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6 Music's Artists of the Year 2026

6 Music have revealed their Artists of the Year, celebrating the artists who have culturally dominated the year to date in 2026.

Spanning the musical spectrum and entire breadth of genres played on the station, these artists include both well-known and emerging acts, all of whom have garnered support from 6 Music.

Scroll down to discover the selected artists, listed in alphabetical order, and enjoy exclusive content showcasing these brilliant talents Click on the programmes below to hear more about 6 Music's Artists of the Year.

beabadoobee

Singer-songwriter Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus first came up with the name beabadoobee for a candid "finsta" Instagram account, not knowing at the time that it would become the name she would be known for across the world. Her bedroom pop career was already building when her track Coffee was sampled in a song that went viral on TikTok in 2020. Her debut album, Fake It Flowers, released later that year, only increased the hype. Since then, beabadoobee has gone from strength to strength, collaborating with pop artists like The 1975, Clairo, and Laufey, and supporting Taylor Swift on tour. In 2026, she released her fourth album Pylon, which marked a change in direction, working with artists from the worlds of metal, rock and hardcore - Chino Moreno (Deftones), Hayley Williams (Paramore) and Brendan Yates (Turnstile) among them - for a rawer, grittier sound.

Charli xcx

How do you follow up an album that becomes a cultural phenomenon like Brat? By releasing two more albums. In 2026, Charli xcx dominated the start of the year with her soundtrack album for Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights, and then the summer with her seventh album, titled Music, Fashion, Film. After releasing Brat in 2024 and spending much of 2025 touring the cultural milestone of an album, Charli ushered in two new eras for herself in 2026, telling Nick Grimshaw in a co-host on 6 Music Breakfast: "I love a pivot". And pivot she did, moving from the iconic lime green and autotune-infused party tracks towards a more gothic, atmospheric, cinematic style to capture the essence of Fennell's film, and then towards an artsy, black and white aesthetic and a more natural vocal style for Music, Fashion Film.

corto.alto

Glasgow producer and multi-instrumentalist Liam Shortall has been making music for almost a decade under the name corto.alto, meaning "short" and "tall" in Spanish, a witty play on his surname. Trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Liam immersed himself in the local music scene and released a series of records culminating in a Mercury Prize nomination for his 2023 album Bad With Names, which established him as one of jazz’s most exciting new artists. This year brought his latest album SOME SMALL FORTUNE, a sumptuous, uplifting record which feels both cohesive and fresh, as the wide range of featured artists (including rising Scottish names such as Jacob Alon, Terra Kin, and Eriff) keep you on your toes.

The Cure

Winning your first Grammys 50 years into a career is pretty rare, isn't it? In February, The Cure did just that. 2024’s Songs of a Lost World, their first new album in 16 years, took home Best Alternative Music Album, while the song Alone also won Robert Smith and co. the Best Alternative Music Performance accolade too. The band then channelled that momentum through the year - curating a Teenage Cancer Trust series at the Royal Albert Hall in March, taking over The 6 Mix with Mary Anne Hobbs and playing a summer of shows that included Isle of Wight Festival in June before headline shows at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park in August. Robert Smith has said more new music is on the way, but 2026 in particular has been a very-well-earned victory lap for the group.

Erykah Badu

11 years is a long time to wait for a new album, but Erykah Badu has always done things differently. Her new project, Before the World Blows: The Abi & Alan Experiment, is a collaboration with producer The Alchemist, and is her first release since 2015. It was released in August after 18 months of recording between Dallas and Los Angeles, and the team-up came from Badu wanting to rap over Alchemist’s instrumental for Mobb Deep’s The Realest. The pair ended up turning that wish into an entire 16-track record. Lead single Witch Doctor combines Badu’s peerless melodic-yet-hypnotic delivery, and penchant for taking things down unusual paths, with the producer’s dizzying sampling. The album also includes a who’s-who of modern hip-hop, soul and jazz - namely Thundercat, Earl Sweatshirt, Steve Lacy, Jay Electronica, Kamasi Washington and Westside Gunn.

Fontaines D.C.

