The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2017 - Performers: Music

Adored by kids and their parents alike, man mountain Michael Omari is grime’s first pop star, sending his debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, to number one in March. From performing with Ed Sheeran at the Brit Awards to rapping on records with everyone from Linkin Park to Little Mix, he has been a central figure in British music this year. If he tweets it, it becomes news. Three homecoming headline shows at Brixton Academy in May cemented his lofty status.

With indie music far less dominant than it was a decade ago, Matt Healy and his band have found a way for him to be a swaggering rock star and still make the kind of glossy pop music that sells widely. On last year’s second album, elaborately titled I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It, they embraced pretension but also great tunes, and ended up being named Best British Group at the 2017 Brit Awards.

The world tour of the most popular singer on the planet ended with a whimper in July when her final two homecoming shows at Wembley Stadium had to be cancelled due to damage to her vocal cords. Nevertheless, no one can call Adele’s follow-up to the unparalleled success of her second album, 21, a failure. With more than 20 million copies sold worldwide of her 25 album since 2015, and 121 concerts on that tour completed, she remains adored beyond compare.

With his operatic reinvention of Luis Bunuel’s iconic film The Exterminating Angel, recently brought to Covent Garden from Salzburg, Ades, already established as one of the country’s leading composers, proved that he was capable of a masterpiece for the lyric stage, too.

Given an OBE in the 2016 New Year Honours, Albarn has maintained a restlessly inventive career that never relies on his many past glories. Even a rare moment of looking backwards with the Blur reunion resulted in a great new album, 2015’s The Magic Whip. This year he somehow made sense of a vast cast list of contributors to a new Gorillaz album, and showed that no collaboration is too unlikely by finding room for his old rival Noel Gallagher.

Winner of the Best Young Singer at this year’s International Opera Awards and of the Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Alder has made a name for herself as a soprano of huge potential. Suddenly her name is everywhere.

In the coming season, Barenboim will be bringing his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in which Israeli and Palestinian musicians share desks, to the Southbank Centre for the first time. Another London event commemorates his first wife, the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who gave highly charged performances with him 40 years ago on the South Bank.

As the multi-million upgrade of the Royal Opera foyer and Linbury Studio Theatre approaches completion, Beard continues to weave his magic with the well-heeled donors who make it possible without calls on the public purse.

Rita Ekwere followed Adele, Jessie J, Ellie Goulding and Sam Smith in being named top of the BBC Sound of… poll at the start of this year. It’s a reliable barometer for next big things, though this Catford soul singer is in no rush. Like Stormzy, with whom she duets on her song My Hood, Ray BLK’s got this far without signing a record deal. She appeared on the recent Tinie Tempah and Gorillaz albums and her own album, whenever it may appear, should present her as a strong, uncompromising woman in the Amy Winehouse style.

Appointed last year as the music director of ENO, the accomplished and respected Brabbins is well placed to bring artistic stability to the embattled organisation. In the coming season he conducts a new opera, Marnie, by Nico Muhly.

The barefoot singer-songwriter’s memorable Mercury Prize victory for his debut album in 2015 set him up nicely for the next step. He appeared alongside Grace Jones and Mavis Staples on Damon Albarn’s latest Gorillaz album, released an ambitious new single, the six-minute-30-second Phantom of Aleppoville, and has just brought out a second album that adds new instrumentation to his enigmatic piano sound.

Radio 1 marked its 50th anniversary on September 30 with a “pop-up” station, Radio 1 Vintage, but controller Ben Cooper’s energies are much more focused on future-proofing this powerful brand. Radio 1’s reach is up half a million from the first quarter of 2017 to 9.6 million for the quarter to June (statistics which don’t include YouTube and social media) and despite many young people turning to Spotify playlists for music discovery, Cooper is confident that Radio 1 remains the “village pump where young people come together”.

He fervently believes a new audience can be found that straddles existing frontiers of classical, electronic, jazz, world, rock and pop. We’re heading, he believes, towards a “boundary-less age of music”.

