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John Legend is bringing his acclaimed 2018 A Legendary Christmas album back on the road this year, with the 45-year-old EGOT winner unveiling a string of 11 festive U.S. shows slated for this holiday season.
As announced exclusively with People, the run will kick off Dec. 2 with a performance in Highland, Calif., followed by more dates in California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. “My hope for these shows is that they feel like a gathering of friends by the fireside — where the music brings warmth, joy, and a sense of togetherness,” he told the publication.
“Over the years, I’ve experienced the holidays in so many ways, and each version of me — from my childhood to now as a father — has shaped the way I approach this season,” the “All of Me” vocalist continued. “I want to share that journey with the audience, through songs and stories that celebrate both the festive spirit and the moments that bring us closer. I hope people leave feeling like they’ve been part of something warm, familiar, and special.”
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In addition to moments of storytelling about Legend’s career and life with his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, and their four children, the trek will see the musician joined by a four-piece band performing tracks — many of which are covers of holiday classics, such as “Silver Bells” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” — from A Legendary Christmas. Produced by Stevie Wonder and Raphael Saadiq, the LP peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 in 2020.
Fans can secure tickets when a presale kicks off at 10 a.m. local time Monday (Oct. 7) on Legend’s website. A general public on sale will follow at 10 a.m. local time Wednesday (Oct. 9).
Legend previously toured in support of A Legendary Christmas in 2018, unveiling a 25-date trek in October of that year at the same time he announced the album. The Voice coach most recently dropped an album of children’s songs and lullabies titled My Favorite Dream, featuring cameos from Teigen, 8-year-old daughter Luna and 6-year-old son Miles.
“I’m right in the thick of fatherhood,” he wrote in a statement ahead of My Favorite Dream‘s release in August. “My parents loved to sing around the house, making up bedtime songs for us and songs to motivate and inspire us. And Chrissy and I also love singing to our kids. We make up little jingles and ditties for them all the time. In our home, music is very important to the way we interact and communicate with them.”
See Legend’s A Legendary Christmas Tour dates below.
This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music from artists including new music by Grupo Frontera, Eslabon Armado, Francisca Valenzuela ft. Daniela Spalla and more. Colombian star Greeicy and Puerto Rican rapper/singer Jay Wheeler team up for a slow-burning reggeatón ballad, “¿Qué Te Pasó?” (meaning what happened to […]
Dolly Parton is stepping up once again to help those in need. The Country Music Hall of Famer appeared at a press conference at a Walmart parking lot in Newport, Tennessee, on Friday (Oct. 4), and revealed that she is donating $1 million of her own money from her personal bank account to aid those impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
Also, she will add another $1 million donation to relief efforts through her various business enterprises, such as Dollywood and Dolly Parton’s Stampede.
“I’m sure a lot of you wondering where I’ve been,” Parton, 78, said during the event. “Everybody’s saying, ‘Where’s Dolly?’ Well, I’ve been like everybody else trying to absorb everything going on, trying to figure out all the best ways to do this.”
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She added, “I look around and I think, ‘These are my mountains, these are my valleys, these are my rivers…these are my people, and this is my home…I just want you to know, I am totally with you, I am part of you, I love you.”
The total of $2 million donation will be made to the Mountain Ways Foundation. ALso on hand during the event was Walmart U.S. president/CEO John Furner, who said that the company, as well as the Walmart Foundation and Sam’s Club, would be pledging upward of $10 million toward relief efforts.
Parton is no stranger to helping those in need. In 2021, she donated toward relief efforts for those impacted by the catastrophic flooding in Middle Tennessee. In 2020, she donated $1 million toward vaccine research at Vanderbilt University, which aided in funding Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. In 2016, she launched the My People Fund, aiding families in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge whose homes were destroyed wildfires.
In 1995, she launched the Imagination Library, which sends one book per month to children from birth through their first year of school (she founded the Imagination Library in honor of her father, who was unable to read).
