1. Hayley Kiyoko
Hayley is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She’s played Velma Dinkley in Scooby-Doo The Mystery Begins as well as Stella Yamada in the Disney Channel film Lemonade Mouth. She has released three solo Eps: A Belle to Remember (2013), This Side of Paradise (2015) and Citrine (2016).
Her hit “Girls Like Girls” released on June 24, 2015 and as of January 2017 has over 56 million views.
2. Troye Sivan
Troye is a South African-born Australian singer, songwriter, actor and Youtuber. He played the younger version of Wolverine in the 2009 X-Men movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. As of April 2, 2016 he reached over 4 million subscribers. So far, he has released the EP’s TRXYE (2014) and Wild(2015), along with his studio album Blue Neighborhood (2016).
His single “Youth” became his first single to enter the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, at 23.
3. Sia
Sia is an Australian singer, songwriter record producer and video music director. She began her career as a singer in the local Adelaide acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. She released her debut studio album titled OnlySee in Australia in 1997. She continued working with different record company’s before taking a hiatus from the spotlight, writing songs for other artists. In 2014 she released her sixth studio album 1000 Forms of Fear which debuted at No. 1 in the U.S. Billboard 200.
Her first Hot 100 number one single “Cheap Thrills” was featured on her seventh studio album This Is Acting.
4. Sam Smith
Sam is an English singer songwriter. His career began in 2012 when he was featured on Disclosure’s single “latch” which made number e11 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2013, he was nominated for the 2014 Brit Critics’ Choice Award and later won. He released his debut studio album In the Lonely Hour in 2014 where his third single “Stay With Me” was an international success.
Smith won 4 Grammy’s at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014. The awards won were Best New Artist, his single “Stay With Me” won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year and his album won Best Pop Vocal Album.
5. Ruby Rose
Ruby is an Australian model, DJ, recording artist, actress and television presenter. She began her celebrity journey as a spotlight presenter on MTV Australia. She went on to do modeling gigs as well as co-hosting The Project and Australia’s Next Top Model. In 2012 Rose released her first single “Guilty Pleasure” with Gary Go. In 2015 she joined the Orange Is The New Black cast for season 3.
Rose went on to be awarded Woman of the Year by GQ Australia in 2015 as well as being awarded the Stephan F. Kolzak Award by GLAAD Media Awards.
6. Mary Lambert
Mary is an American singer, songwriter and spoken word artist. She has worked with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis by featuring in the single “Same Love.” The single was released on the album The Heist. Lambert’s contributions to the single drew from her experience growing up as a lesbian in a conservative setting.
Lambert took the content she created for “Same Love’ and went on to develop the song “She Keeps Me Warm” which released in 2013.
7. Azalea Banks
Azalea is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actress. She began her career by releasing her music on MySpace in 2008, later on being signed by XL Recordings at the age of 17. After she released her debut single “212” she gained a recording contract with Polydor Records and Interscope.
In 2012 she won the Best Single award from the Urban Music Awards as well as winning the Philip Hall Radar Award from NME Awards that same year.
