Your Top Artists of 2023

We’ve now revealed your choices for the best tracks and best albums or EPs of 2023. There were some fantastic choices and they’re reflected here too – it’s no surprise that the winners in this category will reflect the others quite closely so let’s celebrate your favourite five people in independent music…

5. Beth McKenzie

Beth McKenzie’s year of music has been wonderful. Her songs are playful and personal and reflect exactly who she is as a person. Not only that, she’s wonderful to follow on social media and her Heartstopper POV TikToks were one of the things we enjoyed most. Next year will be brilliant for Beth and we’re more excited than ever about her future.

4. MALKA

MALKA, or Tamara Schlesinger in the real world is literally one of our favourite people – and clearly she’s one of yours too. Not only has her career given us some of our fave music ever, her work with the Hen Hoose collective is one of the brightest stars guiding the way of music in Scotland. I have absolutely no idea how she manages to do all that she does and still goes on to create an album as astounding as Anatomy of Sight.

3. Caitlin Lavagna

We’re sooooo happy to see Caitlin here. She’s wonderful – one of the nicest people in music – and it’s a joy to follow her. She’s released some brilliant singles this year alongside her theatrical and performance work and the snippets we’ve seen of the latter on her socials have convinced us that we have to catch her performing live next year.

2. MACY

What an amazing year for Macy. A string of massive singles, a TuneFountain Award winning EP AND a performance in front of 50,000 people in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a chart topper – and we’re pretty sure that you’ll be seeing her hit the top of the official UK charts in the next year or two so she’ll then be able to cross that off her list of awesomeness!

1. Maisie Donkanha

Maisie received more votes than anyone else by a massive margin this year – evidence enough that she has picked up a following that will see her music career hit the stratosphere. Her music is finding an audience that will only grow and the moment she crosses to the mainstream we think you’ll be seeing her everywhere. It’s easy to see why so many people voted for Maisie and I’m sure that you’re all as excited as I am to see what she does next year.