Rising pop star Myles Smith can still vividly recall the first moment he felt famous.
“This might sound trivial,” the singer says, “but I was playing a concert where I asked the audience, ‘Does anyone have cookies?’ And within about 10 minutes, the whole dressing room was full of cookies. It was the best thing ever.”
Since that memorable gig, the 26-year-old’s career has only gained momentum. Last year, he scored his first major hit with Stargazing, a feel-good anthem that became the biggest-selling British single of 2024.
The track even earned a spot on former President Barack Obama’s end-of-year playlist.
Now, Smith has been ranked fourth in BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2025 poll, solidifying his status as one of the year’s most promising new talents.
In March, he will receive the Brit Awards’ Rising Star prize, following in the footsteps of Sam Fender, Adele, and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man. Smith admits he found out about the award while recovering from a brutal hangover.
“The night before, I’d tried to go drink-for-drink with some people who were a lot more experienced than me. We actually had to call a doctor to my Airbnb,” he laughs. “Finding out I’d got a Brit Award brought me back to life more than any vitamin C ever could.”
The success is a far cry from Smith’s upbringing in Luton. Born to a working-class British-Jamaican family, he grew up immersed in a mix of genres, thanks to the town’s cultural diversity.
He recalls discovering Coldplay’s Yellow as a kid, even though he didn’t fully understand the song’s lyrics. Over the years, Smith’s music taste evolved—at one point, he was a massive Green Day fan, and he even went through a Screamo phase.
By his ninth birthday, Smith was already playing guitar and writing his own songs, starting with Dream Girl at age 11.
While the song was “bloody awful,” he proudly sang it at his school assembly, much to the embarrassment of the girl it was about.
Undeterred by early setbacks, Smith continued to pursue music on the side while studying sociology and running his own business, which was turning a profit by age 23.
However, he soon realized that while he was good at business, it wasn’t where his passion lay.
After putting his earnings into recording an album called Scars in 2020, Smith’s big break came with his haunting cover of Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood, which went viral in 2022.
The cover’s success gave Smith the confidence to quit his day job. “Money has never been the way I measure my success, but it was definitely scary,” he admits.
“It felt like plunging into an ice bath—‘OK, this is real. I don’t have a consistent salary anymore.’ But it was about shifting my mentality to focus on the opportunities I was gaining.”
Smith quickly amassed a growing online fanbase, sharing TikTok covers and original tracks.
His song Solo stood out for its memorable wordplay, leading to his first UK chart hit and a deal with RCA Records.
Despite his success, Smith maintains a thoughtful approach to social media, viewing platforms like TikTok as “meritocratic systems” that reward effort and community-building rather than seeking virality.
In a recent post, Smith shared a heartfelt message for fans who claimed his music had “saved their lives.” He wrote, “I need you to know, it wasn’t my music, it was you.
I know this because I’ve been where you are. Music didn’t save me. What saved me was the smallest part of me that chose to stay, even when it hurt.”
His empathy and reflective nature are evident in his lyrics, which often offer support to others.
Songs like River and Wait For You provide solace for friends going through tough times, while Stargazing explores human connection, depicting a moment of realization that the person we fall in love with has always been there.
Though he previously claimed Stargazing was inspired by a sunset in Malibu, the truth behind the song’s creation is slightly different.
Smith came up with the song’s signature lyric while eating tacos and salsa with co-writers Peter Fenn and Jesse Fink.
The three demoed the track in just 15 minutes, and after posting snippets online, the response was immediate.
However, they hadn’t finished the verses yet, and spent a month frantically finalizing the song for release in May 2023. Since then, it’s been streamed over 600 million times.
Ending 2024 on a high, Smith received a Brit Award, was named BBC Introducing’s Artist of the Year, and released his new EP, …A Minute.
Heading into 2025, he’s juggling the pressures of writing his debut album with an intense touring schedule that takes him to 16 countries in just 60 days. But despite the hectic pace, Smith is nothing but grateful.
“It’s a lot, for sure, but I used to stand on the edge of my sofa and pretend I was at Glastonbury,” he says. “So being able to tour, at whatever scale, is just such a privilege that it doesn’t feel like hard work.”
And, of course, it guarantees plenty of cookies.
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