{"id":2948,"date":"2023-12-24T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/?p=2948"},"modified":"2024-09-17T18:58:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T18:58:16","slug":"december-artist-news-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/december-artist-news-2023","title":{"rendered":"Sofar Artist News: December"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we anticipate another lap around the sun, we\u2019re looking back at another incredible year for all the Sofar artists making waves out there. Here are end-of-the-year updates on some of our favorite 2023 performers:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Manny Walters<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manny Walters, the star of one of Sofar’s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TmLbBOpaiZs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most-viewed performances<\/a>, released a new single this year titled “First Time.” Speaking of firsts, Sofar caught up with Manny at SXSW in March, discovering that it marked his inaugural trip to the US for a performance!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Check out Manny\u2019s latest single:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Manny Walters - First Time\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/14Ulk6zUjmM?list=OLAK5uy_kaviKvgHxyScI8lyWasqvVfJhaYKokZhw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><b>Victoria Canal<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/2nE9x2JhbyjBVCaSnUGX3G\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Victoria Canal<\/a> won the Ivor Novello Rising Star award, headlined a U.S. and European tour, performed around Europe with Hozier, dropped a new single featuring Madison Cunningham, and appeared on the Apple TV+ show <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Little America.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Talk about a meteoric rise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Victor Ray<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, the London singer went from busking to signing with the legendary Decca Records. <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/3vABvmPywI2fV90bnpkpsJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Victor Ray<\/a> also played at the Latitude Festival, grew his TikTok followers to 2.8M, and showcased his talent at his inaugural Sofars in Los Angeles, marking his first Sofar performances outside of London.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2952 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=731&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"731\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=214&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=300&wpsize=medium 300w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=731&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=large 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=548&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=1097&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1536&wpsize=1536x1536 1536w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=1462&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=2048&wpsize=2048x2048 2048w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Victor-Ray-Sofar-Artist-News-December.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=pjpg&ixlib=php-3.3.1 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lola Young<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lola Young released their debut album <em>My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely<\/em> in May. The lead track, “<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/3xHiCTehVvsc7w26DuEdYw?si=f81cc9294c3b4389\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t Hate Me<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">” has been streamed over 18M times on Spotify.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>NEONE The Wonderer<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NEONE The Wonderer was featured on our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/artists-to-watch-in-2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sofar Artists to Watch list<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the start of the year and fully delivered. He was featured on the cover of Spotify\u2019s Fresh Finds and nominated for the MOBO Unsung Class of 2023, alongside fellow Sofar artists <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/6oruQTIjrgFYzOSKhp7Kt6?si=Wfhc88fyTKCCW4RHeu8YPg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Josh Barry<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/2FVCMrYrSKRNPXoWw2VozG?si=pKpKLZp1TdOfAvnjtW4PRA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bea Anderson<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/2RywhMa85ivSopUdsMagFK?si=6eyD7A5ZQ6qxa7rpEK6bvg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ace Clvrk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/42VmdS8ipHlJdnjfeT3Hnp?si=ZoxkXsKTROGBE-4EmYdb2A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deja<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/5bX7bAeWmX2wkjBXWxt0t7?si=56DMgY5VT6WQu0umf1kq7g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Young Athena<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/2XrXBuaI9xDfjZbkDpzT4c?si=PlQJtCWgShqQnKi_Jnn9_Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gabriel Sanches<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/6rUoTGh6j6vuJk6xq7JB5f?si=8qxXH2anQgKN5OF0ZX-Cxg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melica<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NEONE the Wonderer - Headphones On | Sofar London\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QHwRrDRhYuo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><b>N\u2019famady Kouyate<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After making his way around SXSW and Latitude, the Guinea-born, Cardiff, UK-based balafon player emerged as one of the winners of the Emerging Talent Contest for the legendary Glastonbury Festival, alongside the fellow Sofar artist Prima Queen. In June, N\u2019famady seized the opportunity, playing nine times across the weekend at various stages at the huge site, which is home to 250,000 music fans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check out his performance of his track “Aros i Fi Yna” in the BBC studio.<\/span><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"N\u2019Famady Kouyat\u00e9 - Aros i Fi Yna (Glastonbury 2023)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1Jm1tjrCXbI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><b>Olivia Dean<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/00x1fYSGhdqScXBRpSj3DW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Olivia Dean<\/a>\u2019s debut album reached number 4 in the UK charts. She was named the Samsung Rising Star at the GLAMOUR Magazine Awards and started her <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oliviadeano.com\/#tour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">European Tour<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which continues on the road again in April.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Enjoying the December Artist News and ready to discover artists in person? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Explore shows.<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we anticipate another lap around the sun, we\u2019re looking back at another incredible year for all the Sofar artists making waves out there. Here are end-of-the-year updates on some of our favorite 2023 performers: Manny Walters Manny Walters, the star of one of Sofar’s most-viewed performances, released a new single this year titled “First […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,26],"tags":[466,443,467,85,214,213,74],"class_list":["post-2948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","category-news","tag-lola-young","tag-manny-walters","tag-nfamady-kouyate","tag-neone-the-wonderer","tag-olivia-dean","tag-victor-ray","tag-victoria-canal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}