2025's Best New Artist: A Close Call

Hi everyone! With the Grammys right around the corner, I thought it'd be fun to weigh in on one of the more highly-debated categories for this year: Best New Artist. Actually, by the time this is posted, we will already know who's taking home this award. So you will only get to hear about my thoughts in hindsight. Oh well!

If somehow you didn't know, the Best New Artist award at the Grammys is reserved for newer artists that the voting academy believes to have had the biggest breakthrough in the industry within the past year. There are certain rules about how many times an artist can be nominated for this category, and you have to meet certain eligibility requirements, but I won't get into that here. For more info, check the Grammy's website.

Here are the nominees for this year's Best New Artist award;

• Olivia Dean

• KATSEYE

• The Marias

• Addison Rae

• sombr

• Leon Thomas

• Alex Warren

• Lola Young

This is a pretty fierce lineup. There are a lot of people on this list who you could make a case for winning. I think the person with the most public backing is Olivia Dean. She's had massive success this year with her album The Art of Loving and gotten a lot of positive reception as a result. Now I'm not gonna lie to you, I haven't put myself onto Olivia Dean just yet, so I can't really speak on her music. But the number of people who are completely obsessed with her is a pretty big indicator that she has something special. I wouldn't be shocked to see the award go to Olivia.

I believe that The Marias also have a decent shot at this award. While they may not have had as many worldwide hits as other new artists like Olivia Dean or sombr, they have really garnered a cult following. What I've noticed about them is how many people just casually enjoy their music. Most of the people I know love at least a couple of the bands' songs. While they may not have a number one hit under their belt yet, they have still demonstrated that their music can capture a large audience, even when it's not something easily sellable to the general public. How often does a song like No One Noticed or Sienna go viral like they did? You definitely don't see that every day. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a huge fan of The Marias, but I would be very happy to see them get this award.

Let's switch over to one of the more controversial nominees from this list, KATSEYE. I have a lot of opinions about KATSEYE, and they are all very conflicting. Let me just start off by saying that I liked Gnarly. Is a really dumb song, yes. But it kind of goes crazy, and so do the performances. What I found interesting about KATSEYE is how they were able to flip the narrative around that song and have it evolve in real time. Everyone was clowning that song when it came out, but I feel like most people ended up coming around to it (including me). Not to mention that their song Gabreiela from their newest EP ended up becoming a pretty big hit, even getting a lot of radio play. That EP was also a pretty solid piece of work, but left something to be desired. I thought they were gearing up for some kind of album release, but then they released their newest song Internet Girl and it really turned me away. I'll have to revisit this song another time, because I have a lot of thoughts on it. But it really made me question if I can even consider KATSEYE as a serious contender for this category. While it's true they've made a big splash in the industry this last year, I don't think their discography is competitive enough to win them this award.

I was happy to see Lola Young's name on this list. I'm not too familiar with her back catalog, but the few songs that I do know from her are interesting and I think she really has some talent. Do I think it's enough to win the award, I personally don't think so. That's not to say she doesn't deserve it, but I think the competition is too stiff this year for her to really stand out to voters.

I think Alex Warren is the only name on this list that I would be unhappy about winning this award. I can understand why he's nominated, since he had one of the biggest hits of last year, Ordinary. But that song alone is kind of responsible for his nomination. His other music has not made any significant splash in the industry or has made any attempts at being inventive. To me, he's just kind of another country artist, which isn't a bad thing. I just believe he hasn't done enough to really earn this award yet.

In that same vein, I don't see Leon Thomas taking this award home either. MUTT got a good amount of attention for what it was, but after that, he really didn't get any more time in the sun. To be honest, I'm not really familiar with a lot of his songs either. Also, his MUTT remix features Chris Brown, which I personally find appalling that people are still giving this man a platform. I don't really have anything else to say about Leon Thomas.

I'm conflicted on whether or not sombr has a chance at taking this one home. On one hand, he's managed to produce 3 big hits within the last year, which is a huge achievement. Currently, there's a hole in the market for male pop-stars, and I think sombr is trying to fill that void a bit. While he clearly has mass-appeal and has more artistic intention than other male pop stars we've seen throughout the years, is it enough to be considered the best new artist to emerge of last year? I can't decide. While I don't think his chances are as good as Olivia Dean's, I think he's definitely a contender for the award and I could even see him being a runner up.

Last, but definitely not least, is Addison Rae. If you know me, then you definitely know how I feel about Addison. Her debut album was definitely in my top 3 albums of 2025. I really think she's a good candidate for this award, because I do genuinely believe she's a visionary with a strong artistic vision. I could go on for day's why I think that's the case, but I've already spoken about Addison Rae at length before, so I'll save it for now. The question is, does she have what it takes to actually win? I can't be for sure. As I said, Olivia Dean seems like the frontrunner of this award (based on public opinion), and I'm not sure if the world has fully accepted Addison Rae as a serious artist yet, which really is a shame. But mark my words, one day.. you will see....

There we have it! This year's Best New Artist lineup is very divisive and has a lot of strong competition in there. You might be asking, what's my personal pick for Best New Artist? If you couldn't tell, I'd absolutely pick Addison Rae. And PROUDLY!! But I also definitely see the argument for someone like Olivia Dean, and I also think The Marias or sombr would be deserving of this award. Like I said before, the result will already be out by the time this is posted, so this post might be very funny in hindsight. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

With that, thank you for reading! Have a great week!

Earworm ~-~-~o

Thanks for reading!

-Joey :)