Austin’s ACL Live at the Moody Theater was once again where the stars of tomorrow came out, earlier this month, as Rolling Stone’s Future of Music Showcase at SXSW took over the famed Texas venue for the third straight year. For four nights, fans packed into the 2,750-capacity Moody to see artists like Benson Boone, Megan Moroney, Ivan Cornejo, and Rema, along with acts that spanned an array of genres — pop, música mexicana, Southern rock, country, alt-reggaeton, Afrobeats, hip-hop, folk-pop, indie-rock, soul, and even “Death Cab for Country” (that’d be rising Nashville star Stephen Wilson Jr.).
The event aligned with Rolling Stone’s annual Future of Music issue, which features four print covers — Boone, Moroney, Cornejo, and Rema. The Future 25, Rolling Stone’s list of the stars of tomorrow and the centerpiece of the issue, featured many of the artists who played the showcase.
The Moody was the perfect venue, with excellent sound and giant screens flashing those Rolling Stone covers and artists’ idiosyncratic visuals, as well as heartfelt intro videos that took the audience through the headliners’ stories.
Night One kicked off with Duplexity, the duo of Beverly Hills siblings Savannah and Luke Judy. Augmented by five musicians, they launched into a full-throated mix of songs that leaned toward Nineties alternative and metal — and filled the room with a fairly epic energy. The Manchester, England-based singer-songwriter jasmine.4.t — the first U.K. signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label — came out next to play songs from her boygenius-produced LP, You Are the Morning, which features frank and beautiful songs about life as a trans woman. Jasmine.4.t, in shorts and rainbow hair, took time out to speak her mind from the Moody stage, talking about coming out as trans, the difficulty of touring as a trans artist, and more.
Jasmine.4.t at Rolling Stone‘s Future of Music showcase on March 11, 2025.
Samantha Tellez for Rolling Stone
Next up was Laila!, a singer-rapper-producer who’s earned co-signs from Tyler, the Creator, among others. Still in her teens, Laila! (who’s the daughter of Yaasin Bey, a.k.a. Mos Def) bounced around the stage, played a sampler, sat at a keyboard, and took us through her very good Gap Year!, her entirely self-produced album that captures the highs and lows of adolescence. Next, Hannah Bahng dived into moody, moving songs full of heartache and honest reflection. Fans in Austin greeted the Korean Australian singer-songwriter with screams and cheers as she bounded through songs from her The Abysmal EP and treated the crowd to an unreleased song (“Sweet Satin Boy”) and a Bon Jovi cover (a heartfelt rendition of “Livin’ on a Prayer”). Between sets, DJ Mel — known as Obama’s DJ, thanks to gigs at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and 2013 inauguration — kept the energy going all night long.
Boone came out in typically dazzling attire: a sparking jumpsuit with matching vest and headband. He launched into his deeply catchy new single, “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else,” treating the crowd to his first flip of the evening — off the piano — midway through.
Boone is a classic showman: athletic, charismatic, possessed of a remarkable, high-octane voice. On “Drunk in My Mind” — a 2024 song he introduced by asking the crowd, “Have you ever hated somebody before?” — he hopped on the piano again; no flip this time, but he did show off his insanely stratospheric falsetto.
Boone played a handful of new songs from his upcoming album, American Heart, including “Young American Heart,” about a near-fatal car accident he got into with a friend as a teenager, and “The Mama Song,” a lovely ballad about his mother.
In his Rolling Stone cover story, Boone noted that his 2024 smash, “Beautiful Things,” is “not really a song you can half-ass, you know?” At the Moody, he certainly didn’t half-ass it, climbing on the piano for the “Please, stay” chorus as the audience sang along with him, then performed his final flip of the evening — mid-chorus. After “Beautiful Things,” Boone thanked the crowd and waded into the throng to shake hands. He popped back onstage, gave us a handspring, and left the stage with a tight, assured leap — a rising star in the midst of his ascent.
The Future of Music Showcase was presented by audio pioneer JBL. Fans were invited to visit JBL’s Sound Bodega ahead of the showcase from Tuesday through Thursday for live performances from DJ Pee .Wee, Laila!, Nsqk, and a lineup of other notable acts, and to snag the just-released portable speakers: the JBL Flip 7 and JBL Charge 6.
