Today, Pandora revealed its highly-anticipated annual list, Artists to Watch 2025: The Pandora Ten. For almost a decade, the streaming platform has identified a group of ten emerging artists across all genres that it believes will break through in the coming year.
Pandora, which continues to redefine the way new artists are discovered and amplified, remains dedicated to supporting artists throughout their journey. With the Pandora Ten, the platform is putting its support behind music’s next generation of rising stars.
By leveraging a combination of advanced listening data analysis, along with human curation and insight by Pandora programmers, the platform was able to accurately anticipate artists’ launch to stardom and lasting impact.
Over the years, Pandora’s predictions have included Post Malone in 2016; Lizzo and Dua Lipa in 2017; H.E.R. and Ashley McBryde in 2018; Summer Walker and Rauw Alejandro in 2019; Doja Cat, Roddy Ricch, and Tones And I in 2020; The Kid LAROI and Tate McRae in 2021; PinkPantheress in 2022; Kim Petras and Coco Jones in 2023; and Tyla and Reneé Rapp in 2024.
“Pandora prides itself on being a platform that listeners can turn to for discovering new music, and year after year the platform continues to successfully identify the rising stars across all genres,” said Steve Blatter, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Music Programming at SiriusXM and Pandora.
“With our expert programming team, combined with listening data and insights, we were able to narrow down an extensive list of talented new artists to get our Pandora Ten, the ones we believe will make the biggest impact in 2025 and beyond.”
Along with the Pandora Ten, Pandora highlights emerging artists across various genres such as Country and Latin.
Megan Woods Named One Of Pandora’s Artists To Watch In 2025
The 2025 Pandora Ten:
Megan Woods: Megan Woods is from Boston, Massachusetts where God planted a love for music in her at a really young age, but she found herself wrestling with her sense of self-worth. Developing her relationship with Christ through her songwriting began her healing process and leaning into God’s love after coming from a place of worthlessness shows up in all the songs she writes. She eventually signed a record deal with Fair Trade Services that’s home to CeCe Winans, MercyMe and Phil Wickham.
Megan has burst onto the scene with a powerful anthem called “The Truth” which has shown great promise on all of the Pandora stations it has been placed on, in addition to SiriusXM’s The Message. She is at the forefront of a new trend towards younger-leaning audiences seeking powerful faith-based music they can relate to.
Alex Warren: From sharing his personal struggles to his current rise to stardom, the 23-year-old singer-songwriter has connected with Pandora listeners through his songwriting and inspiring life story. His success continues to skyrocket across Pandora with support for the breakout singles “Burning Down” and “Carry You Home” across top stations.
Earlier this year, Alex was chosen to be part of SiriusXM and Pandora’s Artist Accelerator program, which develops and breaks new artists by leveraging the massive audience of both SiriusXM and Pandora.
CYRIL: The Aussie-born producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist had his breakthrough in 2023 with “Stumblin’ In,” which soared on across streaming platforms and TikTok, becoming the most-played song across multiple countries.CYRIL’s remix of Teddy Swims’ “The Door” has been #1 on Pandora’s MIXR and airplay many weeks in a row. He has reached 8.2M solo streams on platform since 2023, with “Stumblin’ In,” his most popular electronic/pop crossover hit.
Gigi Perez: After finding instant viral success, the rising alternative singer-songwriter released her debut EP, How To Catch A Falling Knife in April 2023 and spent the year performing at various festivals and headline shows. Gigi began to release songs independently, starting with “Normalcy,” her first-ever self-produced track “Please Be Rude,” as well as the hit single, “Sailor Song,” that amassed 500k+ streams on Pandora over the past 90 days and landed her first-ever U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart entry, #1 on the UK singles chart, and continues to climb charts around the world.
She’s hitting the road with girl in red this fall, in addition to her own headline shows – up next for Gigi is new music, and many more live shows.
Kapo: Juan David Loaiza Sepúlveda, known in the music industry as Kapo, is a 26-year-old artist from Colombia who was discovered and signed by Nicky Jam’s La Industria Inc. label. The performer and a composer broke out this summer with the viral success of the single “Ohnana,” followed by “UWAIE”, both of which propelled Kapo to global recognition across Europe and the Americas.
His virality and growth have made him a standout on Pandora’s El Pulso station, with both “Ohnana” and “UWAIE” landing consistently in the top 20 most-thumbed-up tracks on the station during the latter half of the year.
Further cementing his recognition as an Artist to Watch, Kapo’s Pandora streams have grown 500% in the last three months alone, topping 4.3 million during that period. In his short moment in the spotlight, Kapo has already collaborated with some of the biggest artists in the industry, including Nicky Jam, Farruko, Manuel Turizo, Jhayco and others.
Leon Thomas: The 30-year-old Brooklyn native, seamlessly bridges the worlds of music, acting, and production. Thomas made a notable debut with his album Electric Dusk(2023), featuring collaborations with Victoria Monét, Benny the Butcher, and Ty Dolla $ign, and his groundbreaking work on SZA’s “Snooze” earned him a Grammy in 2024, highlighting his innovative influence in shaping contemporary R&B.
With his latest album MUTT, Thomas continues to explore the complexities of love and ambition through with the title track rising up the charts and thriving across SiriusXM’s The Heat and Pandora’s Blueprint.
Natalie Jane: Coming off of a headlining EU/UK tour, Natalie Jane continues to break through to Pandora listeners across the platform. The hit single “Somebody to Someone (I Just Wanna Fall in Love)” over indexed on Pandora this year, leading to the adds on major Pandora pop stations including Today’s Hits, Today’s Adult Hits, Pop Space, New Pop, Women in Pop, This Year in Pop.
The Funeral Portrait: Greetings from Suffocate City, The Funeral Portrait’s first full-length album with Better Noise Music, showcases the band’s unique blend of emotionally raw and anthemic rock. The album features collaborations with artists like Bert McCracken of The Used and Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills, mixing mainstream rock appeal with nostalgic nods to the 2000s Warped Tour scene.
On Pandora, the band continues to make waves with over 1.3 million lifetime streams on the platform with more to come in the next year. Frontman Lee Jennings describes the band as a voice for “weirdos and misfits,” a message that resonates with their diverse, inclusive audience.
Veeze: Detroit’s beloved cult artist is proving to be a superstar in the making with his unconventional flow and progressive sound. Since his 2019 debut, Navy Wavy, his buzz has grown nationally with hits like “Law ‘N’ Order” and high-profile collaborations with Lil Yachty, 42 Dugg, and Lil Baby. His 2023 debut album, Ganger, catapulted him further, with standout singles like “Not a Drill” and “GOMD” drawing widespread attention.
Following a sold-out Ganger Tour, Veeze launched his own imprint, Navy Wavy, in partnership with Warner Records—cementing his status as a rising Gen Z rap icon. Pandora continues to spotlight Veeze across stations and he was a performer at SiriusXM and Pandora’s recent HBCU Homecoming Pop Out Concert.
Zach Top: Top is quickly establishing himself as a preeminent artist to watch following the release of his debut album, Cold Beer & Country Music, a sold-out headlining tour and his first CMA nomination for new artist of the year. Pandora has been the leading DSP supporting his album with continuous play across stations and SiriusXM’s The Highway has supported with heavy airplay as well.
Adding to his breakout year, his viral single, “I Never Lie,” debuted on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart. Top has also spent much of this year on Lainey Wilson’s “Country’s Cool Again” tour and will be direct support for select Alan Jackson dates in 2025.
