The Hot 100 2018: 30–21
Ashley Storrie, Hannah Rarity and Sarra Wild are among our favourite cultural contributors this year
Without a doubt, 2018 has been a year of incredible female activism and empowerment. From #MeToo and Time's Up to the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some women the vote, the various events of this year have renewed and reinvigorated the fight for gender equality. With this in mind, this year's Hot 100 is all about celebrating the women in Scotland that are making a sizeable splash with their many accomplishments, innovations and creative endeavours across arts and culture. In the words of Beyoncé, 'who run the world?'…
30 Rachel Newton
Following on from an award-winning year in 2017, the dynamic singer and harpist released her fourth solo album West. Newton embarked on a ten-date headline tour of the UK in support of the record, marking this as her biggest tour to date. (BC)
29 Isobel McArthur
Part of the Blood of the Young collective, and writer of Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), their late season hit, McArthur has created a series of memorable performances, with her gender-swapped Mr Darcy eclipsing even the most famous versions of stage and screen. (GKV)
28 Janey Godley
Aside from maintaining her campaign against all things Trump-related, Janey Godley
was in reflective mood this year with two shows. Her Glasgow Comedy Festival affair Revelations of Godley, and her Edinburgh Fringe show Godley's Cream, looked back on her 20 years in comedy alongside plenty new material. (BD)
27 Cucina Povera
Povera (aka Glasgow-based, Finnish-born musician and artist Maria Rossi) delivered one of the year's most beguiling debuts with Hilja, creating experimental pop from vocal loops, synths and field recordings. Look out for her second album in 2019. (SS)
26 Hannah Rarity
After winning BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2018, Rarity's sumptuous vocals have been heard far and wide on stage and screen, with the release of her debut album, Neath the Gloaming Star, the icing on this year's cake. (KA)
25 Wils Wilson
Having given audiences goosebumps with Wind Resistance, her meditative collaboration with Karine Polwart, this indomitable director brought psychedelic madness to the Royal Lyceum adaptation of Twelfth Night, which felt more like trippy classic Performance. (LI)
24 Ashley Storrie
As daughter of one of the fiercest comedians on the Scottish circuit (see number 28), Ashley Storrie has always had a lot to live up to. But this year, she struck out fantastically with a Fringe hit, Adulting, in which she explored #MeToo, smear tests, and what it means to be a grown-up. (BD)
23 Sarra Wild
Co-founder of club night and collective OH141, Sarra Wild has pushed the conversation around opening club spaces to people of colour, queer people and women. A brilliant DJ, she reduces crowds from Counterflows to Romanticrash to a sweaty, joyous mess. (SS)
22 Orla O'Loughlin
Outgoing artistic director of the Traverse, Orla O'Loughlin sealed a reputation as an intuitive director of plays, and her recent programme of Fringe shows were timely and challenging, taking on class, race and gender. Her collaboration with Cora Bissett, What Girls Are Made Of, was a moving riposte to pressures on women. (LI)
21 Free Love
Suzi Rodden and Lewis Cook's psych-pop juggernaut, formerly known as Happy Meals, rolls on. This year they made an EP for Lost Map's Visitations series (centred on the theme of alien abduction) and a string of banging singles ('Synchronicity' and 'Pushing Too Hard') gathered in the aptly titled collection Luxury Hits. (CA)