Ed Sheeran, Best New Artist GRAMMY nominee

Ed Sheeran

Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

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What qualifies a Best New Artist GRAMMY winner as 'new'?

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THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:08 am

With the recent launch of The Recording Academy's and Pepsi's Best New Artist program, in our latest installment of Ask The GRAMMYs we feature a question pertaining to eligibility for the Best New Artist category:

Ed Sheeran was nominated for a GRAMMY last year and this year he is nominated in the Best New Artist category? What exactly qualifies an artist as "new"? — Joanna X

Thanks for your question, Joanna X.

Our Best New Artist category probably has the most complicated set of rules of any of our categories. Essentially, a "new artist" is defined for the GRAMMY process as any performing artist or established performing group who releases, during the eligibility year, the recording that first establishes the public identity of that artist or established group as a performer. A GRAMMY nomination in a performance category in a prior year disqualifies an artist from competing in this category, unless the nomination came from a single or a guest spot on another artist's recording, and the artist hadn't yet released a full album.

In Ed Sheeran's case, he was nominated for songwriting last year, not performing, and so remained technically eligible.

Still not completely clear? We hope not, and for more information on the GRAMMY Awards process, check out our handy infographic.

And for exclusive content on Sheeran and the rest of this year's Best New Artist nominees, visit GRAMMY.com.

(Have a specific GRAMMY Awards process question? Need the 411 on The Recording Academy's advocacy-related work in Washington? Are you curious about MusiCares or the GRAMMY Foundation? Ask The GRAMMYs is your opportunity. Send your burning GRAMMY-related question via email to askthegrammys@grammy.com. And don't forget to tune in to Music's Biggest Night, the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, on CBS from 8–11:30 p.m. ET/PT.)

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Exploring The Best New Artist Nominees

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A look at the nominees for Best New Artist for the 56th GRAMMY Awards
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

You've seen the list of nominees, now take a closer look at the Best New Artist nominees for the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

Best New Artist

The Best New Artist race features artists who released albums that charted on the Billboard 200 in 2013: James Blake (Overgrown, No. 32), Kendrick Lamar (Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, No. 2), Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (The Heist, No. 2), Kacey Musgraves (Same Trailer Different Park, No. 2), and Ed Sheeran (+, No. 5).

The category includes four first-time nominees — Blake, Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Musgraves — and returning nominee Sheeran, who is looking to win his first career GRAMMY.

 

James Blake

James Blake : Overgrown

Blake has one nomination this year, marking the first GRAMMY nomination of his career.

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar - Poetic Justice (Explicit) ft. Drake

Lamar's seven nominations this year include Album Of The Year and Best Rap Album for Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - WHITE WALLS - FEAT. SCHOOLBOY Q AND HOLLIS (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have seven nominations this year, including Album Of The Year for The Heist.

Kacey Musgraves

watch%3Fv%3DkQ8xqyoZXCc%3Flist%3DUUosnVpvQYMR58p8A8tBY-dw

Musgraves has four nominations this year, including Best Country Album for Same Trailer Different Park.

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran - The A Team [Official Video]

Sheeran has two nominations this year and one prior GRAMMY nomination, a Song Of The Year nod last year for "The A Team."

Who will take home the GRAMMY for Best New Artist? Tune in to the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Jan. 26, 2014, taking place at Staples Center in Los Angeles and airing live on CBS from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

 

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The 56th GRAMMY Awards: The Guessing Game (Part 2)

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THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 3:22 pm

(Editor's Note: The winners for the 56th GRAMMY Awards are not known until they are announced during the Pre-Telecast and GRAMMY telecast on Sunday, Jan. 26. The following blog offers predictions that do not reflect the opinions of The Recording Academy, GRAMMY.com or Recording Academy voting members. The Academy's voting members, all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording, participate in the nominating process that determines the finalists in each GRAMMY category; and the final voting process that determines the GRAMMY winners. For more information on the GRAMMY Awards process, visit GRAMMY.org.)

