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Goulding named Sound of 2010

• 19th Jan 2010

The BBC have finally announced their tips for chart success this year and the list has some surprises. The list spans from indie to rock and melancholic pop to folk. The top five includes two girls and nine guys. Four are Americans, four are Brits and one is Greek-Welsh.

Edging in at number five are New York rockers The Drums. The modern day Beach Boys sound so vivid and electric and with a lead singer with such stage presence and a spot on the NME tour, they are sure to set fire to the charts in 2010. The band say that they only write about two feelings – “one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you're walking alone in the rain and realise you will be alone forever.

Tipping those to the number four spot are melancholic duo Hurts. The Mancunian pair create 1980s-inspired electro pop while looking slick and pensive in their slick suits. They describe their music as gloomy, but tinted with hope, “pop music is part escapism, but it's also part rejoicing in reality. People aren't generally as happy as pop music makes them out to be. They always hope to be that happy – that's why they listen to it. ”
Though merely having one video, with no singles released or gigs played, 2010 could be the year that Hurts surprise us all.

Coming in at a close third are Delphic, bearing the motto : “The guitar is dead, long live the guitar.” With hypnotic riffs like a 2010 New Order, they describe their album as having “got this euphoria mixed with a real Manchester melancholy”. They aspire to be the anti-Gallaghers and are sick of all the indie bands which are not really going anywhere, just hanging onto the generic british indie bandwagon. Get your hands on their debut album 'Alcolyte' and look out for Delphic making a change to the stereotype this year.

Narrowly being tipped to the top spot is Welsh singer Marina Diamandis. 2009 has been great to the 23-year-old Greek, with four videos made, touring Britain and Europe and being friends with Perez, but with a major single and album release in February, 2010 looks set to be a rollercoaster ride into fame for Marina & The Diamonds.
Her first single, 'Hollywood' is a homage to all things American and the video is nothing but spectacular with cheerleaders, Obama and fast food. The album 'The Family Jewels' is out on February 15 and Marina told NME that it will deliver “a body of work largely inspired by the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family and female sexuality.”

Coming in at number one is Polydor songbird Ellie Goulding. Much loved by bloggers and much talked about by industry insiders, Goulding is set to have an epic year. Goulding started out as a folk warbler but upon contacting and getting remixed by Frankmusik, she became electro/indie pop influenced. Her debut album 'Lights' is due out in mid-March.
From studying Drama to the Critics Choice award at the 2010 Brit Awards, Ellie has come a long way, but still the road ahead promises great things!