Between Harry Styles, Blackpink, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, and BTS, 2026 has already had its fair share of major pop releases, with even more on the way from Charli XCX, Gracie Abrams, Tyla, Ariana Grande, and Role Model. But the best music of the year doesn’t belong to pop stars — it belongs to actors.
It all started when Naomi Scott dropped her (wonderful) debut album F.I.G. back in March. She’s known for her work in films like Aladdin and Smile 2, and music has been an integral part of Scott’s career since she first broke onto the scene in the 2011 Disney Channel Original Movie Lemonade Mouth, in which she plays a bass guitarist for a fictional band of the same name. Cut to 2026: Scott worked with the likes of Dev Hynes and Lido to produce F.I.G., a forward-thinking, Janet Jackson-tinged alt-R&B project that only gets better, silkier, and sexier with every listen. Just ask the TikTok algorithm.
Following the initial release of F.I.G., my FYP was flooded with videos of fans pleasantly surprised to learn that the actor had transitioned into music. “Was anyone going to tell me that Naomi Scott dropped an album last week? None of you h*es were going to tell me that?” asked one creator. “Mo from Lemonade Mouth randomly releasing the best album I’ve ever heard???” wrote another. (Mind you, I had been including the album’s singles in my Best New Music roundups for months leading up to that point.) It’s still one of the most IYKYK-releases of 2026, but it’s no coincidence that the ones who do know also have great taste.
Shortly after Scott’s album came Bridgerton performer Simone Ashley’s debut EP, Songs I Wrote In New York. A wistful exploration of love inspired by a collection of letters written by a teenage Ashley to her future self, the project surprises at every turn with its Latin rhythms, R&B melodies, and British soul-leaning vocals.
Meanwhile, Ella Hunt, who currently stars as the lead in Mindy Kaling’s latest TV show, Not Suitable for Work, also released her debut this year. On Blindspot, Hunt channels the grief that came with watching her sister Emily lose her battle with brain cancer in 2023 through Leonard Cohen levels of balladry and an intentionally hands-off approach to production that makes the record sound like she’s playing it for you live on the piano in her living room. It’s breathtaking, heartbreaking, and surprisingly uplifting all at once, and we’re so lucky that it exists.
Despite the high quality of their respective outputs, however, there’s still a stigma that comes with being an actor-musician, one that Hunt feels hinders audiences from taking her music seriously. But she doesn’t blame them — in fact, she kind of understands where they’re coming from.
“As a person who consumes culture, I’m very aware of how weird it can be when actors put out a music project,” Hunt tells NYLON. “It often feels like I have a sense of illegitimacy when I see actors putting out music projects, and I don’t think it’s fair to the quality or mindset that a lot of these actors are putting out music with. But there’s a tension there. I think it’s hard to believe that an actor putting out music isn’t playing a character.”
Then again, actors have much more to offer than the roles they play on TV. “All I can say is that for me, what helps me process that question around legitimacy is playing live and being able to talk about the music in a real way,” says Hunt. “It’s a beautiful thing to get to try out and wear lots of different hats, but for me, this isn’t a hat I’m trying on. I’ve been playing shows and writing music since I was 10.”
“I think I just have to bite down on that discomfort and accept that that’s going to be something people think and perceive when they see me putting out music,” she continues. “Maybe I’ll be able to turn some people around, and maybe some people will just stay not really buying it. At a certain point, I just have to kind of put my hands up and surrender to that reality.”
If you’re willing to work through that tension, there’s sure to be even more excellent music waiting for you on the other side: Marty Supreme’s Odessa A’zion recently lent her signature raspy voice to singles “Maybe I’m Not What You Need” and “Liquor Store Roses,” comedian and Hacks breakout Meg Stalter will make the pivot to pop star when her album Crave drops later this summer, former Grey’s Anatomy actor E.R. Fightmaster has fully integrated themself into the indie rock space with their debut album Tolerance, and Booksmart actor Diana Silvers dipped her toes in the singer-songwriter pool late last year her debut From Another Room, while both Maya Hawke and Finn Wolfhard continued their pre-established music careers with their first post-Stranger Things musical projects in 2026. Following the release of her single “Ugly and Rotten” in early June, it looks like former child star Mckenna Grace might be the next actor to make the switch.
It’s understandable to be skeptical of an actor-turned-musician (remember when Scarlett Johansson tried making music? Or Lindsay Lohan?), but don’t write them off completely, either — they could be putting out some of the best music you’ll hear all year, and you wouldn’t even know.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nylon.com ’