With October just starting, it’s already been a busy month for new music. To kick things off, LISA dropped “Moonlit Floor,” after she debuted it live at Global Citizen Fest last month. The song interpolates Sixpence None the Richer‘s hit “Kiss Me,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998. The single was on […]
Jaden Smith is on a “rainbow swag mission,” three years since he’s released any solo music, as his recent sorrow pushed him back to the studio.
“Roses” kicked off Smith’s next era in June and he followed that up with “D.U.M.B.” on Friday (Oct. 4). Short for “Deep Underground Military Base” and built around a hypnotic chorus, Smith gets candid about his disdain for hurting those around him while trying to navigate love and manage his relationships in the digital era.
Smith will release another two songs on Oct. 18 with “Gorgeous,” a pop-leaning love letter to women, and “The Coolest Part 2,” a sequel to his signature 2012 track. The four-pack will be packaged as 2024: A Case Study on the Long Term Effects of Young Love, his first project since 2020’s CTV3: Cool Tape Vol. 3 (he released a deluxe in 2021). The vulnerable, genre-blending EP will explore “young love and really just the mental landscape of young people right now dealing in a world with social media,” according to the 26-year-old multi-hyphenate.
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Smith’s relationship with model-singer Sab Zada has been the subject of plenty of social media chatter and tabloid fodder in recent months. Instead of responding to rumors surrounding his love life, however, Smith has elected to turn to music. “I don’t need to convince people of stuff as far as what’s going on with me in the world and I just put it in my music with how I feel and my experiences of what I’m going through,” he tells Billboard on a video call while walking around the woods of France as he’s in town for Paris Fashion Week.
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Check out the rest of our interview with Jaden Smith as he details his upcoming mini-project, young love, his plastic furniture company and more.
Billboard: What’s inspiring you creatively these days?
Jaden Smith: Honestly, I’m so sad that it’s put me into a corner where I can’t do anything besides make music. That’s why I decided to release this next project. I kind of found my inspiration in making these mini-projects that are a couple of songs and I think kind of just put off a vibe and gets people like, “Dog, I really like this mini-pocket where he’s catching a very specific vibe for like four songs.” Then kind of moving on.
A Case Study on the Long-Term Effects of Young Love. Explain to me that title and how tough it is to put your relationship into music?
It’s just about the case study of young love and really just the mental landscape of young people right now dealing in a world with social media, dealing in a world with internet and how that changes mental health and what people are talking about doing and feeling. How that psychologically affects people long-term in ways that it didn’t past generations, because we didn’t have the technology, access to the world that we have. It’s a snapshot of that for myself.
What was your recording process with these songs?
Very long-term — songs I’ve been working on for other albums that didn’t make it and needed more time to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. This has been over the course of three or four years. Literally, the process is me f–king crying in the studio, and then like, singing in between when I can make words happen. That’s really the process. I’m going through emotional things, dealing with those experiences and feeling overwhelmed. Like I don’t know what to do, but that’s when I get into the studio.
So this is a good creative outlet for you.
Yeah, and my fans are people who go through these extremely emotional situations. Emotional people tend to like my music. That’s who I do it for.
What have you learned about young love?
That it hurts in stages, and then it’s very serious. If it’s something that lasts a long time, it can create long-term psychological effects and defects in people when they go through adulthood, then goes on to affect their generation and families. It’s just a topic of something I wanted to bring up. Every time you make a song title and an album title, you have the opportunity to bring up a topic and think about something and pop an idea into people’s minds, and that’s what I wanted to pop into people’s minds this go-around.
Is it tough when so many people can comment on your relationships and everything you have going on, even if it’s not true? How you can push back against that?
It’s not even so much you have to push back against it as much as you just have to deal with it. The way I deal with it is by making music. I don’t need to convince people of stuff as far as what’s going on with me in the world and I just put it in my music with how I feel and my experiences of what I’m going through.
In an older interview, I saw you explain how you try to tell your story without straying toward anything that could be considered misogynistic lyrics. Is that something you have to battle?
