The road to any recognition within the music industry can be a very long one. Some artists release music for years before receiving any nominations for their outstanding work. Scottish singer Jacob Alon learned piano and guitar as a child and initially developed their songwriting privately before beginning to release music. Their sound earned recognition and they quickly became part of Edinburgh’s folk scene. It all started when they finally got into the studio to record their music in 2024.
Following in the footsteps of some of the greatest names in today’s music such as Adele, Florence + the Machine and James Bay, they won the BRITs Critics’ Choice 2026 award for their talent. A huge deal after just two years of releasing music, to receive recognition like that. What’s particularly striking is that this has happened without them making commercial pop music. Their songs are quiet, vulnerable and rooted in folk traditions, yet they’ve managed to attract an extraordinary amount of industry recognition.
You’d think that winning the BRITs Critics’ Choice 2026 alone would’ve been enough, but besides this they went on to take home the BBC Music Introducing Artist of the Year 2025, becoming the first Scottish artist to do so, as well as the Rolling Stone UK Play Next Award 2025 and a Mercury Prize 2025 nomination for their debut album In Limerence. Tonight Jacob is making their tour stop in Berlin and, with a lead-up like this, the expectations are high.
Jacob’s unusually soaring and delicate vocal, paired with their intimate, atmospheric indie folk, deserves a special location to be heard. For their Berlin tour stop, they are playing in the Passionskirche, a beautiful small church. The location itself right away sets the mood for the singer to take the audience into their world. Their show is centred around finger-picked guitar and beautiful piano music.
From the moment they sing the very first word, it becomes clear there is an outstanding talent standing in front of us. Their voice is undeniable and reaches places that truly sound angelic. It’s easy to be mesmerised by the live set and feel as if you are at the doorstep of heaven. This feeling, however, sadly doesn’t last forever.
Throughout the show, the musicality stays pretty much the same. The slow tempo, the high soaring falsetto in their voice, the deep songwriting and the overall vibe. We know what they are famous for and it’s exactly why we’re here. Yet, we were hoping for a bit more diversity. Hoping for a few moments that take us off guard, to ‘wake us up’ and put a smile on our face.
We see the talent and couldn’t agree more that all their prizes and nominations are well deserved. At the same time, we left wishing there had been a little more variation throughout the set. By the end, we found ourselves struggling to pick out that one song that stayed stuck in our heads on the way home. We hope Jacob Alon finds that sweet spot between their extraordinary talent for writing intimate music and, here and there, gives their audience a little wake-up call to bring some positive energy into the room. Because when you already have a voice and songwriting talent this special, we can’t wait to see what happens when they start showing us even more sides of it.