By Michelle Hyun Kim, Jaelani Turner-Williams, Kemet High, Vrinda Jagota, and Colin Joyce of Third Bridge Creative

In this week’s column exploring rising artists, we’re looking at Toronto’s indie-pop multi-instrumentalist, Miami’s dance revival, another promising rapper widening the Midwest’s reign, the U.K.’s nostalgia-driven indie-pop princess, and Barcelona’s bratty drill provocateur. 

Luna Li

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 3,764
Genre: Indie pop
Country: Canada

Korean Canadian singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Luna Li is on the verge of becoming an indie-pop star. After gaining an online audience in 2020 with her bedroom performances — in which she would play everything from harp to bass — she proved she wasn’t just a TikTok darling with her expansive 2022 debut album, Duality. The momentum is only growing as she prepares to release her sophomore LP, When A Thought Grows Wings, due out August 23 via In Real Life/AWAL. After getting No. 1 placements on Spotify’s All New Indie, Jasmine, and Indie All Stars playlists, the project's first single, "Confusion Song," has gained 700k streams since its May 14 release, leading Li to get back over 1 million Spotify monthly listeners, with a 28% increase in the past month that’s brought her to 1.28 million in total.

Take Van

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 47,482
Genre: Pop
Country: U.S.

Three albums into their career, Miami native Take Van rules the dance music scene on their latest LP, In My Mind We’re Great. While Van’s previous albums, You Online and Far Away, leaned on experimental pop influences, In My Mind marks a turning point in Van’s sound, heading into rapturous and invigorating electronic production. Van brings the offbeat humor and jams on TikTok to their 279k followers, but on Spotify, the independent artist is part of the next era of dance with 365K monthly Spotify listeners, a 39% increase since March. While their most-played track “In My Head” (8.9 million Spotify streams), maintains a presence on editorial playlist ‘fit check two years after its release, Van’s jungle-candied new song “In and Out” (24k Spotify streams) can be heard on planet rave and All New Dance.

VonOff1700

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 22,044
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.

In January, VonOff1700 staked his claim in the Midwest’s rap scene with “Opps On Deck,” an anthemic track about putting his enemies on t-shirts. The #FreeMyHoodFuckYoHood cut, which samples Gucci Mane’s “On Deck,” grew legs on TikTok as a popular soundbite, on YouTube thanks to the music video (which has nearly 6 million views), and also on Spotify, where it has been streamed just under 5 million times and added to playlists like Most Necessary. Alongside his live performance of the track via On The Radar’s platform in late May, he’s more than tripled his Spotify monthly listener count since the album’s April 23 release, bringing him to 843k. With a bevy of co-signs from artists like Sexyy Red, Rod Wave, and Polo G, 2024 is shaping up to be a favorable year for the rising rapper.

Rachel Chinouriri

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 5,891
Genre: Indie Pop
Country: U.K.

Rachel Chinouriri reimagines Y2K indie-pop with a unique blend of candor, humor, and nostalgia. Her star power has risen significantly since late last year: She toured with Lewis Capaldi and Louis Tomlinson, got a shoutout from Adele, and finally released her debut full-length album, What A Devastating Turn of Events. The 25-year-old has been making music since she was 17, when she would borrow her mother’s laptop to upload tracks to SoundCloud. Eventually, she caught the attention of British label Parlophone. She released a few EPs on the label and garnered “rising artist” accolades from publications like The Guardian and Line of Best Fit. And, in 2022, her track “So My Darling (Acoustic),” went viral on TikTok. It’s all primed her for much-deserved success: her debut album, which was released May 3, hit #17 on the UK’s Top 100 Albums chart. 

Bb trickz

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 1,191
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: Spain

Alternately described as a “drill savior,” a “trash-talking provocateur,” and “the most hated rapper in Spain,” it’s clear that the Barcelona-born artist is clearly striking a nerve. Last year, she had her first taste of virality with her debut single “Missionsuicida,” a bratty rap track that samples the dramatic production of the Law and Order theme song. Her latest hit, “Jálale alv,” featuring young Mexican star Kevin AMF, is her biggest hit yet, garnering 22.3 million streams on Spotify and at least 63k posts on TikTok since its early May release. The track, which applies her cutecore lens to traditional dembow rhythms, demonstrates her knack for tapping into the sound of the moment, while still maintaining her distinct style. It’s an approach that’s earned her a lot of attention, including placements on the popular playlists Éxitos México, Dembow Pegao, MEXCLA, and Viral Latino.

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

Visualizations by Nicki Camberg and cover image by Crasianne Tirado; data as of June 10, 2024.