The pundits are pontificating, the more than 12,000 Recording Academy voters have cast their ballots, and the 56th GRAMMY Awards, airing on CBS Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, is just around the corner, so what better time to survey this year's GRAMMY field and offer a few observations?

As I pointed out in my first blog, in which I peered into the crystal ball for the nominations, the following are my personal educated guesses in the General Field and select GRAMMY categories from my perspective as a longtime professional observer.

Record Of The Year
Certainly no one can quibble with this year's nominees. There's consensus that Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams' "Get Lucky," Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive," Lorde's "Royals," Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams' "Blurred Lines" and Bruno Mars' "Locked Out Of Heaven" were the most ubiquitous songs of the past year, both in terms of airplay and critical acclaim. That said, Mars, with four current nominations and a total of 14 prior GRAMMY nominations and one win (Best Pop Male Vocal Performance for "Just The Way You Are" in 2010), seems ripe for recognition — complete with the heat surrounding his upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance — though any of the other four wouldn't be a surprise.

Album Of The Year
This category includes a nominee from pop (Sara Bareilles), dance (Daft Punk), country (Taylor Swift), and two hip-hop artists (Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Album Of The Year has a diverse history (recent winners include Mumford & Sons, Adele, Arcade Fire, Swift, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss), and the presence of two rap acts might split that vote. Could that open the door for Bareilles, or another coronation for Swift, whose Fearless garnered the nod in 2009? That's what I'm thinking.

Song Of The Year
The competition is strong in this category, which recognizes songwriters, with Record Of The Year nominees "Locked Out Of Heaven" and "Royals" represented, Pink Featuring Nate Ruess' "Just Give Me A Reason" and Katy Perry's tour de force "Roar." But here's guessing that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Same Love" captures the political zeitgeist this year, just as the Dixie Chicks ("Not Ready To Make Nice") and Bruce Springsteen ("Streets Of Philadelphia") have in years past.

Best New Artist
Once again, a mixed genre bag, with UK dub-step artist James Blake, Compton, Calif., hip-hop hopeful Kendrick Lamar, country newcomer Kacey Musgraves and Brit folkie Ed Sheeran forming a strong batch of contenders. However, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' DIY success story and overturning of hip-hop orthodoxy in areas of bling and sexuality could just make the difference here.

Best Pop Solo Performance
Could this be where Justin Timberlake gets his due for the smash "Mirrors"? Or will Bareilles' "Brave" get the nod? Also in the mix are Perry's "Roar," Mars' "When I Was Your Man" and Lorde's "Royals." With not-so-perfect 20/20 foresight, I'm going with JT here.

Best Pop Vocal Album
A tough one to call, with pop starlet Lana Del Rey (Paradise) and the presence of General Field nominees Lorde (Pure Heroine), Mars (Unorthodox Jukebox) and Thicke (Blurred Lines) all accounted for, but I think this is where Timberlake (The 20/20 Experience — The Complete Experience) will reign.

Best Rock Performance
Deserving veterans David Bowie ("The Stars [Are Out Tonight]"), Led Zeppelin ("Kashmir"), Jack White ("I'm Shakin"), and Queens Of The Stone Age ("My God Is The Sun") are all represented here, along with last year's Best New Artist nominees Alabama Shakes ("Always Alright"), but I don't think newcomers Imagine Dragons' Record Of The Year nominee "Radioactive" will be denied.

Best Rock Song
Paul McCartney and Nirvana ("Cut Me Some Slack"), the Rolling Stones ("Doom And Gloom") and Black Sabbath ("God Is Dead?") are nominated, along with Muse ("Panic Station") and Gary Clark Jr. ("Ain't Messin 'Round), but I believe the presence of Dave Grohl with a living legend like Macca makes "… Slack" a "cut" above the rest.

Best Rap Album
Lamar (Good Kid, M.A.A.D City) and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (The Heist) face off against the reigning hip-hop triumvirate of Jay Z (Magna Carta … Holy Grail), Kanye West (Yeezus) and Drake (Nothing Was The Same). My call? Lamar edges out his Seattle rivals to snare the prize.