Always in demand as one of rock and roll’s most quotable interviewees, the youngest Gallagher’s musical fortunes faded with his post-Oasis band, Beady Eye. But a 2016 documentary, Supersonic, reminded the world how gigantic his group was in the Nineties, and his sarky Twitter persona has, if anything, made him even more beloved. Now he has a new record deal and his first solo album. Named after his regular social media sign-off, it’s called As You Were.

New commissions and contemporary music generally have been skillfully interwoven into the Wigmore Hall’s fundamentally conservative ethic without apparently alienating too many of the loyal traditionalists. Gilhooly’s Irish charm and musical training — he’s a former singer — have proved useful assets.

Named the world’s highest-earning DJ by Forbes for the fifth year running, Scotsman Harris’s wallet is mainly bulging thanks to his regular $400,000-a-night shows in Las Vegas, but his records don’t do too badly either. His latest album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 has more stars on it than the rest of the chart put together, with Katy Perry, Frank Ocean and Ariana Grande all contributing. Its single, Feels, added to his remarkable tally of UK number one singles.

Being a concert pianist of the highest calibre is only one of Hough’s accomplishments: he also has composing, writing and multifarious other talents. Awards are unsurprisingly showered upon him and he has a substantial social media following.

This year, Iley became the latest chairman of the Brits committee, organising the UK industry’s flagship ceremony, which included two posthumous awards for David Bowie and an emotional tribute to George Michael. He had a special focus on improving the diversity of the Brits academy and its nominees. The rest of the year, he oversees Sony label imprints including Columbia, RCA and Simon Cowell’s Syco, releasing records by British stars such as Robbie Williams, Mark Ronson and George Ezra.

Sir Elton’s latest album, Wonderful Crazy Night, was another top 10 hit in the UK and US, and provided him with an excuse to tour some of Britain’s less obvious stadiums including Widnes, Ipswich and Peterborough. Away from his solo career, he’s been composing the score for a Broadway musical version of The Devil Wears Prada. A biopic, called Rocketman, and a new autobiography are also in the works.

The head of the UK arm of the world’s biggest record label has plenty of British giants to keep an eye on, including Take That, the Rolling Stones, U2 and Florence + the Machine. His organisation includes the familiar imprints Polydor, Decca and Island, whose late superstar Amy Winehouse was the subject of the Oscar-winning 2015 documentary Amy. Joseph was the film’s executive producer. Next year he will oversee his company’s office move from Kensington to the redeveloped King’s Cross area.

Refinement allied to edge-of-seat passion characterises Jurowski’s performances with the LPO. His programming imaginatively combines old and new, and his charisma, coupled with musical talent of the highest order, has won him a loyal following.

Under her inclusive, access-conscious leadership, the Southbank Centre continues to claim a space at the centre of the nation’s artistic life. Overseeing the reopening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room gives her the opportunity to maximise alternative initiatives of all kinds.

Despite setbacks, Kenyon remains confident that London will one day have a world-class concert hall, which will be part of a Centre for Music in the capital, capable of addressing the needs of young and old.

Following a merger with Ticketmaster in 2010, concert promoter Live Nation has involvement in about 180,000 events around the world annually. In London that includes the Wireless, Lovebox and Citadel festivals, as well as mid-size shows at venues such as the O2 Academy Brixton, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, O2 Forum Kentish Town and Jazz Café.

When the BBC revealed its wage bill in July, Laverne was edged out by Vanessa Feltz as the highest-paid woman in radio. Her morning show on 6 Music is a popular place to discover new acts and rediscover lost gems, and was one of the key factors in her station enjoying its highest ever audience figures in 2017. She’s also a familiar face on TV, hosting the Mercury Prize ceremony and presenting the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage, and is a co-founder of the women’s website The Pool.