Yeah, that’s a current battle that I’m battling with myself. I just don’t like to say certain words that I don’t feel are useful for me personally. Not that I don’t like to say it, I say all different types of things in my normal life, but I just don’t like to rap it, because I know that everybody’s listening and my mom and my sister and everybody don’t say s–t. It’s a growing battle.
In the process of me making this album, this is the first time that I’ve ever gone out of my way to have girls in my music video in a way that makes sense for me and a way that I would do it, because I would always get wrapped up in the way everybody else does stuff. Now I’m starting to find the way I want to do it. I’m going through a thing, a time and a moment with me right now. I don’t even know what it is, but I feel it in the world even when I walk outside. I’m just trying to put whatever’s happening with me into the music.
I saw when you announced the project it was on your dad’s birthday. Was there anything to that?
No, I didn’t realize that. I probably should’ve thought about that.
Have you played the music for any of your family members? Is that a typical practice for you?
I have played them the songs. I usually don’t play them the music.
Let’s start with “D.U.M.B.,” which was my favorite. What was your process with that one?
That s–t is super duper old. I’m rapping about s–t that happened long ago. I went in there and I made it. I just be rapping sometimes, man. Sometimes it makes sense and I was like, “Oh, the concept of this song makes sense.” Sometimes you just receive it and it’s like, “This is already a song. All I have to do is rap on this.” It’s amazing. Sometimes you gotta really think hard and sometimes they come to you straight away. That’s what was happening with me.
“Gorgeous” is another track coming.
I wanted to make a pop song. It’s really just about my love for the opposite sex, my love for women and how that has evolved to where I am now in my life. That’s my love letter to the opposite sex and all women around the world.
What made you want to do a sequel to “The Coolest?”
I just had to remind everybody because they’ll forget. Then they’ll meet me and be like, “Yo, what the hell is this?” Remind everybody again — that’s what that was. That song’s so old. I’m glad to be back at it. It’s an awesome experience. I’m just trying to master my own mind. I’m trying to have less thoughts. I’m trying to master my thoughts.
How was working with your dad and Russ on “Work of Art”?
That was fun to do. That was tight. It was fun to perform. That was an amazing experience.
Do you have any goals for the rest of the year?
Yeah, I’m trying to get this recycled plastic furniture company off the ground. A circular economy for used trash to produce park benches or I think drywall is probably the best. Using old clothes and denim as insulation. Recycling clothes through the circular economy. Companies — that’s my biggest thing. That’s what a lot of my raps are about. Circular economy, recycling plastic.
I read you go to the movies a lot by yourself. Is that something you’re still doing?
I watch everything. I watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice but I watch everything. Every single movie that comes into the theaters.
Is this going to develop into an album?
After I release this mini-project, I’m on a swag mission. I’m on a rainbow swag mission and I’m just trekking through. Wherever the mission takes — that’s where I’ll be. If I get this plastic furniture company off the ground, I have no idea what happens next. It all depends where the wind blows, how sad I am.
Cardi B and Offset aren’t getting back together. At least, according to Cardi.
While speaking on X Spaces, the Bronx rapper felt the need to get some things off her chest as she and her estranged husband, Migos rapper Offset, head toward divorce for a second time. She responded to fans making a big deal about Offset being at her studio recently. “Slowly but surely, everybody gotta go their separate ways,” she said. “My kids gotta get used to that, ‘No, you’re not going to come home every single day and your dad is gonna be here.’ Slowly, but surely.”
She continued: “It’s kinda hard — I don’t wanna talk about it ’cause I don’t wanna get emotional — but it’s kinda hard, as an adult, you gonna get used to a certain type of lifestyle without being with somebody. But it’s also kinda hard for your kids to get used to that, ‘Your dad is not going to be here with you every day after school. Your dad is not going to be picking you up after school.’”
