In the current age of artists oversharing on social media and in lengthy magazine profiles, it’s been refreshing to see several new names from across different scenes build dedicated fanbases without giving much away. 

While this approach isn’t necessarily new – electronic icons Daft Punk and hip-hop legend MF DOOM achieved global fame from behind robot helmets and a metal mask – it’s certainly become harder to maintain anonymity, or at least some level of mystique. After all, neither act had to worry about feeding the Instagram algorithm or going viral on TikTok during their respective ascendancies in the late 1990s and mid-2000s.

With the turn of a new decade, however, a generation of internet-raised creatives began utilising the online world in innovative new ways and, crucially, on their own terms. Since the mid-2010s there’s been PC Music – the London-formed collective led by visionary Charli xcx-collaborator A.G. Cook – which pushed the boundaries of pop commercialisation while stirring debate around whether the label’s artists were actually real. 

More recently, successful anonymous artists have included PinkPantheress (who didn’t reveal her identity until a year after her bedroom producer breakthrough), electronic enigmas Two Shell, and the horse-mask-wearing DJ horsegiirL (who preferred to stay hidden because of misogyny in the dance scene). 

The movement has reached further corners of the globe too. Masked Egyptian artist TUL8TE (CM ranking 2666) has been hailed as the new face of Gen Z Arab pop. In March 2025, a Rolling Stone profile titled “See The Sound Not The Person” stated that he was scoring global hits (see “Heseeny” and “El Hob Gany”) by letting his artistry — not his identity — take center stage. 

Back in Britain, one of last year’s biggest stars took over the UK rap scene without even showing his face, let alone his full identity. EsDeeKid (CM ranking 339), scored a TikTok hit in February 2025 with "LV Sandals", his collaboration with rappers Fakemink and Rico Ace. "Phantom" (also featuring Rico Ace) later exploded on DSPs and, in June, he dropped his debut album, “Rebel”. But it was after his videos and rumoured identity built hype on social media that the Liverpool rapper became a viral phenomenon.

Over the past six months, his YouTube channel views increased by 55.3M, reflecting a staggering rise of 7.4k%. Meanwhile, his Spotify Monthly Listeners increased by 11M (a huge 2.1k%) throughout the same time period. It’s a similar story on SoundCloud, where his streams have jumped by 17.8M (1.3k%) in just half a year. At the start of December, he also ranked within Chartmetic’s top 500 artists in the world. 

“I don't think anyone planned for the Timothée Chalamet theories, that's just the beauty of the internet,” ponders Tommy Hudson, who runs his own PR company, bigwrld, and works as an A&R for tastemaking label September Recordings. While he believes it “obviously helped expose him to a wider, more mainstream audience, there's a good reason why people keep coming back to the music: it’s fresh, rebellious, and strikingly cool”. 

Another of 2025’s much talked about breakthroughs – an if-you-know-you-know talent who took the music scene by storm – was Dove Ellis. Long before he released any music, videos of his dimly-lit headline show in a crumbling Manchester mansion - where his band performed in the round - went viral on TikTok, sparking comparisons to Jeff Buckley and Radiohead on the Black Country, New Road Reddit page.

The songs he posted on Bandcamp resulted in a bidding war, but he opted for an independent (AMF/Black Butter) over majors. Despite so much interest, the Galway-via-Manchester musician has remained steadfast in his artistic approach. In the song “Away You Stride”, he says “keep their cameras off my face”, while his publicist has described Ellis as “an introverted character." As well as eschewing press interviews, his debut album arrived with no biography and barely any information apart from the track listing and some small details. 

Though a bold approach, the 22-year-old’s unorthodox method of letting his music and live shows do the talking has worked. In the release week of his debut album Blizzard — which arrived after just three singles and, as CLASH noted, “without fanfare but a whisper, landing like an unexpected miracle” — his Spotify Monthly Listeners rose by 108.7K between November 30 and December 7, a 429.6% increase over his average weekly growth. And while on a US tour with one of the most popular rock bands right now, Geese, his Instagram followers substantially increased — by 1.6K during the week of November 2 and November 9, reflecting a 448% rise over the average weekly growth.

“When an artist like Dove Ellis comes along, there's no stopping them,” Hudson says simply. “Incredible music has the power to transcend across mass media and audiences no matter what. His music is very personal and probably emotionally taxing so he leaves everything that needs to be said on his record.” At the same time, he recognizes that “many artists just haven't the desire to become stars so might turn down those high-profile interviews”. In the Manchester-via-Galway artist’s case, he adds, “everyone wants to write about great music”. 

It’s rare for such a new artist to have their music covered by so many of the world’s biggest publications, let alone one who shuns media, but Ellis has bucked that trend. Reflecting somewhat of a turning of the tide, this approach has instead won favor with critics who recognize the vastly different route he could have chosen.

“It must be tempting to go off the deep end when you find yourself as the next one to watch the music world seems to be buzzing over,” wrote Lucy Harbron in a glowing review of “Blizzard” for Far Out Magazine. She continued: “Ellis could easily have gone all in with a million interviews and cover stories, cashing in on the powerful co-signs he’s received… But his reserve only makes “Blizzard” all the more beautiful, offered out with a stunning purity and its mystery still intact.” 

Ellis’ naturally ambiguous nature was explored further in The Guardian’s five-star album review, in which journalist Dave Simpson made the interesting point that “the information age has made it much more difficult for artists to cultivate mystique”. He concluded that this is what makes Ellis “so thoroughly unusual, because so little is known about him”. 

All this seems to point back to an era where artists could let the music take precedence, rather than being forced to constantly post on TikTok and divulge every detail to journalists. Hudson points out, however, that there can be “drawbacks to navigating your career as an elusive artist; in a world where things move fast and attention spans are dwindling, audiences want a constant feed of what their favorite artist is up to or what their interests are”. Not having this access, he suggests, can result in “losing fan loyalty or the excitement that they initially had”. 

From a PR perspective, he feels that anonymity can pose problems. “You’re always trying to give context to the publication you're pitching to,” he says… "whether it's an appearance at a cool show, who your artist is engaging with online or visual aesthetics. Without this, it can be difficult for some publications to see synergy between their readers and your artist. When you don't have this benefit, you'd better hope the music is insanely cool.”

Amid an era dominated by branding and marketing stunts, audiences are becoming increasingly drawn to anonymous artists — perhaps because they appear more focused on the music itself rather than optics or image. However, it remains to be seen if more rising stars will follow suit in 2026, especially as this factor remains just one piece of a complex puzzle. For an artist to become so hotly-tipped, as in the cases of Dove Ellis and EsDeeKid, raw talent must always shine through.