Grammy Award for Best New Artist | |
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Country | United States |
Presented by | National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences |
First awarded | 1960 |
Currently held by | Victoria Monét (2024) |
Website | grammy |
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960[1] "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist." Note that this is not necessarily the first album or single released by an artist; for example, Shelby Lynne won the award in 2001 after having already released six albums over 13 years.[2] The award was not presented in 1967.
The Best New Artist award has a reputation for being given to artists whose music industry success ends up being short-lived; it is sometimes asserted, with varying degrees of sincerity, that the award itself brings a curse.[3][4] This viewpoint was expressed by Taffy Danoff, a former member of Starland Vocal Band (known for "Afternoon Delight"), in an interview for VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders: "We got two of the five Grammys – one was Best New Artist. So that was basically the kiss of death and I feel sorry for everyone who's gotten it since."[5]
The category is also notable for being the only category in which a Grammy Award was vacated; this occurred in 1990 after it was revealed that winners Milli Vanilli did not contribute their own vocals on their album Girl You Know It's True;[6] the award was not then given to another artist.[7]