that’s the roots of music. I love playing live.
You’ve opened shows for Randy Rogers Band, Wade Bowen and Cody Johnson. What have you learned from them in regard to live shows?
Randy and Wade love to have fun on stage, so I got that from them. And playing with Cody Johnson, I love studying his show, and how he really gets the audience involved. There’s not very many people who can move at an arena like Cody Johnson..This past year has been a whirlwind for you. What are the moments that stand out?
Opening for Willie [Nelson], getting to sing gospel [music] with him onstage. I could have melted into the stage; it was truly amazing. Looking over and seeing Willie Nelson, and then he says your name onstage, it’s like, “This isn’t real.”
When you are not making music, what do you do for fun in your off time?
Hunting and golf.
Who is your favorite pro golfer?
Tiger Woods, for sure. That’s obvious, though. My second-favorite golfer would be [Jordan] Spieth. He went to [The University of] Texas.
Do you have a favorite podcast?
I love Theo Von. I listen to Theo Von all the time.
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