Scots band Young Fathers have been named the most influential Scots in arts and culture for 2023 in a new list.
The Mercury Prize and three time Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) award winners came top of The List’s Hot 100, ahead of comedians Fern Brady and Marjolein Robertson.
The Hot 100 was announced in The List, Scotland’s longest-standing arts and culture magazine’s December/January issue out today [FRI].
Novelist Martin MacInnes and actor turned director Adura Onashile make up the top five.
Edinburgh Book Festival director Jenny Niven; artist Sekai Machache; singer Paolo Nutini; Two Doors Down star and comic Kieran Hodgson; and Khaleda Noon & Sara Elbashir, of the charity Intercultural Youth Scotland (IYS), complete the top ten.
The List’s Hot 100 has been curated by the free arts and culture magazine’s writers and editorial staff since 2003 to celebrate the one hundred cultural contributors of the past year.
Famous names featured throughout the decades include Franz Ferdinand and Ewan McGregor, with recurring names like Paolo Nutini, Brian Cox and Lewis Capaldi all featuring on the 2023 list.
Others featured include Gail Porter, singer Joesef, Kyle Falconer and Laura Wilde, and another duo, The Proclaimers, who take the final place in this year’s list.
Young Fathers – the Edinburgh-based trio Kayus Bankole, Alloysious Massaquoi and Graham ‘G’ Hastings – recently won their third prestigious SAY Award for their album Heavy Heavy.
They are currently supporting Depeche Mode on the North American leg of their world tour.
Bankole said: “Compared with being down south where it feels like the epicentre for creativity, I feel like once you have something special that comes out of Scotland it feels really, really special.
“It feels more worthwhile because you don’t have the machine behind you over here, like you may have elsewhere. Your own steam is still enough to carry your art.”
Brian Donaldson, Editor at The List magazine, added: “It’s been another special year for
culture within Scotland and by those Scots who are plying their creative trade outside the
country these days.
“Last year’s high-flyers could very easily have replicated their positions at the top again, but we felt that the likes of Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Benedetti would be fine with stepping aside and letting a new bunch of stars take their spots.
“There’s nothing predictable or safe about our Top 10 and we believe it encapsulates what makes Scottish culture so unique and exciting.
“Where else would you have established players in their field such as Fern Brady and Paolo Nutini rubbing shoulders with rising stars like Martin MacInnes and Sekai Machache?”
Those eligible are Scots who are creative in any part of the world and non-Scots who contribute to the cultural landscape in Scotland.
The Hot 100 is announced in The List’s December/January issue out now.
The Hot 100 2023
1. Young Fathers – Mercury-nominated and SAY Award-winning trio
2. Fern Brady – Comedian and bestselling author
3. Marjolein Robertson – Five-star Shetland stand-up
4. Martin MacInnes – Booker-longlisted Invernesian novelist
5. Adura Onashile – Stage and screen actor turned debut film director
6. Jenny Niven – New director of Edinburgh International Book Festival
7. Sekai Machache – Talbot Rice artist-in-residence with immersive films at Mount Stuart
8. Paolo Nutini – Winner of Modern Scottish Classic album at SAY Awards
9. Kieran Hodgson – Two Doors Down star and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee
10. Khaleda Noon & Sara Elbashir – of Intercultural Youth Scotland helps foster talent in the local music and arts scene.
11 Liam Withnail & Christopher Macarthur-Boyd
12 Siobhan Mackenzie
13 Brìghde Chaimbeul
14 Solène Weinachter
15 Paul Laverty
16 Rachel Maclean
17 Janey Godley
18 Duncan Dornan
19 Eilidh Loan
20 Sadiq Ali & David Banks
21 Johnny McKnight
22 Liam Shortall
23 Hannah Lavery
24 Gary McNair
25 Imogen Evans
26 Tony Curran
27 Hazel Johnson
28 Tomas Gormley & Sam Yorke
29 Fred Deakin
30 Tinashe Warikandwa
31 Simone Seales
32 Joseph Malik
33 Mark Cousins
34 Ian Stirling & Paddy Fletcher
35 Neil Forsyth
36 Marge Hendrick
37 Susie McCabe
38 Rab Florence
39 May Sumbwanyambe
40 K Patrick
41 Helen Nisbet
42 Bee Asha
43 Audrey Gillan
44 Hanna Tuulikki
45 Frankie Elyse
46 Danielle Jam
47 Andrew Marshall
48 Gail Porter
49 Rachel Walker & Aaron Jones
50 Becky Sikasa
51 Simon Murphy
52 Chef The Rapper
53 Jude Coward Nicoll
54 Katie Goh & Katie Hawthorne
55 Hope Dickson Leach
56 Jamie Byng
57 Lewis Capaldi
58 Sam Gough
59 Maggie O & Farrell
60 Lorne MacFadyen
61 Andrew Fleming-Brown
62 Amy Laurenson
63 Chris Carse Wilson
64 Nicole Cooper
65 Sarah Smith
66 Hifi Sean
67 Joesef
68 Lynsey May
69 Queen Of Harps
70 Stuart Ralston
71 Laura Aldridge/James Rigler/Nick Evans
72 LJ Findlay-Walsh
73 Izuka Hoyle
74 Peter Ross
75 Simon Erlanger
76 Jasleen Kaur
77 Susan Riddell
78 Douglas MacIntyre
79 Lesley Hart
80 Padruig Morrison
81 Anne Lyden
82 Brian Cox
83 Kyle Falconer & Laura Wilde
84 Josie KO
85 Sharon Rooney
86 Amy Matthews
87 James Yorkston
88 Lois Chimimba
89 Lucy Ireland & Jim Manganello
90 Conor McCarron
91 Michael Pellegrotti
92 Dr Marian Bruce
93 Ainsley Hamill
94 Lawrie Brewster
95 Stuart McPherson
96 Terra Kin
97 Keith Ingram
98 James Ferguson & Alethea Palmer
99 Daniel Portman
100 Proclaimers
