Years & Years: Sound of 2015?

London based Electronic trio Years & Years (pictured) have been named the winners of the BBC Music Sound Of 2015, with James Bay in second place.

As reported, a longlist of the top 15 artists for BBC Sound Of 2015 was published in December last year, with the top five acts announced each day last week by DJ Huw Stephens on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Stormzy came in third, with Raury and George The Poet making up the 4th and 5th spots respectively on the shortlist.

Years & Years said: “We can’t really get our heads round it, Olly nearly passed out when we found out, it was so surreal and emotional. It feels like it means we’ve got a real shot, which means the world to us. People are going to listen to what we’re going to do, and we’ve just got to not muck it up. We’ve got to make the most of it and deliver”.

As reported, James Bay was also recently named as the BRITS Critics Choice winner (Years & Years were also runners up to this, proving it’s a case of too many accolades not enough artists) and will perform at the BRITS launch show on January 15th alongside Jessie Ware, Clean Bandit and FKA Twigs. The BRIT awards themselves will take place on Wednesday February 25th at The O2 and will be exclusively broadcast on ITV.

Mastercard will be no doubt hope to create more ‘Priceless Moments’ at the awards.

Years & Years were widely tipped to top the list after being added to a BBC playlist earlier last week – a reminder that the list is essentially who the Beeb are going to back over the next year and who is therefore likely to achieve mainstream commercial success. Sam Smith was the 2014 winner and went on to sell over 1m albums both the UK and US last year. Previous winners also include HAIM, Jessie J, Adele and Ellie Goulding.