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The Billboard Hot 100-topping rapper also spoke on making sure Offset would remain in the kids’ lives. “I want my baby to know who their dad is because I don’t ever want my little baby to get used to my dad or my cousin. I want them to be like, ‘This is your dad.’” She then touched on how she wants to try to keep things platonic because their relationship has been tumultuous, saying, “One thing I don’t want to entertain is, ‘Oh, we’re in the same crib. Come upstairs, let’s sleep together.’ I don’t want to entertain that. I don’t want to sleep, I don’t want to f—k, I don’t wanna do nothin’.”
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Adding, “Because that’s what keeps us being in the same trap. Oh, we sleep together, we cuddling, the next day we smiling and then guess what? The same day we’re arguing, and we’re back in that cycle. I don’t want that cycle. That’s why I’m not entertaining love. That’s why if a muthaf—a is here, I’m not here. If I’m here, he’s not here. Slowly but surely, there’s going to be a whole end to it. It takes time. I don’t know how to explain it but everything is dead.”
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Last week, the couple made some of their issues public with Offset accusing Cardi of cheating on him while she was pregnant. This led to Cardi going on an epic rant and exposing text messages between herself and the Atlanta rapper. However, it seems like things have simmered down since for the power couple.
Post Malone’s Blake Shelton-featuring “Pour Me a Drink” ascends two places to the top shelf of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Oct. 12). The collaboration advanced by 5% to 27.9 million audience impressions Sept. 27-Oct. 3, according to Luminate.
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The song, which Post Malone co-wrote, is his second Country Airplay No. 1, after “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, dominated for four frames beginning in June. Both hits are from his introductory LP in the genre, F-1 Trillion, which motored in at No. 1 on the Aug. 31-dated Top Country Albums chart and the all-genre Billboard 200 with 250,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States. The set has earned 1.1 million units over its first six weeks of release.
Post Malone charts an additional song, and a third career top 40 entry, on Country Airplay: Fellow F-1 Trillion track “A Guy for That,” featuring Luke Combs, rebounds a spot to its No. 26 high (6.3 million, up 12%).
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Shelton hoists his 29th Country Airplay No. 1, a run that started with his initial appearance, “Austin,” in 2001. He nets his first leader since “Happy Anywhere,” featuring his then-future wife Gwen Stefani, in December 2020. Shelton ties Tim McGraw for the second-most chart-toppers since the survey began in 1990. Kenny Chesney leads all acts with 33 No. 1s.
Wallen, Parmalee Notch New Top 10s
Morgan Wallen earns his 17th Country Airplay top 10 as “Lies Lies Lies” climbs 11-9 (18 million, up 12%). It follows his “Cowgirls” (featuring ERNEST), which became his 14th No. 1 in July.
Plus, Parmalee’s “Gonna Love You” hops 13-10 on Country Airplay (16.6 million, up 6%). The group adds its seventh top 10, following “Girl in Mine,” which hit No. 3 last October, and “Take My Name,” which became the act’s third No. 1 in June 2022.
It was a historic trip to the Grammy stage for Taylor Swift on Feb. 4, when she accepted her second and final award of the evening: album of the year, for her 2022 blockbuster set, Midnights. The win was her fourth in the category, breaking her out of a four-way tie and leaving her alone in the record books as the performing artist with the most album of the year wins in Grammy history. But by that point in the evening, Swift had already ensured that her fans were thinking more about the future — and perhaps AOTY trophy No. 5.
“I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years — which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19,” Swift had revealed two hours earlier while accepting her first award of the night (best pop vocal album). “It’s called The Tortured Poets Department.”
A year after that announcement, Swift may indeed end up making more treks to the Crypto.com Arena stage thanks to the record-breaking Poets. While Midnights bowed with a jaw-dropping 1.6 million first-week units upon its October 2022 release (according to Luminate) and topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks — setting off the historic, globe-trotting Year of Taylor that followed in 2023 — it paled in comparison with Poets, which debuted with over 2.6 million units and spent a whopping 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200. Given that Swift has secured AOTY nominations for each of her three brand-new albums released this decade (including two wins, for Midnights and 2020’s folklore, of her four career total), Poets seems a lock for one of the eight AOTY slots at the 2025 ceremony.
