From Messrs Benjamins Booker and Clementine to George the Poet, here are the bands and singers to listen out for next year.

When Mr Sam Smith was named as the winner of the Brits Critics’ Choice award in February (previous victors include Mses Florence Welch, Emeli Sandé, Ellie Goulding and, of course, Adele), some music-industry tipsters scratched their heads in disbelief. A singer with a pitch-perfect but commercial soul voice, Mr Smith had collaborated with Disclosure and Naughty Boy, and could easily have been pigeon-holed as “guest vocalist”. Ten months on, he has cracked America – where he is widely regarded as the male Adele – and his debut album, In the Lonely Hour, is a fixture in the UK top 10. Another British breakthrough artist in 2014 has been Mr George Ezra, a singer who, this time last year, had few hopes riding on him other than those cherished by his record label. Mr Ezra’s debut album, Wanted On Voyage, is the second of this year’s great success stories. The early 1990s house revival, meanwhile, swept all before it, with acts such as Clean Bandit diluting the source material and taking the results to the top of the charts. The A&R executives who signed and nurtured these artists will have you believe that they foresaw these outcomes all along. They didn’t know, no more than they do now, on the eve of 2015, who is going to break out in the coming year, or which genre will soundtrack it. Luck, synchronicity, penetrating national radio’s Byzantine decision-making processes, catching a wave on YouTube: a combination of these will dictate who will carry off the spoils. As for us fans, we are as fickle now as we are genre-promiscuous. We try everything, but still tend to cluster around a select group of favourites. Several of the following artists may strike gold next year. All of them deserve to.

To listen to the best tracks from these artists, head to MR PORTER’s Spotify.

His self-titled debut album came haring out of the traps last summer, and saw this Floridan singer and guitarist acclaimed for the brutal rawness of the punk-blues-soul hybrid he produces. Live, he is incendiary, so make sure to catch him on his lightning UK visit in February.

Track to listen out for: “Old Hearts”

A north Londoner who spent several years busking in Paris while homeless, Mr Clementine is a breathtaking singer and pianist, his style indebted to Ms Nina Simone, his talent unanswerable (he memorably stole the show at Burberry Prorsum’s SS15 show). Look out for his debut album, due early in the new year.

Track to listen out for: “Condolence”

The skinny-hipped Louisiana musician could have come straight out of central casting: long hair, shades, fedora and a drawling, smoky-voiced singing style that lends sexual urgency to his swampy blues-rock songs.

Track to listen out for: “Long Live”

With lyrics like a Gothic novel, and sparse instrumental textures giving her songs a ghostly air, this Hampshire singer has been hailed as the new Laura Marling, and is every bit as special as that citation suggests.

Track to listen out for: “Tongues”

These French/ Cuban sisters, daughters of the acclaimed percussionist Mr Anga Diaz, wowed on Later… with Jools Holland in October with their beguiling blend of African harmonies and beats, electronica and deep soul, and their Mr Richard Russell-produced debut album, due in February, should be a keeper.

Track to listen out for: “River”

With producers such as Mr Dave Okumu and SOHN on board for his debut album, due out next year, this south London singer has the rumbling, yearning baritone to melt the coldest heart – and the songs to stand out from the crowd.

Track to listen out for: “Last Stand”

A helium-voiced philosophy graduate raised in Paris and Israel, Ms Meller laid down a candy-coated pop marker with the irresistible track “Backpack”. Now signed to a major label, she’s prepping her first album due out next year. Pop majesty surely awaits.

Track to listen out for: “Backpack”

From the Mr Antony Hegarty school of vocal melodrama, this New Yorker releases his debut EP in February, but the buzz is already there, on the back of his extraordinary early song, “Headlights”.

Track to listen out for: “Headlights”

Cut from the same cloth as Mr Mike Skinner and Jamie T, Mr Niall Galvin is an urchin street poet whose ramshackle, ragamuffin punk-pop has an unlikely champion in the British Prime Minister’s wife Ms Samantha Cameron.

Track to listen out for: “Yesterdays”

Born Mr Jacob Anderson, the Broadchurch/ Game of Thrones actor has a nice little sideline in trip-hoppy Brit rap, which, on the evidence of what we’ve heard of his forthcoming debut album, should soon be claiming the majority of his time.

Track to listen out for: “Cuckoo”

A classically trained Australian, Mr Salvat excels at emotionally fraught, croonsome, 1980s-indebted electronica, and his spring 2015 debut album is a torch-song tour de force.

Track to listen out for: “Open Season”

Three brilliant, raved-about singles this year have set things up nicely for the Anglo-Russian singer Ms Aleksandra Denton, whose bruised vocals, shard-filled lyrics and early-Madonna-recalling electro-pop sound like a recipe for success.

Track to listen out for: “Indecision”

Uber hit-makers/ go-to producers Cashmere Cat, Benny Blanco, Charli XCX and Passion Pit’s Mr Michael Angelakos may have helped bring “OctaHate”, this San Diego singer’s jaw-droppingly good, glitchy pop-R&B debut single to life, but it was Ms Weaver herself who emerged as an instant star in the making.

Track to listen out for: “OctaHate”

Fronted by the actor Mr Olly Alexander (Bright Star, Great Expectations, The Riot Club), this London trio are riding the house-revival wave, with songs such as the Mr Terence Trent D’Arby-like “Take Shelter” nailing dance music’s unique one-two of euphoria and alienation.

Track to listen out for: “Take Shelter”

A 23-year-old Londoner and Cambridge University graduate, Mr George Mpanga released the startling The Chicken and the Egg in October. A seven-song sequence of remarkable ambition and scope, it tells the story of teenage parenthood and a failing relationship – whipped into shape by Mr Mpanga’s inventive wordplay. Signed to Island, he releases his debut album in the spring.

Track to listen out for: “If the Shoe Fits”