Best Country Album
If Swift (Red) doesn't claim Album Of The Year, this will be a worthy consolation over a strong field, including Musgraves (Same Trailer Different Park), Jason Aldean (Night Train), Tim McGraw (Two Lanes Of Freedom) and Blake Shelton (Based On A True Story).

You've read my predictions. Who do you think GRAMMY voters will choose?

Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee in "Despacito"

Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee in "Despacito"

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What Was YouTube's Most-Streamed Music Video Of The Decade?

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"Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee earns the spot of the most-streamed music video of all time with over 6.5 billion views to date
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 12, 2019 - 2:06 pm

YouTube has released data for the most streamed music videos of all time on its platform. Not surprisingly, Luis Fonsi's and Daddy Yankee's huge 2017 Latin GRAMMY-winning hit, "Despacito," earns the spot of the most-streamed music video of all time with over 6.5 billion (!) views to date.

To be clear, this is the original version, not the Justin Bieber-assisted remix, although the pop sensation also makes the top 10 list, at No. 6, for his 2015 bop "Sorry." The Purpose track earns the spot with over 3.2 billion views. In fact, each of the top 10 videos has racked up over two billion views.

Related: Who Ruled Music Streaming In 2019?

The second most-viewed music videos on YouTube is one of the other catchy-as-hell, inescapable hits of 2017: Ed Sheeran's GRAMMY-winning "Shape Of You," which has over 4.5 billion views to date. Another one of the British pop star's GRAMMY-winning songs, 2014's "Thinking Out Loud," also makes the list, at No. 10 with over 2.8 billion video views.

As for the third and fourth spots, we have 2015's "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, a GRAMMY-nominated song from the Furious 7 Soundtrack, and 2014's GRAMMY-winning bop "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. These two music videos have over 4.3 billion and over 3.7 views, respectively. Fifth place goes to PSY's 2012 meme-ready viral hit, "GANGNAM STYLE," at over 3.4 billion video views.

The seventh most video of all time goes to the song that allegedly prompted a stranger to throw sugar at Adam Levine's face, Maroon 5's GRAMMY-nominated hit "Sugar." The 2015 track's visual has over three billion views on YouTube and is followed by Katy Perry's 2013 GRAMMY-nominated empowerment anthem, "Roar" at over 2.9 million views. Finally, the number nine spot goes to OneRepublic's 2013 barn-stomping pop hit, "Counting Stars."

Related: Maroon 5 Announce Massive 2020 Tour With Leon Bridges & Meghan Trainor

The data, which YouTube shared via a press release, broke out the top music videos by the last four decades, based on the year they were originally released because, of course, YouTube has only been around since 2004. While the aforementioned top 10 videos of the 2010s were also the top 10 videos of all time, the top music videos of the 2000s, 1990s and 1980s also had some interesting finds.

The No. 1 song of the 2010s is Axel F's "Crazy Frog" at over 1.9 billion views, surpassing Linkin Park's Numb," Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and Taylor Swift's "You Belong To Me," which followed chronologically on that decade chart. Guns N' Roses take the number one spots for both the 1990s and 1980s list, with "November Rain" topping the former and "Sweet Child O' Mine" the latter.

An honorable mention goes to "Baby Shark Dance," the kid's song that was released in 2016 by South Korean company Pinkfong and went viral earlier this year. The original video (not to be confused with the many spinoffs or official EDM remix by JAUZ) has earned more views than "Uptown Funk." Baby Shark's family takes the number five spot of the most viewed videos of all time (music or otherwise) list on YouTube. Don't worry, Fonsi and Yankee are still at the top of this all-content list, so they don't have to worry about any hungry baby sharks—for now, at least.

Aventura Announce First U.S. Tour In 10 Years, Confirmed For Winter 2020

GRAMMYs
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Who Ruled Music Streaming In 2019?