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Whether Swift will win, however, is another question entirely — in part because of a remarkably strong and high-profile slate of likely competitors, including one particularly legendary perennial AOTY bridesmaid. But perhaps the most interesting question of all: After four AOTY wins, already unmatched in Grammy history, how much more does Swift really have to gain by adding another such statue to her collection?
While Swift has already triumphed among some strong fields this decade, it’s likely that the category’s 2025 slate of nominees — with its expected mix of huge critical and commercial successes from veteran A-listers and emergent superstars — will be the most formidable she has faced yet. Alex Tear, vp of music programming at SiriusXM and Pandora, mentions Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft), Chappell Roan (The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess) and Sabrina Carpenter (Short n’ Sweet) as strong contenders for the marquee award, calling Carpenter “a force” in particular. “It’s really going to be a highly competitive year,” he says.
Still, the narrative surrounding the AOTY race will likely boil down to two names: Swift and Beyoncé, whose Billboard 200-topping country and Americana pivot, Cowboy Carter, will almost certainly also vie for the prize. Cowboy did only a fraction of Poets’ flabbergasting first-week numbers — though at press time, it still had the year’s second-highest debut total, at 375,000 units — but it received widespread acclaim, as well as immense media attention for its genre explorations and for the music history Beyoncé illuminated on it.
And of course, Carter’s candidacy comes with extra intrigue, given that Beyoncé — one of the most celebrated album artists of her era — has still never won album of the year, despite her four career nods for it (and record 32 total Grammy wins).
One longtime Recording Academy member who considers both Swift’s and Beyoncé’s new albums worthy contenders calls the latter “the prohibitive favorite” due to her careerlong shutout in the category. “I think that there’s a feeling in the industry, which was certainly encouraged via last year’s Grammys” — when her husband, Jay-Z, called attention to her AOTY shutout in a televised speech — “that [Beyoncé] has been overlooked for too long,” the member says.
Swift may well have less at stake in this year’s AOTY race than her storied competitor. In fact, because Swift is at the overall height of her career success and exposure (and therefore at risk of generating a backlash), it’s worth considering whether she stands to lose more than she does to gain by netting a fifth trophy, especially over a competitor with such a strong case — and such a strong sentimental pull for so many.
And public perception about a potential Swift victory could be colored by her own philosophy about the Grammys and awards shows in general. “She looks at record-making as a competitive sport in a way that other artists don’t,” the academy member says. “Other artists are competitive and would like to win Grammys, but she really, like, thinks about that stuff going in [to recording her albums].”
Swift has admitted as much over the years. In 2015, she explained in a Grammy Pro interview that when her Red lost AOTY in 2014 (to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories), it set in motion her plan to make a more cohesive pop album with 1989, which won the award two years later: “You have a few options when you don’t win an award — you can decide, ‘Oh, they’re wrong…’ [or] you can say, ‘Maybe they’re right,’ ” she said. Similarly, her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, captured her reaction when her 1989 follow-up, 2017’s Reputation, failed to garner even a nomination in the category: “I just need to make a better record.” (Two albums later, she would win the category again in 2021 for the stylistic left turn folklore.)
Competitiveness, of course, doesn’t equate to outright making Grammy bait, Tear points out — noting that it seems to have inspired Swift to grow artistically, while at the same time, “we’ve grown into her evolving as a person and the choices that she wants to make as an artist… The projects of late are not chasing where the puck is going — it’s already there.”
And though the Recording Academy member gives Beyoncé the edge in this particular race, it simply makes sense to them that the biggest pop star on the planet should be one of the favorites every time she’s in the mix.
“Look, [Swift] is the most popular recording artist on earth, and therefore she’s likely to win more often than not,” the member says, citing the famous Muhammad Ali quote, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” And Swift “can do it, God bless her. She should keep doing it. Maybe she’ll win album of the year several more times.”