All-electric vehicle maker Rivian also teamed up with Rolling Stone to celebrate the launch of its California Dune Edition R1S and R1T. iHeartRadio supported the Future of Music showcase, too, as did Colossal, who partnered with Rolling Stone and MusiCares to run a search for “America’s Next Top Hitmaker” in 2024. This fundraising competition garnered more than $2.1 million in donations and the winner, Duplexity, kicked off the Future of Music Showcase’s opening night. Bardstown Bourbon refreshed the crowd each night with specialty cocktails.
On Wednesday night, by the time Megan Moroney sang the words, “Oh, my God, am I okay?,” it was clear the Georgia country star already had her answer. Moroney was far better than just “okay,” and the fans assembled at Austin’s ACL Live at the Moody Theater let her know it. They cheered, and on occasion shrieked, when the singer launched into emo-country hits like her breakthrough “Tennessee Orange,” the reflective “I’m Not Pretty,” and a set-closing “Am I Okay?”
Megan Moroney headlined night two of Rolling Stone‘s Future of Music showcase on March 12, 2025.
Salihah Saadiq for Rolling Stone
The crowd — guys in T-shirts reading “Lucky,” after the title of her 2023 debut LP, and girls rocking their own take on Moroney’s white-boots and short-skirt combo — were fully engaged, both by her hooky songs and polished stagecraft and production. Neon silhouettes of cowboy boots, horseshoes, four-leaf clovers, and dice dotted the stage, underscoring the good-luck vibes, while the outline of a smiley face nodded to the self-care that’s threaded through her second album, Am I Okay?.
Moroney’s set was heavy on songs from both LPs, but she also went way back to 2021 — a year before she signed her current label deal with Sony Music Nashville — to resurrect early single “Wonder.” “We started to play it again, because apparently you all like it,” she said to introduce the mid-tempo ballad, a song that, like “I’m Not Pretty,” could easily exist in the pop sphere. “I found that, specifically with ‘I’m Not Pretty,’ a lot of people are like, ‘I don’t like country music, but I started listening because of you,’” she said in her RS cover story.
The idea of what exactly constitutes “country music” was a through-line of Wednesday’s Future of Music lineup. The evening’s DJs, Honky Tonkin’ in Queens, provided a soundtrack of classic, twangy songs from country’s heyday, teeing up the fresh sounds that were to come. Brittney Spencer kicked off the evening with a set that highlighted the rootsy Americana and soul sounds of the genre but also the muscular country-pop of her 2024 debut, My Stupid Life. Everything was tied together by the performer’s robust yet elegant voice. (There’s a reason Beyoncé enlisted Spencer to sing on Cowboy Carter’s standout “Blackbiird.”)
Larkin Poe, the sibling duo of Rebecca and Megan Lovell, came next and offered their own interpretation of Southern sounds. While they are rock and blues to the core, country lyricism — specifically the idea of turning a line’s meaning on its head — defines “If God Is a Woman,” a track off the band’s new album, Bloom. Even the Lovells’ clothing and that of their bandmates spoke to the working-class history of country music: Everyone onstage wore matching denim shirts and pants.
The eclectic sounds of Larkin Poe served as a perfect lead-in for Stephen Wilson Jr., the singer, songwriter, and inventive guitarist who has been steadily building an audience for the past two years with his 2023 album Son of Dad. The former boxer kicked off his set with the one-two punch of “Billy” and “Cuckoo,” a pair of brooding rock-focused tracks. “You can call me Billy/But the hills come with me,” he sang defiantly in the former, celebrating his hardscrabble roots growing up in rural southern Indiana. Wilson also comes from an indie-rock background, and at the Future of Music showcase, he and his fellow performers made the case that country’s tree has many branches. And they’re all thriving.
On Thursday, hours before música mexicana heartthrob Ivan Cornejo took the stage at the Moody, his fans showed up in droves — some of them carrying the signature red roses Cornejo tends to give out during his sets — and let out seismic, window-shattering roars whenever images of the 20-year-old singer-songwriter popped up on the screens at the venue. Most of them seemed ready to get into their feelings, something Cornejo always opens up space to do during his performances.
Ivan Cornejo headlined night three of Rolling Stone‘s Future of Music showcase on March 13, 2025.
Samantha Tellez for Rolling Stone
Letting it all out felt like the theme on Thursday, as all of the acts came ready to reveal who they are and where they’d come from. First up — after some opening vibes from that night’s DJ, Riobamba — there was Puerto Rican pop princess Gale, who channeled the spirit of the Nineties in snap hair clips and a babydoll tee, a nod to the bright, nostalgic elements in her music. A lot of the material on Thursday came from her brilliant 2023 album, Lo Que No Te Dije. But midway through her set, she launched into an acoustic medley of major pop bangers she helped write — Shakira’s “Copa Vacia” and Manuel Turizo’s “El Merengue,” among them — showing some fans who were discovering her for the first time that they’ve actually known her longer than they thought.
