Here’s what went down at Rolling Stone UK’s Future of Music 2025 launch party
Cover stars Jordan Adetunji, Chloe Qisha and Pozer joined host Sian Eleri and 300 lucky winners to toast the arrival of our Future 25 list at London’s Omeara last night
Last night (March 19), Rolling Stone UK launched our Future of Music series, supported by ZYN, for 2025 with a star-studded launch party in London – here’s what went down.
Ahead of our second annual Future 25 list dropping this morning, cover stars Jordan Adetunji, Pozer and Chloe Qisha all performed live at south London venue Omeara as well as chatting to host and Radio 1 DJ Sian Eleri.
With tunes being spun by DJ Tara Kumar, fans were able to pick up print copies of our three Future of Music covers, exclusive to the evening and available digitally on rollingstone.co.uk, before a Q&A session with the three artists, hosted by Eleri.
In the discussion, Adetunji reflected on being nominated for a BRIT and Grammy for his hit single ‘Kehlani’, which he would close the night with later on, while Pozer discussed winning big at last month’s MOBOs and Qisha discussed her upcoming second EP.
Qisha was then first to perform, opening with funky new single ‘Sex, Drugs and Existential Dread’. The singer had previously headlined Omeara just a few weeks before, and proved that far bigger rooms await her with a raucous rendition of ‘Evelyn’ and a closing rendition of the pure pop perfection of ‘I Lied I’m Sorry’.
“I’m just a big fan of all things pop,” Qisha told Rolling Stone UK in her Future of Music cover feature. “I like trying on all the different hats, because it mixes things up, and I don’t think they sound too dissimilar from one another — it’s a different child but always the same mum and dad. I’ll always be like that, to be honest. There will probably be a country song a few iterations down the line, because why not?”
Next up was Pozer, who toasted his Future of Music cover, MOBO win and new EP Against All Odds with a brilliantly fun and energetic four-song set. Opening with ‘Habits’, he then performed ‘Follow Your Dreams’ before ending on a one-two punch of ‘Malicious Intentions’ and ‘Shanghigh Noon’.
“UK Jersey drill is mine,” Pozer told Rolling Stone UK in his Future of Music cover feature of the genre he is fast defining and could send to mainstream recognition. “Drill is one of the foundations of my category, but I’m too outside of the box — you couldn’t call my music just one sound.”
Closing the show was Adetunji, who is well on his way to becoming a new British R&B superstar. The Belfast-born artist was accompanied by a guitarist and drummer for his four-song set, bringing ear-splitting noise and heavy bombast to his sultry, catchy songs. Opening with ‘Bedroom’, he then performed Bryson Tiller collaboration ‘305’ and ‘Too Many Women’ before ending on ‘Kehlani’, the breakout hit of 2024.
Of his genre-blending sound, he told Rolling Stone UK in his Future of Music cover feature: “I’ve tried to take the sound of sexy drill — based around R&B-style vocals with a different kick pattern, a different tempo — and evolve it, showing respect to the people that started [it], while also putting my own style or wave on it. I really had to make sure that the tracks all matched. Every song on there marries each other somehow. They all kinda blend into each other. That was just a big thing that I sat down and tried to make happen as much as possible, without forcing it.”
Kumar then kept the vibes going until the clocks ticked into Thursday, and Rolling Stone UK’s Future of Music for 2025 was well and truly christened.
Dive into our full Future 25 list here and discover your favourite new band or artist. You can also listen to music from all 25 artists on our Future 25 Spotify playlist here.
Keep up to date with all our Future of Music content for 2025 here.