Every once and again, you make a list, for something, anything. You’re so proud of this list. You take one look at it from a glance and say, ‘I did a good job’. But then upon reflection, you realise something. That your list isn’t as ‘perfect’ as you think it is. There’s this thing that was missing. Then there’s the other thing that you overlooked, and before long, the ‘definitive’ list of whatever you have, doesn’t seem as definitive as you even claimed to begin with. And it is herein that I understood and understand, that in any list ever made, there’s always going to be what made the list, and what didn’t. Simple. There’s never a perfect list of anything, and while from an objective standpoint, the 100 artists from the original Influential Artists list, and the 50 artists from the Influential Up-and-Coming Artists list, seemed to be, on the surface, well-rounded and ‘perfect’ in every sense of the word; the reality of the fact of the matter is this- that behind every list of 100 (and 50), there’s another _____ artists that weren’t picked, for whatever reason. This is why this blog post is for all the honourable mentions, that in any other multiverse or universe, could’ve easily made the actual blog post series, but here on this earth, it didn’t. While over the years, we did delve into the impact and influence of artists like Maddie & Tae, Thomas Rhett, Jess Glynne, Lauren Daigle, NF, Mandy Harvey, Lindsay Ell and Lucy Thomas (to name a few), it just meant that as some artists were discussed, others unfortunately weren’t. Olivia Rodrigo, Ben Platt, Billie Eilish, Carly Pearce, Runaway June, Chance the Rapper, Gabby Barrett and Camila Cabello (to name a few) have all been impactful over the years (and hopefully into the future as well); and have all landed here on this honourable mentions list…which isn’t a bad thing, but nevertheless, a thing that has reminded me, that honourable mentions to any list, are just as impactful, influential, important, and interesting, as the names on the actual list to begin with.

Continue reading Momentous Mondays: Influential artists of the next 5-10 years – Honourable Mentions →