Next came the Puerto Rican wunderkinds Chuwi. The four radically different characters — siblings Willy Aldarondo, Lorén Aldarondo, and Wester Aldarondo, and their close friend Adrián López — hail from the coastal Puerto Rican town of Isabela, and the members flew out to visit Austin for the first time ever and introduce themselves to an audience ready to take in their stories. They did it over bold, infectious beats, powered by merengue and bomba rhythms from back home. At one point, toward the end of their set, Lorén shared in both Spanish and English that they had been watching for a long time as displacement and gentrification took place in Puerto Rico, reflecting some of the larger realities around the world. They teed up the emotional song “Tierra,” but then brought everyone’s heart rates back up when they signed off with the percussive “Tikiri.” In a whirl, they were off, leaving the crowd pumped for more.
Good thing Nsqk had a ton of energy. The Mexican producer and singer-rapper has been on the rise since releasing last year’s ATP, an LP that offers all kinds of sound and vibes. On Thursday, the rising alt-reggaeton star’s setlist provided a look into the range and eclecticism that makes him so unique. Wearing dark sunglasses and a muscle tee, Nsqk bounced across the stage, activating the crowd. The wild, video-game-like production of “Bad Intenciones” proved to be a peak got most people dancing, and then, to close things off, he ended with the dubby, club-inspired “MUBI.”
By then, the theater had filled up with even more fans. All of them screamed in unison when the stage lights blinked and a video popped up, showing Cornejo declaring his pride and love for música mexicana. In the video, he shared his reaction to finding out he would be one of this year’s Future of Music stars: “I just remember looking back and thinking of all the fans, and thinking this was going to stay a dream, and now we’re here.”
Lights twinkled from the stage, the dreamy strum of requintos filled the theater, and fans instantly began singing along as he pulled off a one-two punch, first performing his hit “Está Dañado” and then following it up with its sister smash, the endlessly brooding “Está Dañada.” The intention was clear: Everyone was about to process some deeply felt emotion.
For Cornejo, it was also a chance to look at how much his career has expanded. At one point, he stopped to point out the mass of followers gathered on the third floor of the venue, shouting from the rafters. “All you guys at the top, how are you doing?” he asked them, a slow grin spreading across his face. The second part of his show transitioned into newer tracks from his latest album, Mirada, and gave the band a chance to test out more alternative, rock-leaning songs as they played tracks like “Aqui Te Espero” and “Baby Please.”
It didn’t matter what part of the set list he was on, though. The fans had learned every song, and they were there to wail along to all of his tales of broken romances and dark loneliness. “There’s always something that every fan has in common, and it’s that they all have such a big heart and are always super in touch with their emotions, and they’re not shy to let it out,” Cornejo told Rolling Stone in his cover story. “They’re very, very passionate.” At the Moody Theater, they all proved him right.
Anycia at Rolling Stone‘s Future of Music showcase on March 14, 2025.
Salihah Saadiq for Rolling Stone
While Houston is the Texas town better known to serve Afrobeats lovers, Rema fans flocked to Austin for his headlining, showcase-closing set on March 14. Rappers Samara Cyn and Anycia, who took the stage before him, couldn’t contain their excitement for Rema’s show, either — hyping the crowd up for his appearance after hers, Anycia joked that they might find her on the floor with them. From the time the Atlanta upstart closed with her Latto-assisted banger “Back Outside” to the moment Rema’s welcome video filled the massive screens, the Moody Theater steadily filled with eager and diverse attendees — cliques of girls filming each other, men ready to mosh, and everyone in between.
Midwestern MC AJ McQueen put on a set of lyrically dexterous hip-hop, heavy on his very strong latest album, Sorry Ma, I Was Distracted. Tennessee-born, L.A.-based rapper Samara Cyn later took the stage for a set that drew from her 2024 album The Drive Home, which that shows off how Cyn’s winding life path — she’s lived a nomadic existence — “inculcated her with adaptability and open-mindedness,” as Rolling Stone’s Andre Gee has put it. Cyn is one of the most hotly hyped talents in hip-hop right now, having been invited onstage by Lauryn Hill at a Miami show the previous weekend.
