Take “S P E Y S I D E”—perhaps the purest distillation of songwriting as an art from this eligibility period. Accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar, Justin Vernon revisited the spare arrangements of his debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, with another two decades years of wisdom to his name. MJ Lenderman also had a banner 2024 with the release of Manning Fireworks, and there’s hardly a better encapsulation of his sad-sack, lightly absurdist charms in couplet form than “I got a beach home up in Buffalo/And a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cellphone.” Then again, for a tribute to the escapist power of music itself, I simply say: Put your headphones on.
Among the likely candidates, though, two songs stand out as marriages of craft and commerce. While Justin Bieber has never been a Grammys favorite, “Daisies,” from the surprise-released Swag, marks his most decisive step yet away from a prolonged musical adolescence and toward grown-man R&B. Bieber’s co-writer and a rising star himself, Mk.gee deserves a nod, too—his slippery, hyper-compressed take on 1980s new wave sounds more and more like the future of pop. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos boasts at least five tracks that could reasonably lay claim to Song of the Year, but “Baile Inolvidable” might be the best of the bunch: catchy, hugely popular, forward-thinking, reverent of tradition, political, danceable, irresistible.
–Walden Green
Best New Artist
- Addison Rae
- Alex Warren
- Katseye
- Lola Young
- MJ Lenderman
- PinkPantheress
- Ravyn Lenae
- Sleep Token
Last year’s Best New Artist race was a genuine toss-up, with most of its nominees—Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan—having true breakout years in the traditional interpretation of that term. Conversely, this year’s nomination pool appears far less locked in, even before resorting to the usual “Are so-and-so really all that ‘new’?” pulls. Dare we throw the word “exciting” around when discussing the Grammy Awards in 2025, but, frankly, ample room for a handful of pleasant Best New Artist surprises is actually exciting.