2026 saw Fontaines D.C. release their fifth album, Dopamine Chamber. The album is a remarkable achievement: a steady-aimed bid for stadium greatness that adds richer, more complex emotive shades to their poetic songwriting. Darker and more dramatic than 2024’s ‘Romance’, and boasting a rare feature from Rosalia on the beguiling ‘Where Is Gone?’, it cements their status at the very top. This summer they headlined Reading Festival for the first time, paying tribute at the end of their set to late manager Trevor Dietz, who passed this summer. Their music is destined to be performed in bigger spaces, but it’s retaining a romanticism and intimacy that makes Fontaines one-of-a-kind.

Madra Salach

Rising Irish band Madra Salach (meaning ‘dirty dog’ in Irish Gaelic) only released their first EP at the start of 2026, but have quickly marked themselves out as ones to watch. The contemporary-folk six-piece made a name for themselves in the live music scene in Dublin and at summer festivals in 2025, which led to them to start to recording their material, resulting in the initial five tracks that make up It’s A Hell Of An Age. In a small number of releases they have demonstrated the depth of what they can do, and the intricacy of their genre-blurring sound - from the moody, driving intensity of recent single Ribbon Factory, to the melodic sweetness and vulnerability of The Man Who Seeks Pleasure. After a big 2026, their highly anticipated debut album Gorta is due in 2027.

Mandy, Indiana

This noise-rock band are hard to pin down. Based between Manchester and Berlin, they sing mainly in French, and take their name from Gary, Indiana, in the US. Their music is equally difficult to pin down, exploring a wonderfully versatile range of sounds and styles. This year they released their second album URGH, following 2023’s I’ve Seen A Way. Written during a turbulent period for many members of the band, on URGH, they decided to dial up every notch of their bone-shaking, industrial noise, incorporating techno throbs, bravely personal lyricism and a thrilling tapestry of samples. It feels like an exciting step forward from what was already a very accomplished debut.

Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers has dominated 2026 for many, but she has done so on her own terms. Releasing her third studio album, Lost Weekend, in August, she has done minimal promo for the record. Instead, she has promoted it with a series of intimate shows in small-town America, followed by a full phone-free tour, where fans must pouch their mobiles and fully engage with the live concert setting. It has created a fevered sense of intrigue and fostered a unified community among fans.

The album itself, Bridgers’ first in six years, follows a period of upheaval for the singer-songwriter. She went through a highly publicised break-up, grieved for her father and grappled with growing fame. The record deals closely with all of this, as well as the solace of finding new love, and its sound reflects that, veering from detached ambient electronica to heart-wrenching ballads and the cathartic highs of singles like Lost Boys and I Can’t Wait. Bridgers, who dedicated the album to her late father, said after its release: “I’ll never get over how profound it is to have people sing the songs I wrote about my dad back to me. I wish he could have seen it.”

Robyn

Swedish pop icon Robyn re-established her all-time status this year, returning from an eight-year hiatus with her ninth album, Sexistential. The title is a portmanteau she coined as an in-joke, which ultimately grew to encapsulate the album’s direction. Some tracks hark back to the familiar sounds of her beloved noughties hits, while others venture into new territory, exploring fresh styles and themes including IVF and single motherhood. Her lyrical world has grown up alongside her, and her audience.

Show Me The Body

Show Me The Body returned in 2026 with their first album in four years. The New York post-hardcore outfit first formed as teenagers, after lead vocalist and banjoist Julian Cashwan Pratt met bassist Harlan Steed at their Manhattan high school. Over more than a decade together, they have released four albums, allowing each record room to breathe. This year, they followed up the critically acclaimed Trouble the Water with Alone Tonight. Partly conceived in a basement studio, the album was recorded with producers Klas Åhlund (Robyn, Ghost) and Kenneth Blume III (Geese, Fcukers).

Shygirl

Shygirl's first single, Want More, was released in 2016, and ten years on, she has achieved far more than she might have imagined back then. She found significant success and critical acclaim with Nymph, her 2022 debut album, which topped the UK Dance Albums Chart. November marks the release of its follow-up, Swallow!, and, judging by the singles, it's set to be just as impressive. A prolific collaborator, she has worked closely with renowned contemporaries such as Sega Bodega, Arca and SOPHIE, while also attracting a star-studded fanbase that includes Madonna, Rihanna and Charli XCX. She told Nick Grimshaw, “I only work with friends and people I can vibe with” - and, considering the number of collaborations she's racked up, her friends list must be getting pretty long.