Brit Awards Breakthrough Act winners: Where are they now?

The 2018 BRIT Awards are right round the corner (add the 21st February to your diary, stat!) and, with them, a night of epic performances and gongs galore.

We've already got the lowdown on who's nominated for what: Clean Bandit, Hazza Styles and Little Mix, among others, are all up for Artist Video of the Year; Stormzy and Ed Sheeran are a couple of names in contest for Male Solo Artist; Jessie Ware, Laura Marling et al. are vying for Female Solo Artist; and The xx, London Grammar and Wolf Alice are just a few of the bands in the Group category.

Very excitingly, the general public - yes, that means you - gets a say in which artist walks away with the title of British Breakthrough Act. Dave, Dua Lipa, J Hus, Loyle Carner and Sampha are this year's batch of very worthy nominees and, in the run-up to the big night, they'll each be joining Clara next week in the Live Lounge (beginning 12th Feb) to do what they do best.

In the meantime, let's take a trip down memory lane and see exactly what the British Breakthrough Acts of years past have gone on to achieve. (Spoiler alert: big things.)

WARNING: Contains flashing images. Third party video may contain adverts.

It's hard to remember a time when Ed Sheeran wasn't dominating the airwaves but, back in 2012, he was still very much scaling the ladder to superstardom.

The year after the release of his debut single, The A Team, Ed bagged the awards for British Breakthrough Act of the Year and Best Male Solo Artist at the BRITs, beating out competition from Emeli Sandé, Jessie J, The Vaccines and Anna Calvi. The singer-songwriter continued his winning streak by picking up an Ivor Novello in the same year and, since then, he's gone on to win a whopping 73 more awards across the globe.

Fast forward six years and Ed has completed his third world tour, headlined Glasto and is heading to Swansea this summer to perform at BBC Music's Biggest Weekend. Oh and, no biggie, but his latest album (÷) was the fastest-selling album by a male solo artist EVER.

WARNING: Contains flashing images. Third party video may contain adverts.

A year before he blessed our ears with a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, Ben Howard found himself the proud new owner of the 2013 BRIT award for British Breakthrough Act. Who else was in the running, you ask? Y'know, just some low-key names... Rita Ora, Jessie Ware, Alt-J and Jake Bugg.

It's safe to say that all of the above have done pretty immense things since that fateful day back in 2013 and Ben is no exception. Following in Ed's footsteps, Ben picked up both the Best Male Solo Artist award and the Breakthrough Act award on the night. He played the Pyramid Stage at Glasto that same year and released his second album in 2014.

Nowadays, though, Ben is a member of the band A Blaze of Feather. Unfamiliar with the name? They caused confusion in early 2017 after appearing fairly high up on the line-ups for Latitude Festival and Citadel Festival, despite being unknown, and have since been revealed to be a six-piece band, with Ben well and truly in the mix. Less than a year after their inception and they've already hit up the major festivals and released their debut album. Don't worry, though: Ben hasn't retired his solo act.

Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to listen to Ben's Live Lounge cover on repeat...

WARNING: Contains flashing images. Third party video may contain adverts.

It was just last week that Dan from Bastille swung by the Live Lounge, along with Craig David, to perform their track I Know You...

Rewind to four years ago and Bastille picked up the award for - yep, you guessed it! - British Breakthrough Act. Having released their debut album Bad Bloody a year prior and scoring a No.1 on the UK Albums Chart, it's safe to say that a lot of buzz surrounded the group...

Our obsession with all things Bastille hasn't abated since, despite them keeping us waiting a painstaking three years until their second album, Wild World, which dropped in 2016. The good news? A third album is winging its way to us but we're still pretty in the dark on the exact dates. Speaking to NME in 2017, frontman Dan revealed that they've been putting pen to paper: "We never really stop writing and recording, but I can confirm we spent a lot of this year writing our third album."

They've performed at Glasto, Coachella and Reading and Leeds, had two No.1 albums and toured the world a few times over. In short: they're a very busy bunch of guys.

WARNING: Contains flashing images. Third party video may contain adverts.

Things that Sam Smith is good at: goodbyes, singing and winning awards (to name a few).

Sam was nominated for the Breakthrough Act award in 2015, alongside Chvrches, FKA Twigs, George Ezra and Royal Blood. Three short years after walking away with the prize and Sam is at the top of his game. He's had an impressive six No.1 singles, two No.1 albums (he released his second album, The Thrill Of It All, in late 2017), written a Bond theme song, won an Oscar for said Bond theme song, picked up 25 other awards and graced the Live Lounge with his presence on more than one occasion.

WARNING: Contains flashing images. Third party video may contain adverts.

Benicassim, All Points East, Y Not and Boardmasters are just a few of the festivals you'll be able to catch Catfish and the Bottlemen playing this summer. They beat out stiff competition from James Bay, Jess Glynne, Wolf Alice and Years & Years when they were nominated for Breakthrough Act and their star has continued to rise ever since.

Their debut album, The Balcony, went platinum and their second album, The Ride, hit the top spot on the UK Albums Chart. Waiting patiently for their next album? You're not alone. Speaking to Billboard in 2017, the group dished on what fans can expect next:

"I think we were making the first two albums to get us to this point, so I think you’ll see in the next one how excited we are. It’s only been two years since the first one came out, and to be able to go back home and sell out arenas, that’s real exciting for us.

"We’ve always dreamt this since we were kids, before we could even play the guitar, and to now get to this point... it’s nice to see this all pay off. We still love what we do and we still have that hunger to keep growing it."

WARNING: Contains flashing images. Third party video may contain adverts.

Now we arrive at last year's awards and it was Rag'n'Bone Man (real name: Rory Charles Graham) who walked away the champ, pipping Stormzy, Anne-Marie, Skepta and Blossoms to the post.

It was around 2016 and the release of his single, Human, that Rag'n'Bone Man first hit the mainstream, but he'd been recording music since 2011, releasing Wolves - his EP featuring Stig of the Dump, Vince Staples and Kate Tempest - in 2014. He released his debut album early 2017 and it bagged him the BBC Music Award for British Album of the Year. Not bad, huh?

Think the accolades end there? Think again. Picking up gongs for the International Newcomer and International Male Artist at the 2017 Echo Awards and being nominated for Best New Artist at the MTV European Music Awards 2017 suggests that things are just getting started as far as Rag'n'Bone Man are concerned. Watch this space...

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