The Can You Hear This Countdown: Artist of the Year

Is this the most important qualification in end-of lists? I’d say so. Let me tell you why you should, too. Years aren’t defined by singles (not in the long term anyway), artists are. You might say that Summer 2007 was the year of Umbrella but you’re far more likely to say that Umbrella is Rihanna’s signature song. Likewise, years aren’t defined by albums. Albums define artist’s careers. No-one’s going to say, ‘Hey, 2011 was when The Suburbs was released, right?’ They’re going to be saying, ‘The Suburbs was when Arcade Fire got good again, right?’ Years are, however defined by the artists that dominate them. In a few years time, we’ll be talking about how 2011 was the year everyone found about The Weeknd (as much as we could anyway) or it was when that band Yuck broke through Nirvana-like into the mainstream. It was when Adele had her heart broken and went on to break America. It was when a girl drove to Cali and scored five number 1s from her Teenage Dream. It was a year when break-out British acts restored faith in our country’s potential for ground-breaking (or at least 2007 levels of) music. Here were our highlights: