PinkPantheress is the BBC's Sound Of...2022

The mysterious hitmaker has been declared the new star to watch by the BBC poll

PinkPantheress has been announced as the winner of the BBC's Sound of...2022.

The Bath-born, London-based mysterious 20-year-old literally only started releasing music a year ago, but her songs rapidly went viral as she became a TikTok sensation.

By August, she had two songs in the Top 40 including her debut single Pain, and the UK garage-inspired Just For Me, which Coldplay covered in Radio 1's Live Lounge. It's so far her highest-peaking single in the UK, hitting Number 27.

Signing a major label record deal with Parlophone, PinkPantheress released her debut mixtape To Hell With It, which debuted at peaked at Number 20 on the Official Albums Chart.

MORE: PinkPantheress' Official Charts history in full

Collectively her music has picked up almost 100 million streams worldwide on Spotify alone, and her TikTok videos have generated over 4 million likes. Just For Me has already generated over 834,000 TikToks, so expect to see it climb in the coming weeks. The song also ended up as one of the most popular TikTok-driven hits of 2021.

Part of PinkPantheress' charm is her enigma; despite sharing her face in music videos and PR shots, she's refused to release her real name and protect her personal life. Speaking to the BBC, she said "I find it easier to not lay every single card on the table.”

MORE: The biggest TikTok tracks of 2021 revealed

"I like my privacy and I felt like, if I have my music out and my face everywhere, it would start getting too much for people."

She first began uploading short 12 second snippets of her music – mostly written at around 3am in her university dorm room – on TikTok which she believed acted as a ‘focus group’ and encouraged followers to tell her as to what songs she should continue with.

Pinkpantheress beat indie duo Wet Leg, lungsmiths Mimi Webb and Lola Young and rapper Central Cee to come atop in the annual poll, and now joins quite the line-up of previous winners of the Sound Of poll, which has included Adele, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, HAIM, Years & Years, Ray BLK and Sigrid.

The acts that appear on Sound Of are all hand-picked by a panel of impartial music industry experts from around the world.