Pink Pantheress, Wet Leg, and María Becerra are one of NPR Music’s best new artists and a breakthrough in 2021. Image courtesy of Renee Klahr/NPR; Getty Images hide caption

Pink Pantheress, Wet Leg and María Becerra are NPR Music's best new artists and breakthroughs in 2021.

We have a lot to be grateful for: vaccines, the steady return of live events, and a lot of wonderful tunes. We have listed the best albums and songs of the year, so let's talk about the best newcomers and breakthroughs of 2021.

On December 9th, we had a live conversation with the artists who shaped this year on the YouTube channel of NPR Music. NPR Music's Ann Powers, Alt.Latino's Anamaria Sayre, World Cafe's Raina Douris, Milwaukee Radio's Tarik Moody, and Pop Culture Happy Hour Stephen Thompson discussed with host Lars Gotrich how these musicians "cross genres, styles, and styles" "Across national borders and work bilingually"," Bowers pointed out. "It makes me feel good about connecting rather than disconnecting. "

As far as this listening party is concerned, we believe that new artists means that they will release an album, demo, mixtape or single in 2021. (If they were in the band before, but made their debut this year, that's important!) For breakthrough artists, the guidelines become a little fuzzy. These musicians have released albums, performed tours, and found a niche but loyal audience; this year, they expanded their reach by making charts, bookings for major festivals, or finally gaining some belated critical recognition.

You can find our staff selection below to select the best new artists and breakthroughs in 2021.

After experiencing the epidemic, many serious albums have been released. It is beautiful and important. But it makes me kind of want something interesting and stupid, and it has nothing to do with all of them. The first song "Recliner" released by Wet Leg immediately attracted me. When you want to be funny and stupid in a song instead of being too stupid, this is a good route and they take it. They are just the coolest. ——Reina Duris, World Cafe

María Becerra comes from Argentina and is 21 years old. She started to do a cappella YouTube covers for Ariana Grande and similar people, so she proved her vocal acuity early on. But it was later discovered by members of the Argentine trap scene. What is really interesting about "Acaramelao" is that it actually uses samples from "Yo No Sé Mañana", which is a huge salsa. She really tried to make herself not just a member of this trap scene, but to immediately integrate herself into this larger Latin music family, which draws inspiration from many different global sounds and time periods. ——Annamaria Sale, Alt.Latino

I am a kid with drums and bass at the core. I think the drums and bass have not disappeared, they just disappeared from the public eye, and PinkPantheress brought it back in an interesting new way. Sampled art and the contributions of black artists to electronic music have been neglected, and artists like PinkPantheress are bringing back the long neglected things black artists have done for electronic music. —Tariq Moody, Milwaukee Radio

"Outside Child" tells the story of Allison Russell (Allison Russell) who grew up in Montreal, Black, who was abused by her stepfather and escaped-she actually lived on the street for a while when she was a teenager- —Then he was saved and recovered by going to Vancouver to discover music, and joined the punk band. All the songs have taken us through that journey, not only through the lyrics, but also through the incredible musical tapestry of the album. You feel love, community and healing in this album. ——Ann Bowers

There is a Venn diagram, Thad and Jeff Barkley intersect, in the middle of the Venn diagram is my whole heart. Vulture Prince managed to cruise in that space... Arooj Aftab took inspiration from all these different sounds and styles and made this wonderful record. We can drop needles anywhere on this record, and Find something beautiful that doesn't sound like anything else. It is rooted in true heartbreak and sadness, but at the same time it is so beautiful and heartfelt that you not only sit in sorrow and fall asleep, but also celebrate in it. ——Stephen Thompson, Pop Culture Happy Hour

Yasmin Williams sees her guitar as a playground. She taps on the wood of the instrument, taps the frets with her fingers-in other songs, she taps on dance shoes, plays Cora or the thumb piano, and at the same time plays the guitar. In many ways, the joy and possibilities she brings to guitar reminds me of Eddie Van Halen, rather than any other fingerstyle guitarist compared to her. This kind of music can be traced back to the black blues guitarist; she is taking it back, but at the same time she is betting on her claims. -Lars Gottrich

Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis co-produced this story with Lars Gotrich.