In the streaming age a new song can become huge fast, but it’s much harder to make a consistent success of a new artist. Dua Lipa, a Camden singer of Kosovar-Albanian descent, is the closest the UK has come to launching a big new star in a while. Collaborations with Sean Paul and Martin Garrix, as well as her own songs Be The One and Hotter Than Hell, have all been international hits. In the summer she sent her debut album into the UK top five and scored her first number one single with New Rules.

The chairman and CEO of Warner Music UK since 2013, Lousada was promoted again this year and will now take global responsibility for label subsidiaries including Atlantic and Parlophone. That includes two of the UK’s biggest music exports, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. He’s tasked with making Warner a success in the streaming economy, including launching “The Firepit”, a new creative content division with its own recording studio.

Having returned from maternity leave in June after having her second child with her fellow DJ and Radio 1 host Thomas “Toddla T” Bell, Annie MacManus is back in pole position as the youth station’s chief tastemaker. Her 7pm show is the point in the schedule when the daytime chart fare gives way to something more interesting: being named her Hottest Record in the World is an honour that has opened doors for plenty of new bands, and with her AMP compilation albums and club events, she remains highly influential outside the BBC too.

In contrast to the retro solo stylings of his former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles, first to jump ship Malik has done well trading in futuristic R&B made with the help of Frank Ocean’s producer James “Malay” Ho. In fashion, this boyfriend of Gigi Hadid has made shoes with Giuseppe Zanotti and clothes with Versace. In music, his singles have sold well, including his duet with Taylor Swift, I Don’t Wanna Live Forever, but he has been held back by his refusal so far to play a solo concert.

Martin’s band Coldplay are setting the blueprint for how to stay on top as a stadium band. Their latest stadium tour, which finishes next month, has been one of the great live spectacles thanks to the flashing wristbands that they give to every attendee. Their most recent album, A Head Full of Dreams, saw them working with pop producers Stargate and guest singers Beyonce and Tove Lo.

Proving that the possibilities for tonal music are by no means exhausted, Matthews remains a popular recipient of commissions large and small, including last year’s set of Variations on a Theme of Haydn for piano duet.

The big feather in McDowell’s cap is Sir Simon Rattle, who takes the helm of her LSO this autumn. The even bigger prize of a new concert hall for London remains tantalisingly elusive.

Recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award, Middleton has been working with top singers all over the world, serving also as a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

AEG operates the most popular venue in the world, the O2 Arena, as well as the Eventim Apollo, the SSE Arena, Wembley and the British Summertime outdoor shows in Hyde Park. This year, the O2 celebrated 10 years since Bon Jovi played the first concert there. Less positively, the company has had to strengthen security since the Manchester Arena terror attack, and is engaged in a “turf war” with the operators of New York’s Madison Square Garden.

As the newly refurbished Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room come back into commission next year, the director of music trebles the spaces at her disposal. Expect a renewed commitment to the educational and commissioning remit of the programme.

Many Britain’s Got Talent winners fade quickly into obscurity, but 2017’s champion Tokio Myers’s fusion of classical and pop tunes proved himself as a name to watch. Previously part of a support band for Kanye West and Amy Winehouse, Myers lent his talent to a worthy cause in June, co-producing and contributing to a cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water in aid of those impacted by the Grenfell Tower fire.

He’s recently hinted that he won’t be at the Royal Opera for ever, but London is fortunate to have this charismatic, multi-talented musician at the head of its flagship institution until at least 2020.

Under its new director, the BBC Proms has this year sought new audiences and new locations, even travelling outside London to Hull, with a familiar blend of classic and contemporary repertoire, as well as concerts designed for people with autism and other disabilities.

After five years of silence, and seven years since his popular peak with his four-times platinum album The Defamation of Strickland Banks, Ben Drew is back with new songs. He’s in soul singer mode this time after the grim rap sounds of his Ill Manors album and film, and shaping up for renewed commercial appeal. However, that doesn’t mean he’s softened, as shown by the intense video for his new song, In the Name of Man, which features faceless puppets portraying the refugee crisis.

