With previous winners including Ellie Goulding, Adele and Sam Smith, the BBC 'Sound of' poll can be a useful barometer for tastemakers to judge trends emerging in the music biz.
Of course, the panel that decides upon the ranking of hotly-tipped music acts can get it badly wrong, too - whatever happened to Octavian (2019), 2020's winner Pa Salieu or last year's victors, PinkPantheress?
In any case, the results of the Sound of 2023 have been unveiled, with London girl group Flo topping the chart.
The young group are between 19 and 21 years old and only formed in 2019, signing to Island Records the following year. Stormzy (who placed third in the poll in 2015) broke the news to the trio, calling them a "breath of fresh air" who "killed it in every single department."
Their sound is described as 'retro-futuristic r&b' and they recently released their new single 'Losing You'.
Flo beat popular producer Fred again... into second place; the London electronica producer recently played a sold out gig at Dublin's Olympia Theatre, which is testament to his popularity.
In third place was jungle revivalist Nia Archives, while folk-pop singer Cat Burns came in fourth, and US soul band Gabriels came fifth.
Irish artist Biig Piig aka Jessica Smyth had made the longlist for the 2023 poll, which was unveiled last month.
