Elton John has shared his favourite music from 2022, with songs by Burna Boy, Let’s Eat Grandma and Marcus Mumford and more making his list.
- READ MORE: NME‘s 50 best songs of 2022
The pop legend, who hosts his Rocket Hour Apple Music 1 radio show live on Saturdays at 5pm GMT, included his best-of picks in a playlist shared with listeners as way to round off the year.
Among his favourite tracks are ‘Last Last’ by Burna Boy, ‘Happy New Year’ by Let’s Eat Grandma, ‘Grace’ by Marcus Mumford, ‘Firebabe’ by Stormzy, ‘Run The Credits’ by Oliver Sim, ‘Go’ by Cat Burns and ‘Growing Up’ by The Linda Lindas.
Elsewhere, he gave nods to Nova Twins, Wet Leg, Yard Act, Paolo Nutini and others. You can see the full list in the playlist below as well as in his comments from Elton John’s Rocket Hour Tracks of 2022 show.
John said: “With the Rocket Hour we just try and give people exposure by playing and interviewing them. It’s something I’ve been doing now for over six years. I haven’t grown tired of it. I love it. The new music makes me feel fantastic. It inspires me.
“So I have to thank all the new artists, and all the old artists that we play on the show, because we don’t just play new artists. But every week that I do the show is such a pleasure for me, so thank you.”
He continued: “Women were making fantastic music – Wet Leg, Nova Twins, Let’s Eat Grandma, The Linda Lindas. And then we had fabulous rising acts like Yard Act, Cat Burns, Stephen Sanchez, and Jean Dawson. And hopefully, we can give them a leg up and help them with their career by interviewing them on the Rocket Hour.
“And for example, when I played my Hyde Park show in London, I was supported by Let’s Eat Grandma, Juanita Yuka, Rina Sawayama, BERWYN, Gabriels, Tom A. Smith and Thomas Hedden. And it was just a wonderful thing to me to have those artists on the show. They all did brilliantly in front of 65,000 people. That’s what the Rocket Hour is all about.”
John also praised Stormzy’s “incredible” new album ‘This is What I Mean‘, saying: “It’s an album that I think shocked a lot of people because it wasn’t usual Stormzy, but I knew that Stormzy had a great voice from ‘Blinded By Your Grace’ from his first album.”
Additionally, the musician spoke about the rise of African music and its global influence.
“African music really, really came through in a big way this year with acts like Burna Boy and Asake,” John said. “We played a lot of African music on the show, and not just from Nigeria. I was in New York and I had ran into Meek Mill and he said that African music is the only kind of music he listens to. So it shows you what an influence it’s having on a worldwide basis. And long may it continue.”
John’s summary of his favourite music of 2022 follows Jay-Z sharing his best-of on TIDAL earlier this week, with cuts by Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Beyoncé, Drake and more featuring.