From Billie To Lizzo To Yola, Get To Know 2020's Best New Artist Grammy Nominees

Every year's crop of Grammys Best New Artist nominees is potent and exhilarating, however the 2020 batch feels different. This year's eight nominees make up a crowd of true superstars that have created, cultivated, and conducted pop culture over the last year. From chart-smashing, cross-genre viral stars and once-in-a-generation pop talents to veteran musical group leaders gone solo and bold leaders of self-love and discovery, the 2020 hopefuls define the ideal way to begin the decade. It's a stacked deck full of who's set to take over.

Ahead of this weekend's 62nd Grammy Awards, where we'll find out who will take house the coveted trophy and succeed Dua Lipa as reigning Best New Artist, get to know every one of the eight contenders below.

Billie Eilish

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=DyDfgMOUjCI

Eilish is next in line to inherit the pop kingdom’s throne, if she doesn’t already sit upon it. She turned 18 last month and already has a double platinum album, 13 platinum singles, six Grammy nominations (including this one), and much more. Her debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, made her a household name, however her boundary-pushing videos (directed by people like Dave Meyers, Takashi Murakami, and herself) and experimental sound have ensured her status as a visionary. The LP’s biggest hit, “Bad Guy,” sounds like an evil ice-cream truck jingle, also it went platinum. Right now she’s even set to write and perform the next James Bond theme. Whether she walks away with this particular golden gramophone, she’s going to require a bigger throne. ASAP.

Black Pumas

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=2EntxPIULUI

Producer/guitarist Adrian Quesada and singer Eric Burton are making some of the most captivating nostalgia-fueled funk that you’ll hear anywhere. With each other, they’re the Texas-based eclectic groove outfit Black Pumas, who’ve managed to prepare fresh, compelling music inspired by shades of both Motown and Jimi Hendrix. There’s also a sizable influence of Latin funk, thanks to Quesada’s background as a member of the Grammy-nominated Grupo Fantasma. Black Pumas’s 2019 self-titled debut album kicked off their breakout season: a Grammy nom, performances on The Tonight Show and Ellen, and next, Coachella. The world will soon be totally enveloped in their guitar-flicking goodness.

Lil Nas X

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=w2Ov5jzm3j8

No one had a higher end 2019 than Lil Nas X. Right following the rapper/country rapper/country singer released “Old Town Road” in December 2018 — built around a beat purchased online for $30 —it became a viral sensation with a little bit help from Billy Ray Cyrus. It literally broke the Billboard charts, topping the Hot 100 for a history-making 19 weeks, and changed his life in more ways than one. Last June, with his song at No. 1, Lil Nas X came out as gay, making him the opening openly gay black man to win an award at the Nation Music Awards. Right now, several accolades later, he’s the opening gay rapper to be nominated for a Grammy Award. And this year, he’s nominated for six of them.

Lizzo

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=vuq-VAiW9kw

although she’s been around for more than half a decade, Lizzo is just getting began. The rapper/singer/flutist started her career in Minneapolis in different groups spanning genres and emerged a breakout star thanks to her booming vocals and winning energy. However once her 2017 empowerment song “Truth Hurts” got a major signal boost in Netflix’s Someone Great last year, she went supersonic. You’ve since seen her heart-melting smile, you’ve heard that voice, and you’ve wondered what was indoors her microscopic purse. Last year, her third studio album Cuz I Love You, featured hits like “Juice” and “Tempo” with Missy Elliott. It’s also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Urban Contemporary Album at the Grammys, proving she indeed does have the juice.

Maggie Rogers

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=bR1d8l92Q8Q

Once Rogers, as a college student, played “Alaska,” a song that she made in 15 minutes, to Pharrell Williams as segment of a New York University masterclass, Pharrell’s face contorted into an incredulous look, like he didn’t know how to describe what he was listening to. He loved it. The moment went viral, and “Alaska” became Rogers’s breakout hit. Her unique, inventive take on folk-pop blown up into the pop consciousness, leading to the release of her major-label debut Heard It in a Past Life, last January. It hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and Brandi Carlile instructed her at Billboard’s 2019 Girls in Music event, “You are absolutely one of my main go to new artists out there.” Her heartfelt, confessional music just might make Grammy voters feel the same.

Rosalía

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=5zwpwbdGNIk

Spanish singer Rosalía has collaborated with each person from Travis Scott to James Blake to J Balvin and Ozuna. It’s easy to be able to see why. Moreover to her soaring voice — which she deploys expertly on her 2018 album El Mal Querer — she brings an inventive feel to every group effort, especially in the visual realm. In recent high-concept videos like “Millionària” (which features her competing on a game show) and “A Palè” (about what occurs any time the lights go off at a packing plant), Rosalía showcases a little bit of what’s made her such a captivating force. She’s expanded upon her beginning flamenco roots to be a genre-bending singer with carte blanche. Five Latin Grammys and two Grammy nominations are the proof.

Tank and the Bangas

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=QKzobTCIRDw

This nine-piece, multi-artform collective, led by Tarriona “Tank” Ball, formed in 2011 right after meeting at an open-mic show in New Orleans. Ball, known for her slam poetry, is one segment of the puzzle, with synth players, background vocalists, saxophonists, and others coming with each other for four-dimensional representations of soul, rap, and funk music. In 2017, they won NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest for their submission of an efficiency of “Quick” and released their sophomore studio album, Green Balloon, last year, and also a live album, Live Vibes 2. Now, they’re primed to do just about anything. Everyone’s listening.

Yola

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?V=BI3lwv8qhx0

English vocalist Yola’s time is finally here. A soul singer through and through, she’s able to reconstruct the smoothness of decades past and combination genres like pop, rock and roll, and nation. Soon after her categorize Phantom Limb shuttered in 2013, she went homeless and slept on the couches of companions. Yet her come-up since then has been spectacular. Over the years, she served as a touring vocalist for English trip-hop order Massive Attack, written for Katy Perry, had her music sampled by the Chemical Brothers, and more. Her debut studio album, Walk Through Fire, was inspired by a fire that broken her residence and also an abusive relationship she escaped. It’s all about her journey, and with nods for Best Americana Album and Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Efficiency, the destination might just be Grammy gold.