Myles Smith wins The Breakthrough Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025
Fresh from a performance at tonight's awards at the Roundhouse, Myles is our very deserved winner
By Nick Reilly
Myles Smith has picked up The Breakthrough Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025.
The singer, who opened the event with a stunning performance of his track ‘Someone New’ earlier in the evening, won the award after facing tough competition from the likes of Chloe Qisha, Jasmine 4.t, SHERELLE, Jordan Adetunji and Divorce.
Accepting the award, Myles discussed the need for the government to support the arts, saying: “For me, music isn’t something that’s just given these days. It really stays with you. I grew up in Luton, a small, working-class town where instruments were scarce and opportunities were scarce, and we didn’t really grow up with much belief in who we were or what we were going to do.
“But luckily enough my school was one of 150 schools in the country to get instruments, and that’s the reason why I started.”
He went on to describe his early days playing pub gigs as a “shitty, Black Ed Sheeran,” and called on the Labour government to do more to support the arts and aspiring musicians.
The win comes after Wunderhorse picked up Group Award and Lewis Capaldi won The Artist Award, while Sir Bob Geldof picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The third ever Rolling Stone UK Awards kicked off earlier tonight with a performance of ‘My Generation’ from Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical star Fayth Ifil, before Myles Smith took to the stage to deliver a rendition of his song ‘Someone New’.
Tonight’s awards will close out with a special one-off performance from The Cranberries‘ Noel Hogan and Australian duo Royel Otis, who went viral recently with their cover of the band’s hit single ‘Linger’.
Check back here for all the winners and stories from the Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025 across the evening and in the coming days.