A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The 67th Grammy Awards take place Sunday in Los Angeles. Now, one category in particular has fans on the edge of their seats, and that's Best New Artist. But let's take a closer look at some of those nominees. Sabrina Carpenter had, really, one of the biggest songs of the summer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ESPRESSO")
SABRINA CARPENTER: (Singing) Say you can't sleep. Baby, I know. That's that me espresso.
MARTÍNEZ: But check out her discography, and you'll see a list of six albums going all the way back to 2015. So why is she up for Best New Artist? Stephen Thompson of NPR Music is here to help make sense of it all. Stephen, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Best New Public Radio Host.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: Ooh.
MARTÍNEZ: It's only been 13 years.
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: So I figure I got a chance still, right?
THOMPSON: You know what? You keep plugging away, buddy.
MARTÍNEZ: Someday. Now, OK, so what can you tell us about the eight nominees for this award? I mean, are there any newer new artists since Sabrina Carpenter?
THOMPSON: Most of them are newer than Sabrina Carpenter. But basically, you can sort the eight nominees kind of into two categories. You've got your major pop breakthroughs - Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Benson Boone, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims. They all had songs that were inescapable during this period of eligibility. Then you've got kind of left field artists. Doechii is this hugely dynamic rapper. Raye is the kind of polymath genre-straddler that the Grammys love. And Khruangbin has been playing vibey, worldly music for ages. Their first album came out almost a decade ago. They've got five records in all, but this was kind of the year that they broke through to where they're playing stadiums.
MARTÍNEZ: I mean, what's the Grammy's own criteria for what makes someone eligible to be nominated as its Best New Artist category?
THOMPSON: Well, their criteria are pretty Byzantine. It's a lot of stuff about how many songs they've released, how many times they've submitted for the award. That sort of thing. I think the big thing is they don't want people who've been up for a bunch of Grammys before, but they don't want to punish people who've had a slow rise to success. And that's where you get stuff like Khruangbin with the five albums, Sabrina Carpenter with the six. But this was kind of the year that they broke through, and that's kind of good enough for this category.
MARTÍNEZ: So that reminds me of sports. In Major League Baseball, there can be a player that has a hundred at-bats one year and is great, but then he's still a rookie the next year because he didn't get the amount of at-bats that would disqualify him. So, yeah, like a period of eligibility makes sense to me. So how common is it, then, for artists to be nominated in the Best New Artist category to have released, like, five or six albums?
THOMPSON: I mean, five or six is definitely a lot. But there's a pretty long history, at least in the last couple decades, of artists who are on their second, third, fourth album, as recently as last year. You had a group called The War and Treaty. They were nominated. They've been around for a long time. Fountains of Wayne was nominated for its third album on a major label. One of the reasons they've loosened the rules as much as they have is you've had several cases where artists have been disqualified from this category. Most famously, probably, Whitney Houston back in the '80s was disqualified for Best New Artist because she had recorded a couple of duets. She had not broken through into the public's consciousness at all but was kind of disqualified on a technicality and would have almost certainly won had she been nominated. So they're trying to prevent people from being like, where's Sabrina Carpenter, you know? That's the tricky tightrope they're trying to walk.
MARTÍNEZ: So, Stephen, I mean, if these artists aren't technically new, why don't they just change the name of the award?
THOMPSON: (Laughter) Yeah, I've been suggesting this for a few years now. Really, the best way to think about this category is as best breakthrough artist. Just kind of make a note in your head. Every time they say Best New Artist, just think breakthrough, artists who've really entered the public's consciousness in the last year. And that's really what they're going for.
MARTÍNEZ: So that's what I need to do, Stephen. I need to breakthrough into the public radio listener's consciousness. There you go.
THOMPSON: That's right. And, A, I believe in you. Thirteen years, you're just a pup.
MARTÍNEZ: Fingers crossed. That's Stephen Thompson of NPR Music. Stephen, thanks a lot.
THOMPSON: Thank you, A.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ESPRESSO")
CARPENTER: (Singing) That's that me espresso. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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