Influencer turned chart dominator is poised to take home the gold at the Feb. 1 awards
This year’s Best New Artist field is a head-scratcher because it’s just so wide open. “A lot has been going on in specific genre spaces,” says Cecilia Winter, Editorial Lead for Global Hits at Spotify, “but the obvious choices that we had this time last year are not as present — with the possible exception of an Alex Warren or a Sombr, who have had hockey-stick growth in the past year and who are also relatively new artists.”
The Nominees
Olivia Dean
Katseye
The Marías
Addison Rae
Sombr
Leon Thomas
Alex Warren
Lola Young
The Lowdown
Influencer turned chart dominator Alex Warren, whose ballad “Ordinary” had a lock on the Hot 100’s top spot this summer, and Sombr, the flame-keeper of downtown New York cool, are front-runners. But don’t discount soul belter Olivia Dean and R&B revivalist Leon Thomas. There’s also Warren’s fellow Hype House alum Addison Rae, who released her first full-length album that dwells in what Winter calls “the underground, cool-girl pop space.” Somewhere between those acts lies the neo-girl-band Katseye and the genre-blurring indie-pop act the Marías.
But it’s the raspy-voiced Brit Lola Young who has been playing the long game. She released her first album in 2023 and leveled up with her shaggily appealing third full-length, I’m Only F**king Myself.
Who Should Win
Lola Young
Young had a fantastic year, following up the success of “Messy” with preview cuts from I’m Only F**ing Myself that showed how she wasn’t going to let that song’s popularity force her to sound a certain way — and how she was going to remain fiercely true to herself in her lyric-writing, too. “She has built this really sticky audience because of these super raw, vulnerable, relatable lyrics,” says Winter. “And she has this really compelling voice and sound.”
Who Will Win
Alex Warren
Alex Warren’s dominance of radio and streaming, as well as his unabashed romanticism, will result in him taking home the gold. “Warren is in a pantheon of male vocalists who are full of love, and yearning, and heartbreak, and pain,” Winter says. “And they don’t shy away from those things. [They’ve] historically been well-recognized by the Grammys.”
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