Sabrina Carpenter has a lot to look forward to in the coming months – the release of her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweeton August 23, and the announcement of the Grammy nominations on November 8. Carpenter could be nominated in each of the Big Four categories – album, record and song of the year as well as best new artist.
How, you might ask, can an artist be nominated for Best New Artist when they're on their sixth album? The Recording Academy bases eligibility on when an artist “achieved a breakthrough in the public consciousness,” not the number of releases they had.
The rules and guidelines booklet for the upcoming 67th Grammy Awards notes: “While there will be no set maximum number of releases, the Screening Committee will be tasked with determining whether the artist had achieved a breakthrough or prominence prior to the year of eligibility. Such a decision would lead to disqualification.”
The eligibility year for the upcoming Grammys began on September 16, 2023. At the time, Carpenter had reached the Billboard Hot 100 with two singles — “Skin,” which debuted at No. 48 in February 2021 and “Nonsense,” which peaked at No. 56 in February 2023.
While Carpenter had never climbed higher than No. 48 on the Hot 100 before this year of eligibility, she has been on fire in recent months, with her current single, “Please Please Please,” debuting at No. .2 last week. and climbed to No. 1 this week.
As of the same date – the opening date for this year of Grammy eligibility – Carpenter had conquered the Billboard 200 with five albums or EPs, three of which were in the top half of the chart – Eyes wide openwhich debuted and peaked at No. 43 in May 2015. Developmentwhich debuted and peaked at No. 28 in November 2016. and Email I can't sendwhich debuted and peaked at No. 23 in July 2022. None of these titles had been certified gold by the RIAA as of September 16, 2023. E-mail it went gold on March 1, 2024, amid its current breakthrough.
It's always been difficult to come up with hard and fast rules governing Best New Artist, which is probably why the category description in the rules and guidelines booklet is easily twice as long as the album, record and song of the year descriptions combined.
Carpenter has not previously been nominated for a Grammy, which generally results in exclusion from Best New Artist. And he hasn't entered the Best New Artist contest three times, which is an automatic disqualification. Tate McRae has entered three times (in the last three years), so she is not eligible to enter again. Carpenter has entered twice – in 2017 and 2024, so she doesn't break that rule.
It will be up to the aforementioned Screening Committee to weigh all of these factors and decide whether Carpenter should be allowed to compete for Best New Artist. The key criteria: “This category recognizes an artist whose release/eligibility year achieved a breakthrough in the public consciousness and significantly influenced the musical landscape.”
The Academy cannot confirm what will or will not be on the ballot until the screening process is complete. They don't want to be locked into a position when it's really the screening committee's prerogative to make those decisions.
But this committee generally seems to be looking for ways to include, rather than exclude, artists in this category. They seem to recognize that young artists develop and cross over at their own pace.
Shelby Lynne won the award in 2001 thanks to her sixth album, I'm Shelby Lynne.
British singer-songwriter David Gray was on his fifth album when he was nominated the following year. Meghan Trainor had three self-released albums before her first studio album for Epic, for which she won in 2016. Maren Morris had released three albums on smaller labels before her Columbia Nashville debut, for which she was nominated for 2017.
Rapper Tobe Nwigwe, Brazilian singer Anitta, bluegrass artist Molly Tuttle, country/Americana duo The War and Treaty and country act Jelly Roll had also released multiple projects prior to the groundbreaking sets that earned them a Grammy nod for best new artist.
However, the Academy wasn't always so welcoming to artists who needed a little time to break through. There was a time in the 1980s when the Academy committee was very strict and excluded some young artists who would have been worthy nominees or winners. Whitney Houston was disqualified from the new artist category because she had released a pair of duets with Teddy Pendergrass and Kashif prior to the release of her debut in 1985. Richard Marx was disqualified because he had recorded a song (“Burning of the Heart”) on the Tom Hanks/Jackie Gleason movie soundtrack Nothing in common prior to his debut album in 1987. Today, such relatively minor pre-debut activities would likely not result in a ban.
In other years, the Academy erred on the side of being too lenient. Lauryn Hill won best new artist in 1999, even though she had won two Grammys as a member of the Fugees two years earlier. The trio had even performed a song from their album that was nominated for the year The score at the 1997 Grammy telecast. (The rules have since been tightened so this could not happen again. From the rulebook: “Ineligible: Any artist with a previous Grammy nomination as a performer, including a nomination as an established member of a candidate group.”)
If the review board does accept Carpenter, it may be more appropriate to also allow two other “borderline” cases, Megan Moroney and Chappell Roan.
Moroney, 26, was passed over for a best new artist nod two years ago when “Tennessee Orange” became a top 30 hit on the Hot 100. But she's kept building. Her second album, I'm fine; due on July 12. Moroney was nominated for the CMA Awards New Artist of the Year award last year and won the ACM New Female Artist of the Year award (in her second attempt) in May.
Roan, also 26, dropped from Atlantic Records after releasing a 2017 EP. School nights. Her impressive debut album was released through Island Records.
Other potential Best New Artist nominees include Benson Boone, Reneé Rapp, Sexyy Red, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims.
Other artists hoping for nominations if any of these supposed frontrunners falter (or are deemed ineligible) include The Beaches, Dasha, Djo, Knox, October London, Tommy Richman, Nate Smith and Tigirlily Gold.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/sabrina-carpenter-grammy-best-new-artist-2025-eligible-or-not-1235718054/
