After a fantastic night of live music in Pilton on Saturday, Manchester-based “Britainacana” band Westside Cowboy were named the winners of our 2025 Emerging Talent Competition, which is supported by PRS for Music and the PRS Foundation.
Westside Cowboy win a slot on the Woodsies Stage at Glastonbury 2025, plus a £5,000 Talent Development prize from the PRS Foundation.
Westside Cowboy have been playing together for around 18 months and describe themselves as ‘Britainacana’ due to their shared love of country music, folk, indie rock and punk. On winning the Award the band says “It feels amazing. We are very very grateful to everyone.”
Westside Cowboy were one of thousands of artists to take part in this year’s free-to-enter competition, with a longlist then compiled by 30 of the UK’s best music writers, subsequently narrowed down to a shortlist of eight artists who performed at the live final to decide the winning act.
The judges – who included Michael and Emily Eavis, Glastonbury stage bookers and music business professionals – gave the two runners-up places to Ghana-born, Gloucester-raised neo-soul / hip hop act Nat Oaks and Welsh language singer-songwriter Mali Hâf. Both acts receive a £2,500 Talent Development prize from the PRS Foundation. While revealing the winners, BBC 6 Music’s Huw Stephens announced that both runners-up would also get a slot at this year’s Festival.
