Tomorrow’s Five: Alex Warren, Ichiko Aoba, Kunmie, ADÉLA, Bren Joy

Third Bridge Creative -

By Jaelani Turner-Williams, Leah Mandel, Kemet High, Colin Joyce, and Brandon Ousley of Third Bridge Creative

Alex Warren

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 150

Genre: Folk Pop

Country: United States

Before the California-born singer-songwriter Alex Warren was known for his sweeping, emotional guitar pop songs, he was extremely online. A popular short-form content creator for the better part of the decade, he was a co-founder of TikTok-creator collective, The Hype House, where he became known for his comedy videos. Warren leveraged his personality into a musical career when he began releasing songs independently in 2021. Heartfelt and sincere from the beginning, he draws on a soaring sound that recalls radio-ready pop rock from the likes of Imagine Dragons, Benson Boone and Noah Kahan. Since signing to Atlantic Records in 2022, Warren has slowly become a charts staple: his most recent single, “Ordinary,” is his biggest yet, peaking at #43 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the time since its February release, the track has garnered over 122M streams on Spotify alone, and Warren has seen his Spotify monthly listeners grow by over 9M—a sign that his ascendancy won’t be ending any time soon.

Ichiko Aoba

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 6,924

Genre: Indie

Country: Japan

Japanese singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba has consistently released lovely, low-key folk music for over 15 years, slowly growing a devoted fan base with little more than a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and her elliptical, otherworldly vocals. In 2020, her consistency and longevity was rewarded as her album Windswept Adan—full of psychedelic string arrangements on top of her otherwise simple songs—served to break her out of the international underground. That album, self-released on her own label hermine, peaked at #43 on the Billboard Japan charts. This February, she released her new album, Luminescent Creatures to continued international success. The album garnered critical acclaim—including a profile in The Fader and a Best New Music designation at Pitchfork—and has also thrived on streaming platforms. After placements on taste-making playlists like lorem and All New Indie, Aoba now has over 1.7M monthly listeners on Spotify, an impressive total for an artist who’s largely been content to operate in the underground.

Kunmie

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 380

Genre: Afrobeats

Country: Nigeria

With only one project to his name, Nigerian afrobeats singer Kunmie has already come out of the cut as an artist to watch. In mid-February, he released his debut single “Arike,” a buttery afro-fusion ballad about a love that has him in a chokehold. The song quickly soared online, becoming the soundtrack to over 663K videos on TikTok in the last month. The record has since been streamed on Spotify 16M times, with Kunmie himself earning 1.7M monthly listeners on the platform. “Arike” has made the biggest splash in its home country–it currently sits at No. 1 on Nigerian Spotify Weekly Top 50 and Apple Music Top Tracks charts. It cracked the top 10 on Billboard’s U.S. Afrobeats chart almost immediately upon release. This month, Kunmie released his debut EP, Before We Became Strangers, featuring “Arike” and another standout single, “majẹkajá” (currently at 383K streams on Spotify), marking Kunmie’s official arrival in afrobeats.

ADÉLA

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 4,944

Genre: Pop

Country: Slovakia

Slovakian singer ADÉLA began on Dream Academy, a Making the Band-type show produced by HYBE and Geffen Records. Though she didn’t end up in the winning girl group KATSEYE, ADÉLA is now making her own path. Her track “SUPERSCAR,” is doing solid numbers with 8.4M streams on Spotify since last October, and February’s “MACHINE GIRL” isn’t far behind at 1.7M streams. The new track—co-written by avant-popstar Grimes— is Lady Gaga-influenced and hyperpop-inflected, which has gotten her featured on Spotify’s “New Pop Revolution” playlist, while the music video, which features Grimes and actress Sofia Wylie, has racked up 560K views on YouTube.

Bren Joy

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 19,210

Genre: R&B/Soul

Country: U.S. 

Alt-R&B singer Bren Joy croons about love and sensibilities with southern charm. On February 21, the Nashville artist released his captivating debut album SUNSET BLACK. While it comes roughly six years after dropping his coming-of-age EP Twenties, all the while, Joy’s music has transcended soul, rap, indie rock, pop, and even gospel. Solo-wise, Joy’s highest streamed track from his debut is the country-imbued “NEVER WANNA LET YOU GO” with 767K Spotify streams, while his Instagram followers have increased by 4K since January, now standing at 46.8K. To accompany his latest release, Bren has also dropped raw versions of his tracks on TikTok, like “NO FEAR/HORSE” (24.9K Spotify streams) and “COUTURE” (103.3K streams).

Portions of this are included in Sound Signal, a bi-weekly newsletter from Third Bridge Creative. Sign up here.

Visualizations by Alejandra Arevalo and cover image by Crasianne Tirado; data as of March 24, 2025.