This story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Instead of doing her homework one day after school, the multihyphenate born Atia Boggs used her time for a different assignment. She had just bought Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and recalls coming home, sitting down and writing all the lyrics on flash cards. “That’s when I realized how important a good song was and how substance matters,” says Boggs, now 37 and known as the songwriter–producer INK. “And that really inspired me in a whole new way… I learned how to create my own path.”
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She taught herself guitar and started street performing, walking “miles on miles” from downtown Atlanta to the residential Buckhead neighborhood “playing for pennies.” Without any music industry connections, INK sought a mentor online, searching for her favorite songwriters such as James Fauntleroy, with whom she became Facebook friends in the late 2000s. “He was a mentor for me in the very beginning,” she says. “That gave me the confidence to say, ‘I can do this.’ ” Her first big break came in 2019, after she had co-produced and co-written Chris Brown’s song “Don’t Check on Me,” which featured Justin Bieber — and Brown decided it should feature INK, too. “It gave me so much exposure and another boost of confidence to have a superstar say, ‘Hey, we’re going to introduce you to the world.’ That was one of the moments that led to the unstoppable train I’m on now.”
This year has proved to be INK’s biggest, and busiest, yet — but she teases 2025 will be even crazier, as she’s working on her own music and a documentary while continuing to collaborate with music’s upper echelon.
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Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter
“Beyoncé was definitely a catalyst for the freight train to keep going,” says INK, who started working with Bey before COVID-19 hit on Cowboy Carter tracks including “Ameriican Requiem” and “16 Carriages.” INK recalls how, in 2019, they met at Roc Nation’s Grammys week brunch: “We have an inside joke because I went up to her and said, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I’m going to be writing your next album.’ And she giggled and said, ‘What’s your name?’ We just hit it off.” Soon after, INK was working with producer Ricky Reed, who introduced her to Beyoncé’s A&R executives. “They said, ‘We would love to have you be on this journey with us from the start.’ And five years later, Cowboy Carter was delivered.”
INK was friends with Lopez’s A&R executive long before he had the gig. So when it was time to assemble a team for Lopez’s personal album This Is Me… Now, he told INK, “You’re the first person I thought of for this.” INK most loved how “there’s not a session that happens without [Lopez]… I remember one time, she was like, ‘Hey, pull up today, but I’m going to send you a different address.’ And it’s the movie set [for Atlas]. We’re recording parts from the album in her trailer, and she comes in covered in blood, wet, cuts, bruises all over her body. And then she’s on the mic recording the song that we just wrote in her trailer. I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and it just showed the work ethic.”
Latto, “Look What You Did”
INK has long worked with Latto’s producer, Go Grizzly, another Atlanta native, but she had yet to work with the “Big Energy” rapper herself until this year. As INK recalls, she and Grizzly were working in Paris when they “cooked up the beat” that became “Look What You Did,” off the rapper’s third full-length album, Sugar Honey Iced Tea. “We did a beat in the studio, and then he was like, ‘Yo, you already know we have to get Latto on this.’ She heard it, she loved it and snapped.” INK had previously worked with Mariah the Scientist, who featured on “Look What You Did,” earlier this year when she guested on 21 Savage’s American Dream album. “So the dots connected,” she says.
This story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.
“Let ’Em In,” the title of a Wings hit from 1976, also seemed to be the Grammy Screening Committee’s guiding principle in deciding who to allow to compete for best new artist this year. Sabrina Carpenter, who is on her sixth album, was ruled eligible, as was Megan Moroney, who had a No. 30 hit on the Hot 100 in May 2023 with “Tennessee Orange.”
Moroney is nominated for new artist of the year the CMA Awards for the second year in a row. HARDY, who was nominated in that category at the CMAs in both 2021 and 2022, is also eligible this year. So is Cody Johnson, who was nominated in that category at the CMAs in both 2019 and 2022.