Next up, Anycia hyped up the crowd, sometimes with specific compliments (“You so fuckin’ pretty, talk about a face, baby,” she told one fan) and generally kept the energy extremely high. Her set, like her very good 2024 mixtape Princess Pop That, showed off a brashness and confidence that’s ATL to the core — and all about being herself. Then, it was time for Rema.
“Africa is the future of music because it’s unique and it knows no boundary,” he said in his intro clip, filmed on the set of his Future of Music cover shoot. The issue makes him the first Black African solo star — and the first Afrobeats star — to be featured on the cover in the magazine’s history. “I feel the sense of Africa in everything, and I feel like this is just the beginning. There’s so much more that we’re here to express. I’m grateful to represent Afrobeats.”
Rema headlined night four of Rolling Stone‘s Future of Music showcase on March 14, 2025.
Salihah Saadiq for Rolling Stone
After the video cut, Rema’s DJ Jumbee brought in a track of intense drums and guitar fit for a rockstar, with fierce blue and silver lights frantically flashing to match. Rema smoothly sauntered up the stage’s stairs and towards the center of it under a halo of spotlight, shrouded in a heavy coat and thick jeans as if it hadn’t been in the 90s all day — hey, when you’re cool, you’re cool. As the first notes of “March Am,” the menacing intro to his critically acclaimed sophomore album Heis, rang out, the screen that boasted his demure interview turned into a dark sky exploding with bats, symbols Rema has adopted as a relic of his hometown of Benin City, Nigeria. (Bats are also a familiar part of life in Austin, in a nice parallel.)
He closed out the Heis opening numbers with the party starter “Yayo,” before honoring his invitation to the Future of Music showcase with one caveat: “Shout out Rolling Stone, I love each and every one of y’all that came out to be here tonight,” he said, before reminding the crowd, “You know how it goes, though — when Rema’s onstage, it’s a Rema party.” The sea of ardent fans answered his call to repeat his tagline, too. “When I say ‘Another,’ you say….” he led. “Banger!” they exclaimed.
Though “March Am” is a high-energy track, Rema made sure to let the momentum build steadily — the last hook clearly resonated with him as he stomped his foot and slapped his leg to his staccato bars. He was joined by an array of dancers in baggy tuxes and bright white tennis shoes, who then crowded him for “Azaman,” armed with throwback corded phones that complemented their bouncy choreography. “Call azaman,” Rema cries over and over in that song, a flex in Nigerian pidgin for how much money he has on demand; the phones were a quirky play on the phrase. “I dey find money like say na Shazam,” he teases on the track (Translation: “I get money so easily, it’s like I’m just Shazaming it and it appears.”)
Rema slinked in and out of the varied vibes he’s curated over his six years in the limelight. He shed his coat and teased fans with peeks at his abs to complement sexy singles like his remix of Darkoo’s “Favourite Girl”(one of Rolling Stone’s top Afropop songs of 2024), his debut “Dumebi” (“If you know you’re in the crowd tonight and you been rocking with me since day one, 2019 make some noise!” he beckoned), and “Soundgasm.” That one, he revealed in his cover story, was a special kind of gift for a former lover. “I recorded that on Valentine’s Day. So that was a very freaky day for everybody,” he said.
For “Soundgasm,” Rema was flanked by a dancer with long platinum hair who moved like she could top the bill at one of Houston’s iconic strip clubs if she wanted to. She was joined by a just-as-talented colleague for the super-powered party song “Bounce.” Later, things got sentimental for his record-breaking hit “Calm Down,” the crowd welcoming it to the set with a roar that vibrated through the theater. And while that song is one of Afrobeats’ biggest crossover hits ever, he honored his roots with dexterous footwork for the hometown anthem “Benin Boys,” complimented by bright graphics that resembled the city’s famous bronzes — historic sculptures pillaged by Europeans in colonial warfare that those far-off nations still hold in their museums. (In his cover story, Rema told Rolling Stone that supporting local politicians’ efforts to get the bronzes back to Benin City is a priority of his.)
To close out his electric set, the mosh-ready men got what they came for when Rema summoned the dark energy of “Ozeba,” a Heis hit modeled after a Nollywood horror film. “If you wanna take off your shoes, take off your shoes,” he said before it, “If you wanna take off your wig, take off your wig.” While shoes and wigs seemed to remain mostly intact, the crowd took the spirit of the invite to heart, jumping, screaming, and sweating to the sound of an Afrobeats visionary.
(Full disclosure: In 2021, Rolling Stone’s parent company, P-MRC, acquired a 50 percent stake in the SXSW festival.)
