Foreign Artists In Control of their Career In 2014

Uzo Chikere

John Newman, Banks, Ella Eyre, Rich Homie Quan. They are hardly household names yet, but these foreign music makers including pop stars in the making, soulful UK upstarts, an up and coming rapper, and a few hot groups gave good account of themselves this out-gone year.

John Newman
Genre: Soul

After the British soul singer topped the U.K. singles chart in 2012 as the featured vocalist on Rudimental's song "Feel The Love," Newman took his own single, the stunning debut "Love Me Again," to the top of the same chart a year later. Now Newman is ready for a stateside takeover. His first full-length LP, "Tribute," hit U.S. retailers on Jan. 7, and in the same week, the 23-year-old displayed his heartfelt crooning on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and at his first proper U.S. headlining show at New York's Bowery Ballroom. This talented vocalist's following multiplied in the months of 2014, as he plotted more U.S. headlining shows and stops by Coachella festival last April.

FKA twigs

Some of last year’s most enticing left-of-the-dial pop sounds come from FKA twigs, who's still riding high off the buzzworthy success of her "EP2," a sensuous brew of trip-hop and R&B released via Young Turks, and self-produced along with "Yeezus" collaborator Arca. Twigs is trained in ballet (she served as a backup dancer in Jessie J's "Do It Like a Dude" video) and though her focus is on music now, her overall artistic eye has led to thought-provoking music videos, stunning magazine covers, and a refreshing, Grimes-like outsider perspective to her music. Signed to Young Turks, the forward-thinking British label of The xx and Sampha, expect more from this shape-shifter in the coming months.

Lo-Fang

On February 25, 2014, electro-soul artist Matthew Hemerlein released "Blue Film," his provocative debut full-length under the pseudonym Lo-Fang, through indie mainstay 4AD. Lo-Fang's chilly re-imagining of soul music invited James Blake comparisons, and has already found a famous fan in Lorde -- the "Royals" star connected with Hemerlein in Los Angeles in December, and invited the Maryland native to open for her on her upcoming headlining tour. As Lo-Fang prepares to entertain audiences at 4,000-capacity venues, look for the daring "Blue Film" to earn raves within the indie community.

Holychild

Holychild's Liz Nistico and Louie Diller have managed to garner hundreds of thousands of YouTube views and Sound cloud plays for songs like "Watching Waiting" and "Happy With Me" over the past year. Although being hailed by the Fader and blogs like Pretty Much Amazing helped matters, the quality of the Los Angeles duo's brightly colored, sometimes-sarcastic indie-pop songs speaks for itself. "Hopefully we'll get out our [debut] EP as soon as possible," says Nistico. And with a label deal imminent, fans will likely be hearing more material from this new act in the days ahead.

Banks,

With artists like Aluna George and Jessie Ware crafting stunning debuts in recent years, the music world is full of forward-thinking up-and-comers in R&B. Enter Jillian Banks--known onstage simply by her surname--who evokes the smoky vocals of Lana Del Rey paired with the ominous soundscapes of the Weeknd, whom she's already toured with. Standout tracks "This Is What It Feels Like" and "Waiting Game" (produced by fellow 2014 Artist to Watch Sohn) have already topped a million spins on Sound cloud, building anticipation for a more substantial release in 2014.