Cian Ducrot
With singles 'I'll Be Waiting' and Gold-certified 'All For You' racking up over 300 million streams alone, not to mention a flash mob performance of 'Part Of Me' going viral on TikTok, Cian Ducrot is one of the buzziest breakthrough acts in recent years. Born in Cork, Ireland, in 1997, Ducrot grew up inspired by his mother's talent as a concert pianist and flautist. Ducrot himself picked up the flute, which he studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

As a young adult, Ducrot's love for pop music – and its ability to connect to audiences in way that classical perhaps couldn't match – became unwavering. He even took a trip to a songwriting camp in Los Angeles, and would later return for further writing sessions, often funding these trips through busking. This period informed the started in college mixtape, which was self-released in 2020 and included tracks such as 'anyone but her' and 'Aftertaste.'

Harnessing the power of social media, Ducrot began to gain more and more attention in this time, not least from Darkroom and Interscope Records. Signing a record deal, in 2021 he release the EP Make Believe, which included the shimmering gem 'Crocodiles' and the candid 'Not Usually Like This.'

April 2022 would see the young artist's biggest breakthrough, however, with 'All For You' hitting the upper reaches of the charts in Ireland and the UK. Ella Henderson would feature on a version of the track later that year. Everything had fallen into place for Ducrot, and his singles continued to cause a frenzy, some of which even made the Top 20 in the likes of Belgium, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. In March 2023 he was announced as the main support for Ed Sheeran's spring tour.

A month later, Ducrot revealed he would be releasing his debut album Victory in July 2023, along with a European and UK tour in the autumn. Ducrot says that the album represtents "Victory, the victory of self-belief, the victory of everyone around me who I love and who loved me back, the story of my brother, of my mother, of my grandparents, of my friends, and everyone who fought by our side every step of the way, the victory of love and the victory of never giving up. This album is for all of those people, my family and friends, you know who you are, we made it out alive and more. This is for us.”