If you imagine the musical lovechild of Halsey and Owl City, you’ll know exactly how Phoebe Ryan sounds. This could put her in the same electro-twee-pop box as Lights, but there’s something about Phoebe and her music that makes me feel she has the potential to be a lot bigger. She appeared out of nowhere in January with a Miguel/R. Kelly mash-up that hit no.1 on Hype Machine, and seemed like a fully-formed pop star. The campaign was perfectly executed, with her first original single Mine following a few weeks after the cover.
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Phoebe wrote for other artists before she began releasing her own material, and had a small hit with a sweet song called Be Okay by Oh Honey, which was covered on Glee. Columbia released the Mine EP in June, and she also appeared on the enjoyable duet We Won’t with another Future Pop star, Jaymes Young. I’ve found the recent trend for timid, glitchy electro-pop quite irritating, but Phoebe’s take on it has more presence and self-belief, and a chance of finding a fanbase outside of Soundcloud. I’m keen to see what’s next from Phoebe, and I don’t want to be over-optimistic, but I’m hopeful that we might even see her ditch the vocal effects and try her hand at becoming a proper pop star in 2016. And since we know Taylor Swift is a fan, we’ve at least got to give her a chance.
Click here to find out more about This Must Be Pop’s Stars of 2016 and come back on 18th December to vote for the artists you think, and hope, will be the biggest stars of 2016. The results will be announced in the Future Pop mailer on 4th January.