‘Things need to die for something else to come through’: Wet Leg, Nilüfer Yanya, Shabaka Hutchings and more on the year in music

(from left) Nilüfer Yanya, Rhian Teasdale, Sherelle, Shabaka Hutchings and Eliza Rose, photographed at Lafayette London. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

It was the year that Ed Sheeran won a court case, Beyoncé returned, Kanye West horrified the world and musicians struggled with the new economics of playing live. We got together five artists who made a mark on 2022 to discuss it all. Eliza Rose is a London-born DJ whose independently released single Baddest of Them All spent two weeks at No 1. Shabaka Hutchings is a multi-instrumentalist who performs with Sons of Kemet, Shabaka and the Ancestors and the Comet Is Coming. Sherelle is a DJ who broke through with her 2019 Boiler Room set and has since recorded a mix for Fabric. Rhian Teasdale is one-half of Isle of Wight indie band Wet Leg, whose 2021 debut single, Chaise Longue, went viral; they released their self-titled debut album this spring. Nilüfer Yanya is a London-born guitarist and songwriter who has released two albums, 2019’s Miss Universe and this year’s Painless, to widespread acclaim.

January