NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The music discovery and curation team at SiriusXM announced today its "Future Five" artists for 2019 and the "Class of 2018."

The "Future Five" for 2019 consists of five new artists that SiriusXM predicts will breakthrough in 2019.

The "Class of 2018" is comprised of artists that were played first on SiriusXM and subsequently went on to have a major breakthrough year. 

SiriusXM's selection of the "Future Five" for 2018 featuring Alice Merton, Morgan Evans, Two Feet, Rich The Kid and Sofi Tukker, all had breakthrough years with number one songs, millions of streams and performances at major festivals across the nation. 

"2018 shaped up to be another great year in music discovery for SiriusXM," said Steve Blatter, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Music Programming, SiriusXM. "We were thrilled to see all of our 'Future Five for 2018' selections graduate to our 'Class of 2018.' As we move into 2019, our team continues to strive to bring our subscribers even more new music from a wide range of developing artists across all genres."

SiriusXM's "Future Five" for 2019

Alec Benjamin: Not long after playing parking lot shows outside of Shawn Mendes and Troye Sivan concerts and before signing to Atlantic Records, 24-year-old singer/songwriter Alec Benjamin made his national radio debut on SiriusXM Chill (ch. 53) in June 2018. His track "Let Me Down Slowly" was featured as a "Chill Trending Track," SiriusXM's partnership with YouTube. Benjamin has gone on to be streamed over 75 million times. Alec's SiriusXM exclusive session version of "Let Me Down Slowly" was added to The Coffee House (ch.14) in August, with the original also being added to Hits 1 (ch. 2) in October and The Pulse (ch.15) in November prior to the release of his debut full length album Narrated For You.

Ice Nine Kills: Ice Nine Kills received the first radio play of their career in early September when Octane (ch. 37) world premiered "A Grave Mistake" and featured the song on their weekly new music show Test Drive prior to it being released. In the following weeks, Octane also identified the song as an "Octane Accelerator" when it was the first national outlet to add the song into rotation. Song went on to have 10k downloads and over 1M streams in 4 weeks of Octane's exclusive airplay. Album, The Silver Scream (Fearless Records) sold 16K albums release week, the biggest of their career, additionally the song has been on Octane's Big Uns Top 15 weekly countdown for more than 8 consecutive weeks.

Dominic Fike: The Florida native, who recently signed to Columbia Records, got his first national airplay on Alt Nation (ch. 36) on October 18 when his song "3 Nights" was played on Alt Nation's new music show Advanced Placement just days after the release of his Don't Forget About Me, Demos (EP). Alt Nation went on to be first to commit to regularly support the song on November 20. National sales and streams have increased in each of the weeks since Alt Nation first began exposing the song. Dominic Fike will be releasing more new music in 2019.

Joyner Lucas: Shade 45 (ch. 45) and Hip Hop Nation (ch. 44) were the first outlets in America to regularly expose Lucas through his guest appearance on Eminem's track "Lucky You." Hip Hop Nation world premiered his single "I Love" on October 17 and has since led the country in airplay. The song has received more than 26 million streams since debuting on SiriusXM. Joyner Lucas plans on releasing his album ADHD (Atlantic Records) in 2019.   

Ryan Hurd: The Highway (ch. 56) has supported "Diamonds Or Twine" since the day of its release back in March and has since lead the country in support, by a significant margin, with over 1160 spins. During that time, the song has been streamed more than 11 million times and sold over 30k downloads. The Highway was the first national platform to commit support to Hurd's follow up single "To a T" and again has lead the nation in spins to date by a significate margin. In 2019 Hurd will perform "Highway Presents" shows in NYC, Chicago and Nashville.   

SiriusXM's Class of 2018

Alice Merton: Since being named a SiriusXM "Future Five" for 2018, her song "No Roots" went on to reach #1 on Triple A in January charts and #1 on Alternative charts in February. The song has been streamed 63 million times. Merton went on to perform at multiple 2018 music festivals and in February performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Her debut EP No Roots was released in April with her full length album, Mint due out January 2019.

Morgan Evans: After being named a SiriusXM "Future Five" for 2018, his song "Kiss Somebody" went on to reach #1 on the Country charts in August and has been streamed more than 67 million times to date. The Highway (ch. 56) went on to be first to commit airplay to "Day Drunk" and has lead the nation in airplay since. Morgan's album Things That We Drink To was released on October 12.

Two Feet: After being first in nation to play his music as an Alt Nation Critical Cut in November 2017, SiriusXM named Two Feet a "Future Five" for 2018. His song "I Feel Like I'm Drowning" went on to reach #1 on the Alternative Rock chart in July and has received more than 46 million streams. Alt Nation (ch. 36) went on to be the first to commit airplay to his single "Hurt People" and world debuted "Back Of My Mind" prior to the release of his debut full length album A 20 Something F**k on October 5.

Rich The Kid: Since being named a SiriusXM "Future Five" for 2018 based on Hip Hop Nation's early support of his song "New Freezer" the channel continued its support of his music by being the first to add "Plug Walk" on February 2 with Shade 45 also committing early support prior to the release of his album The World Is Yours on March 30. The album has been certified gold and "Plug Walk" has gone on to be certified platinum twice.

Sofi Tukker: After Alt Nation (ch. 36) was first in the nation to regularly play "Best Friend." This NYC based duo was named a SiriusXM "Future Five" for 2018. The song has gone on to be streamed 50 million times, while Alt Nation continued its support by being the first to support "Baby, I'm A Queen" in March. The band toured extensively in 2018 behind the release of their album, including TV appearances and festival performances. Their album Treehouse is now Grammy nominated in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category.

Flipp Dinero: Hip Hop Nation (ch. 44) was the first national platform to play and in September commit airplay to "Leave Me Alone." To date, the channel has played more than twice the amount of airplay than any other station in country, the song has held the #1 spot for multiple weeks on the channel's weekly countdown show and is currently in the top 15 on the Urban charts. Song is currently RIAA certified gold and has been streamed more than 112 million times to date.

Juice Wrld: Hip Hop Nation (ch. 44) was the first outlet in the country to regularly play. The song has gone on to be streamed over 965 million times and reached #1 on the Rhythmic charts and top 10 on both the Urban and Top 40 charts.

Rex Orange County: "Loving Is Easy" received first national airplay on Alt Nation's Advanced Placement and its first commitment to airplay from XMU (ch. 35). SiriusXM's support of the song continued on The Spectrum (ch. 28) and additional support came when both XMU and Alt Nation (ch. 36) were the first two, and only, channels in the country to commit airplay to his song "Sunflower." To date, the song has been streamed over 47 million times and sold more than 28k.

Bad Wolves: Octane (ch. 37) was first national radio outlet to play "Zombie" and immediately committed airplay to the song. Within two weeks of airplay the song reached #1 on the channel's weekly countdown show and remained there for 8 weeks. The song reached #1 on the Active Rock chart in May and also received playlist commitment from Hits 1 (ch. 2) and The Pulse (ch. 15). To date the song has been streamed 172 million and has sold over 500k times.

Morgan Wallen: After leading the nation in support of his 2016 song "The Way I Talk," The Highway (ch. 56) was the first to commit national airplay to "Up Down ft. Florida Georgia Line" in October 2017. The song went on to reach #1 on the Country charts and has sold 342k to date while streaming over 184 million. The channel continued its support of the artist by adding "Little Rain" in April and "Whiskey Glasses" in October.

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