Still the benchmark for any band with the impossible dream of huge commercial success without compromise, Radiohead have edged a tiny bit towards crowd-pleasing form in recent years. There was A Moon Shaped Pool, a beautiful 2016 album dominated by orchestral strings. They even played Creep, the early hit with which they have a frosty relationship, during their Glastonbury headline slot this summer. Meanwhile, guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s career as a film composer is flourishing.

A lone familiar name in UK rap when he won the Mercury Prize for his debut album, Boy in Da Corner, in 2003, Dylan Mills now finds himself among a jostling crowd of younger success stories. It’s only right that he should return to reap the rewards of being a grime pioneer in this fruitful time. He’s done so with a strong, sparse new long-player, Raskit, that rejects the pop sounds he has embraced recently but has little time for his descendants either: a “bunch of dilutes and a few flukes” as he calls them.

The 10-day Rattlefest that recently launched conductor Sir Simon’s new incumbency at the London Symphony Orchestra betokens a vibrant new era for the orchestra and for music generally in the capital.

His pre-concert lectures on the music he plays are as eagerly awaited as the performances themselves and a new book, Music Comes from Silence, was published earlier this year. Recent concerts have imaginatively interpolated music by his compatriot Bela Bartok and others into the more familiar repertoire of the Viennese classics.

Second only to Adele in terms of expectations for his latest release, Sheeran’s third album ÷ has proved to be vastly successful, almost constantly number one in the UK since its March appearance and already seven times platinum. Equally, its lead single Shape of You has been the defining anthem of the year. And he’s still getting bigger — next on the agenda is four Wembley Stadium concerts for summer 2018, trumping his three there in 2015.

Joseph Adenuga boldly called his first album Greatest Hits way back in 2007, but it’s only now that he’s really retrospective-worthy, cited by everyone from Drake to the Mercury Prize panel as a vital voice in music. He’s been well positioned to lead grime, the brash, edgy London rap sound that he pioneered, into mainstream acceptance. His rise culminated in August with an all-day showcase for the acts on his record label, Boy Better Know, at the O2 Arena.

Walsall-raised, south London-based Smith was discovered singing on YouTube. Well-received early singles, such as Blue Lights, about young black people’s relationship with the police, and Beautiful Little Fools, about female aspirations, marked her out as more serious than some R&B singers. The most notable early fan was Canadian superstar Drake, who featured her twice on his recent More Life project. A debut album is on the way next year.

Always the member of the boy band One Direction who seemed most like a proper rock star, Styles has managed to earn some credibility away from the pop world by releasing an ambitious debut solo album on which he channels David Bowie and the Rolling Stones. He’s following his own passions rather than putting his young core fanbase first, which also explains his excellent choice for a movie acting debut: Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

Tappuni has been promoting with record label Communion from its origins in the Notting Hill Arts Club. Now he puts on festivals across the UK and US as well as hosting his weekly show on Xfm. In March he helped pull off an intimate gig in St Stephen’s Church in Shepherd’s Bush, where acts including Mumford & Sons and Michael Kiwanuka raised money for the Felix Project tackling food poverty in the capital.

Knighted this year, Terfel continues to delight audiences with such richly endowed characterisations as that of the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger in Covent Garden’s new production.

The leading bass-baritone continues to feature in high-profile events such as Thomas Ades’s The Exterminating Angel at Covent Garden and Brett Dean’s Hamlet at Glyndebourne. He has also recently starred as the artist Oskar Kokoschka reliving his tempestuous relationship with Alma Mahler in John Casken’s Kokoschka’s Doll.

Few bands have had such an influence on the past decade of music than Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith, whose haunting guitar sound with electronic touches has been referenced everywhere from TV soundtracks to mainstream pop. On their third album, I See You, they found a way to push their sound forwards, embracing more uplifting moments in song. The new material also made for some dazzling live performances, not least their seven nights at Brixton Academy in March.