The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Going Out: Music

Grime artist
The 6ft 5in 25-year-old from Croydon made history this summer as the first black British solo artist to headline Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage. In an emotional tweet before his performance, he said: “I am overwhelmed with emotions, this is the most surreal feeling I’ve ever experienced.” Entered the publishing game too, with the launch of Penguin Random House imprint #MerkyBooks, which fosters new writing talent under 30, and is searching for “the best writer of a new generation”. He’s also launched a Cambridge scholarship for black students.

Chairman and CEO, Sony Music UK
In charge of the most recent Brit Awards ceremonies, while overseeing the work of huge artists such as Calvin Harris, George Ezra and Robbie Williams. He is a man with a big social conscience — this spring he organised for London-based charity Creative Mentor Network to team up with Sony Music UK for the mentorship programme Positive Influence.

Singer
His upbeat everyman pop has made him a massive cross-over success who appeals to everyone from seven to 70. The boy from Hertford won a Brit Award earlier this year for best British Male Solo Artist and has had two successful podcast series called George Ezra & Friends.

Chairman and CEO, Universal Music UK
The UK boss of the world’s biggest record company is in overall charge of labels including Island and Polydor, and stars including Emeli Sandé and Mumford & Sons. He also thinks well outside the box — this autumn he’ll reveal results of research he commissioned into neurodiversity, the umbrella term covering attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) at a time when many high-profile musicians are talking about their conditions.

Rapper
Born Simbi Ajikawo in Islington, this 25-year-old has donated her rapid-fire wordplay to tracks by Gorillaz, Alt-J and Serge Pizzorno of Kasabian, and is soon to join Dave in Netflix’s Top Boy revival.

CEO of Recorded Music, Warner Music Group. Chairman and CEO, Warner Music UK
A huge array of stars fall under the Warner umbrella, including Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and the rejuvenated Liam Gallagher. London-based Lousada led Warner’s worldwide recorded music division to post a revenue of $1.04 billion in the three months to the end of December 2018, up 17.8% year-on-year.

DJ, presenter, BBC Radio 1 | NEW
With her AMP live events, and bridging the gap between the mainstream daytime and more experimental evenings on Radio 1, Annie MacManus plays a huge part in breaking new acts. The 41-year-old mother of two was born in Ireland but has made her home in Queen’s Park.

Rapper | NEW
The winner of this year’s BBC Sound poll has a unique style, heard on high-profile recent collaborations with Diplo and Skepta. Octavian Oliver Godji, 23, split his childhood between Camberwell and France and initially won a scholarship to the BRIT School before dropping out.

Musician
The 2014 hit Uptown Funk put the former Amy Winehouse co-writer in a different league, but it’s on his latest Late Night Feelings album, released in June, that he may have found his most appealing sound yet. It features collaborations with Lykke Li, Yebba, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and Miley Cyrus, who joined Ronson at Glastonbury to perform their track Nothing Breaks Like A Heart.

Musician
It’s a sign of his astronomical current stature that the latest instalment of his once low-key Collaborations Projects features Justin Bieber, Eminem and Bruno Mars. After spending two years on the road with his Divide World Tour, he revealed how he’d been forced to cut his friendship group down to four and get rid of his phone in a bid to cope with stardom.

Rapper
Having played a huge part in the mainstream acceptance of grime music, Joseph Adenuga Jr from Tottenham, now 37, went on to win the Mercury Prize and place his last two albums high in the charts. He’ll hit the road in November for a UK and European tour in support of Ignorance Is Bliss, his fifth album which was released in June.

Singer
The soulful 22-year-old star has sung with Drake and Stormzy and won Brit Awards two years on the trot as well as racking up more than two million followers on Instagram. This year she also became Dior’s new make-up ambassador.

Rapper
There’s still no sign of a debut album proper, but appearances on record with Wiley, Future, Skepta and French Montana have kept her brand recognition high. Originally from Birmingham, the former hairdresser and cake maker has been singing and writing music since primary school and has lived in London since she was 14.

Musician
From supporting Taylor Swift to appearing on singles with BTS and Lizzo, Charlotte Emma Aitchison, now 26, must be one of the best connected women in pop. Her latest album Charli was released last month and includes collaborations with no fewer than 13 other artists.

Rapper | NEW
The west Londoner is doing it all this year, from reviving garage music on Ladbroke Grove and producing a song that took up long-term residence in the top 10 in July, to being partly responsible for 2019’s most viral music moment, when enthusiastic Glastonbury attendee Alex Mann delivered Tracey’s verse on his Dave collaboration Thiago Silva.

Singer
The success of Don’t Call Me Up, the London pop singer’s biggest single to date, means she’s known for more than being Eighties singer Neneh Cherry’s 23-year-old daughter. Her debut album High Expectations dropped this summer. She has also talked about social anxiety “crippling” her teenage years.

Musician | NEW
The ongoing success of north London pianist and BRIT School graduate Ridings is the best example of one of the stranger phenomenons in pop today: the powerful influence of Love Island on the charts. Three Ridings songs have featured on the bikinis-and-beefcakes reality show, including Lost Without You, a tearful ballad that went on to spend over six months in the top 40.

Musician | NEW
This busy alto saxophonist plays with the groups Nérijaand Kokoroko, as well as writing music for productions at the Old Vic and National Theatre, but it’s as the leader of SEED Ensemble that she’s making her real breakthrough.

Singer/songwriter
She won Best New Artist at this year’s Grammys, but back in her hometown of London we were on to her earlier, giving her three Brits over the past two years. Most recently she has been in LA where she has been working on a new album with Pharrell Williams. She was romantically linked this summer with Anwar Hadid, brother of Bella and Gigi.

Controller of pop music, BBC | NEW
What sounds like a child’s fantasy job title was created specially for Lorna Clarke in a BBC Radio shakeup in July. Clarke, who began her career at Kiss FM in the early Nineties, now has responsibility for the music stations Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 6 Music and Asian Network, as well as music television strategy.

Rapper
Kilburn’s Marvin Bailey has made his name working with others, scoring a number one single on Funky Friday with Dave as well as sharing songs with Not3s, Mostack and Yxng Bane. His latest big hit is So High with Birmingham’s Mist, and he’s more than capable alone too, sending his mixtape Tables Turn and his debut album Third Avenue into the top five.

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000