Last year I did pretty well with my predictions of success, listing Mika, Just Jack and the Klaxons as tips for the top. Others such as New Young Pony Club and Jack Savoretti did reasonably well, while Alphabeat have moved from an extremely outside chance in 2007 (my interview with them in January revealed no plans to conquer the UK whatsoever) to an almost sure thing in 2008. I was less accurate with my predictions of Switches and the NOISEttes, but since I only gave them 70% chance of stardom, I’m not too embarrassed. So, let’s see what’s on the cards for 2008…
Colbie Caillat
Already a top 5 hit in the USA and whizzing up the charts all over Europe, I’m pretty confident that Colbie’s single Bubbly will also bring the Californian 22-year-old huge success in the UK. It’s a cute song, catchy but nothing overly exciting, which is probably the key to its popularity. Underwhelming always does seem to sell well. Still I can’t say I dislike it, although I might feel different after the zillionth time I hear it, which probably isn’t too far away.
Potential hit: Bubbly
Chance: 85%
Quality: 70%
Adele
Yet again I feel quite underwhelmed by this artist, yet extremely confident of her success. In fact I expect Adele will be the top of every ‘ones to watch’ list this month, since she’s already gaining popularity and critical acclaim, and she follows in the footsteps of Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, being a young London girl singing about real life issues. I’ve been following Adele since early 2007, so it’s nice to see her doing well, but I don’t think I’ll be bothering with her album. I’ll probably be one of very few who doesn’t own it by the end of 2008, though.
Potential hit: Chasing Pavements
Chance: 90%
Quality: 65%
Lykke Li
We’ve been waiting so long for a new album from Robyn, and I fear it’ll still be a while yet, so here is Lykke Li with some ace new Swedish urban-indie-electro-pop to keep us going. Like Adele she has been getting a lot of buzz recently, both in Sweden and outside, and it seems like she will soon breakthrough worldwide (even in just an indie way rather than getting no.1 hits quite yet) even though she hasn’t even released her first album in Sweden. I’m not sure when that will be as I don’t think it’s quite ready yet but I’m very excited for hearing it. Her first hit, Little Bit, was fantastic, but I also thorougly recommended her gorgeous love song Tonight.
Potential hit: Little Bit
Chance: 70%
Quality: 95%
The Ting Tings
Some of you might remember a band called Dear Eskiimo, who were around 2 or 3 years ago, made some great, unusual pop songs but never got any further than an appearance on MTV’s Brand Spanking New live show. They disbanded, and the cute and charismatic singer Katie and the drummer Jules created a new group called The Ting Tings, which is really hard to type without writing Thing. They’re similar to Dear Eskiimo but so far I’m not as impressed with the music, although NME has had the opposite reaction and put That’s Not My Name quite high up in their chart of 2007. Personally I prefer Fruit Machine. Ka-ching ka-ching!
Potential hit: Fruit Machine
Chance: 55%
Quality: 70%
Those Dancing Days
I posted their fantastic single Hitten (which means “the hit” in Swedish) on Into The Groove in February, and since then it has become a pretty big indie hit in Sweden. The group are now gaining popularity in the UK, having played a few gigs and been championed by the NME, who I’m beginning to think are reading my blogs to find people to predict as the next big thing (apparently they’ve also been supporting Alphabeat recently). I don’t know if TDD have much chance of success, since even The Pipettes (who are similar but a bit more mainstream) never got much further than cult popularity, but I think cult popularity would be considered a pretty good thing for these lovely Swedes.
Potential hit: Hitten
Chance: 40%
Quality: 95%
So, it looks like it’s going to be the year of the girls. I do hope so!
Edit: Apparently Colbie Caillat has already tried and failed in the UK, so perhaps you should disregard everything I’ve said. Well, I did only have a TV for 3 months of this year, and spent another 4 in another country, I can’t be blamed for being a bit out of touch…