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How can an artist who has released six albums be eligible for best new artist? Because, while the Grammys set a minimum number of releases an artist must have to qualify in this category (five singles/tracks or one album), there is no maximum. Instead, the Grammys’ rules and guidelines booklet says nominations for the honor hinge on when “the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence” — and it delegates that determination to a screening committee.
So Carpenter’s eligibility came down to whether the screening committee thought she had achieved prominence as of Sept. 15, 2023, the last day of the previous eligibility year. At that point, the highest she had ever climbed on the Billboard Hot 100 was a decidedly decaf No. 48, for “Skin” in February 2021. The committee decided that so-so showing did not constitute prominence, and that she made her big breakthrough in this eligibility year.
As for the other artists mentioned, the committee likewise decided that this was the year they achieved a breakthrough or prominence. The committee’s oft-stated aim is to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and they demonstrated that this year.
Many of the eligible artists have been nominated for new artist awards at other awards shows in the past year. Chappell Roan, who many see as this year’s Grammy front-runner in this category, won best new artist at the VMAs in September. Benson Boone, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims were on the initial list of nominees at the VMAs but they didn’t make the final three. They’re all eligible here.
Moroney, Shaboozey and Nate Smith are all nominees for new artist of the year at the CMAs on Nov. 20. They are eligible here.
4Batz, Bossman Dlow, October London and Sexxy Red were nominated for best new artist at the BET Awards and are eligible here. Bossman Dlow, Sexyy Red and Tommy Richman are nominated for best new artist at the upcoming BET Hip Hop Awards and are eligible here.
The Red Clay Strays won emerging act of the year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards in September. They’re also eligible here and will likely do well with Grammy voters.
RAYE, who won best new artist and swept many other awards at the Brit Awards in March, is likewise eligible here.
Other buzzy artists on the eligibility list, not already mentioned, include Artemas, Ateez, Barry Can’t Swim, beabadoobee, Central Cee, Ivan Cornejo, Dasha, Djo, Doechii, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Feid, Fireboy DML, Fletcher, Flo Milli, 42 Dugg, Grupo Frontera, Kate Hudson, Knox, David Kushner, The Last Dinner Party, Le Sserafim, Carin Leon, LISA, Mannequin Pussy, Lizzy McAlpine, Michael Marcagi, Reneé Rapp, Rema, Maggie Rose, Royel Otis, Jojo Siwa, Myles Smith, Brittney Spencer, Tigirlily Gold, Myke Towers, Waxahatchee, Koe Wetzel, Remi Wolf and Young Miko.
Artists are allowed to appear on the entry list for best new artist three times, after which they are ruled ineligible for future consideration. That rule came into play this year with Tate McRae, who had been entered three previous times and thus could not compete again.
As it turns out, almost every artist who pundits thought might be eligible made the list. Two who did not are GloRilla and Anne Wilson, both of whom had previous Grammy nominations. That almost always results in disqualification.
The rules in this category have changed over the years as the Recording Academy has struggled to strike just the right balance: not too strict, not too lenient. In the past, the academy has sometimes disqualified artists for reasons that may now seem petty; take Whitney Houston, who had recorded a couple of duets prior to releasing her debut album and was therefore deemed ineligible, or singer-songwriter Richard Marx, who had contributed a song to a soundtrack. Other times, the academy has leaned too far in the other direction. Robert Goulet won in 1963, two years after he became a star in the Broadway musical Camelot. When Alessia Cara claimed the prize in 2018, it was nearly two years after her ballad “Here” hit the top five on the Hot 100.
Three past winners for best new artist — Crosby, Stills & Nash (who won in 1970), Jody Watley (1988) and Lauryn Hill (1999) — wouldn’t be eligible under today’s rules. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were all already known for their work in previous groups, as were Watley (in Shalamar) and Hill (Fugees).
A total 323 artists are eligible for best new artist this year, down from 405 last year. This year’s tally is the lowest in this category in five years.
By allowing Carpenter to compete for best new artist this year, the Recording Academy has made the race more competitive and unpredictable. What might have been a shoo-in for Chappell Roan will now be a more spirited contest. Place your bets.