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With Spotify Wrapped, Pandora's Top Thumb Hundred, the new Apple Music Awards, as well as Shazam and YouTube's most popular songs of 2019, there's a lot of new streaming data to explore
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 9, 2019 - 10:24 am

December is not only the perfect time for slowing down, sipping hot chocolate and spending time with loved ones, it's also a great opportunity to look back on which artists broke new records in streaming numbers. From Spotify to Pandora, Apple Music—and Shazam, which Apple owns—and YouTube, let's see who dominated the streaming game in 2019.

If you're active on Twitter or Instagram, you may have noticed various versions of Spotify Wrapped being shared over the past few days, after the streaming giant launched their annual microsite, which allows Spotify users to dive into their personal top artists and songs of the year. They also released the data for the platform as a whole, which named current 2020 GRAMMY nominee Post Malone as their most streamed artist globally, with over 6.5 billion streams this year.

The rest of Spotify's top artist list is made up of current GRAMMY nominees, with Billie Eilish taking the No. 2 spot with over six billion streams, followed by Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Bad Bunny, respectively. Eilish's GRAMMY-nominated debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, is the platform's top-streamed album of 2019, making the 17-year-old the first female artist to have a No. 1 spot in that category. The highly anticipated project was also the top-streamed album on Apple Music this year.

Read: "WE ARE ALL WINNERS": 2020 GRAMMY Award Nominees React On Social Media

And that's not all for the L.A. pop giant: Eilish's GRAMMY-nominated hit "bad guy" ranks as the second-most-streamed song of the year on Spotify, surpassed only by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's hit "Señorita," which saw more than one billion streams and is also up for a 2020 GRAMMY. Spotify's other top three global tracks of 2019 are also currently in the running for a GRAMMY: Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower," Grande's "7 rings" and Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Old Town Road – Remix."  

Meanwhile, Apple Music broke out their top-streamed artists by genre instead of listing top overall, but with their new Apple Music Awards, they named Eilish their Artist of the Year. The other two awards were given to Lizzo, as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Lil Nas X, for Apple Music's Song of the Year with "Old Town Road." The ubiquitous Cyrus-assisted remix of the song took the No. 1 spot on Apple's global most-streamed song list, followed by "Sunflower," Grande's "thank u, next," "7 rings" and Eilish's "bad guy." Spotify named Lizzo, Lil Nas X and Puerto Rican reggaetonero Lunay as their Top Breakout Artists.

Poll: Who Will Win Best Pop Vocal Album At The 2020 GRAMMYs?

As for the top tracks on Pandora—which is measured by the numbers of "thumbs up" it gets from listeners—"Old Town Road" and "7 rings" also won over Pandora listeners, earning the No. 1 and No. 3 spots, respectively. J. Cole's Best Rap Performance GRAMMY-nominated "Middle Child" took the No. 2 spot, Malone's "WOW" snagged No. 4 and Cardi B's and Bruno Mars' "Please Me" earned the fifth highest number of likes. Pandora named Malone and Cardi as the most popular artist on their platform this year, as both artists had five songs each on this top 100 list.

Finally, YouTube also shared its platform numbers last week, with Daddy Yankee and Snow's reggaetón hit "Con Calma" earning the title of most-streamed music video globally in 2019. Rosalía, J Balvin and El Guincho's Latin GRAMMY-winning bop "Con Altura" earning the second spot on the global list, with all top five spots going to Latin urban songs.

"Con Calma" also made the U.S. version of the list at No. 10., the only Spanish song on it. Lil Nas X made this U.S. list twice; in the No. 1 spot for the audio version of the Cyrus remix and the No. 5 spot for the cameo-filled visual.

According to Apple, Spanish-language bops were also popular with Shazam users across the globe this year. "Con Calma" was the sixth-most-Shazamed song, not to be confused with Pedro Capó's Latin GRAMMY-winning "Calma," whose Farruko-supported remix earned the No. 4 spot. Not surprisingly, Eilish's "bad guy" was the most-Shazamed track globally this year.

We hope you have fun revisiting your favorite songs, music videos and albums of 2019. Find out which ones will take home a golden gramophone at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, airing live on Jan. 26, 2020 on CBS.

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