The Recording Academy announced today that it has made major changes to several rules and guidelines that reflect its ongoing commitment to evolve with the musical landscape and to ensure that the GRAMMY Awards nominating process and rules are more transparent and fair.                                

Among the changes are updates to the Best New Artist category, Latin, R&B and Rap Fields, Nominations Review Committees and more. The new changes go into effect immediately for the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards. In addition, the GRAMMY Awards Rules & Guidelines are now, for the first time, available and can be found here. 

"I’m excited to announce our latest changes, as we're constantly evaluating our Awards process and evolving it to ensure the GRAMMY Awards are inclusive and reflect the current state of the music industry," said Harvey Mason jr., Chair & Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy. "The Academy accepts proposals for rule changes from members of the music community throughout the year that are carefully reviewed and, if accepted, ultimately ratified at our annual Board meeting, a process that we are proud to have continued in this challenging year."

"As a peer-driven and peer-voted award, members of the music community are directly involved in the growth and preservation of the GRAMMYs process,” said Bill Freimuth, Chief Awards Officer at the Recording Academy. "Each year we receive a number of rule change proposals from artists, producers and songwriters asking us to reevaluate our process to better reflect the current state of the music industry and how it's evolved over the past 12 months."

APPROVED RULE AMENDMENTS:

Best Urban Contemporary Album has been renamed Best Progressive R&B Album to appropriately categorize and describe this subgenre. This change includes a more accurate definition to describe the merit or characteristics of music compositions or performances themselves within the genre of R&B.

This category is intended to highlight albums that include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music. It may also incorporate production elements found in pop, euro-pop, country, rock, folk and alternative.

Likewise, Best Rap/Sung Performance has been renamed Best Melodic Rap Performance to represent the inclusivity of the growing hybrid performance trends within the rap genre. The expanded category is defined as follows:

This category is intended to recognize solo and collaborative performances containing elements of rap and melody over modern production. This performance requires a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence, and is inclusive of dialects, lyrics or performance elements from non-rap genres including R&B, rock, country, electronic or more. The production may include traditional elements of rap or elements characteristic of the aforementioned non-rap genres.

In addition, Latin Pop Album has been renamed Best Latin Pop Or Urban Album, and Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative Album has been renamed Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album to migrate the genres of Latin urban and represent the current state and prominent representation in the Latin urban genres.

The Best Latin Pop Or Urban Album category is intended to recognize excellence in Latin pop or urban music recordings that utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content, and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of Latin pop music style and culture. The category includes recordings from balladeers and commercial Latin music and is not limited to any one region.

The Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album category is intended to highlight Latin rock or alternative music recordings that utilize a stylistic intention, song structure, lyrical content and/or musical presentation to create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of the Latin music style and culture.

Finally, there is no longer a specified maximum number of releases prohibiting artists from entering the Best New Artist category. As such, the screening committees will be charged with determining whether the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence prior to the eligibility year. Such a determination would result in disqualification.

Nominations Review Committees & Addressing Potential Conflicts of Interest

At the time of invitation to participate on a Nominations Review Committee, a conflict of interest disclosure form will be provided. Each person invited to be a member of such a committee must disclose to the best of their knowledge whether, in connection with any recording that may be entered in the current year’s GRAMMY Awards process, (a) the person would be in line to receive a GRAMMY nomination or win for any recordings being considered in a particular category, (b) the person would have any direct or indirect financial ties to the recordings or creators under consideration, (c) the person has immediate familial ties to any of the artists in the top voter selections, and/or (d) any other conflict of interest, actual or perceived. If a recording listed by the invitee presents a conflict of interest, the Academy will notify the committee member that they cannot participate on the committee that year. If, in the unlikely event that, despite these proactive efforts, a conflict is discovered during the committee meeting, that person will be notified and recused from the meeting. Failure to voluntarily disclose any conflict of interest will result in the person being barred from future Nominations Review Committee participation.

For the full list of rule amendments for the 63rd GRAMMY Awards, which were voted on and passed at the Recording Academy's most recent semiannual Board of Trustees meeting held in May 2020, click here. For information on the Awards process, visit www.grammy101.com. For key dates and eligibility period for the 63rd GRAMMY Awards, click here.

Victoria Monét has won Best New Artist at the 66th GRAMMY Awards.

Tearfully accepting the award, the rising R&B star gave an eloquent speech in which she compared herself to a plant growing out of the soil of the music industry. 

“My roots have been growing underneath ground, unseen, for so long, and I feel like today I’m sprouting, finally above ground,” she said.

Monét beat out Gracie Abrams, Fred again.., Ice Spice, Jelly Roll, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, and The War and Treaty for the award. It was given out by last year’s winner, Samara Joy.

She really puts in the work and she is being rewarded now more than ever for it," producer D'Mile, who has known Monét since the beginning of her career, recently told GRAMMY.com. "She grows more and more confident and sure about what she's aiming for as she continues her journey."

This was not Monét’s first win. Her album Jaguar II won Best Engineered Album and Best R&B Album earlier in the day during the GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony.

Keep checking this space for more updates from Music’s Biggest Night!

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Just last year, Samara Joy joined Esperanza Spalding and Norah Jones as the few jazz musicians to win Best New Artist in the 21st century. As pianist Geoffrey Keezer noted, Joy's win is a reminder that the genre "is still a part of [music], and it's important, and it's where it all came from."

In this episode of GRAMMY Rewind, revisit the moment Joy accepted her golden gramophone at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

"I've been singing my whole life," she said. "Thank you so much for this honor. Thank you to everyone who listened to me or supported me."

"I've been watching y'all on TV for so long," Joy tearfully cooed to the audience. "To be here because of who I am — all of you have inspired me because of who you are. You express yourself, exactly who you are, authentically."

Before exiting the stage, Joy praised her record label, Verve, management, and other members of her team. Joy was a two-time winner that night, also taking home the golden gramophone for Best Jazz Vocal Album for her second studio album, 'Linger Awhile.' She earned her third nomination at the 2024 GRAMMYs, a Best Jazz Performance nod for her self-produced track "Tight."

Watch the video above to see Samara Joy's complete acceptance speech for Best New Artist at the 2023 GRAMMYs. Check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind, and tune into this year's show on Sunday, Feb. 4, airing live on the CBS Television Network (8-11:30 p.m. LIVE ET/5-8:30 p.m. LIVE PT) and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

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Joaquina won the Latin GRAMMY for Best New Artist at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.

Borja, Conexión Divina, Ana Del Castillo, Natascha Falcão, Gale, Paola Guanche, Paola Guanche, Leon Leiden, Maréh, and Timø were the other nominees in the category.

Along with Paola Guanche, Joaquina is an alumnus of Julio Reyes Copello's Art House Academy; she graduated last year.

The Venezuelan singer/songwriter was taken under the wing of Reyes Copello — the Latin GRAMMYs Producer Of The Year winner from 2022.

Joaquina has since flourished with her debut EP, Los Mejores Años. Therein, she explores teen ennui with the melodic, anthemic title track and the emotionally searing "Rabia."

Check out the complete list of winners and nominees at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.

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After winning 24 Latin GRAMMYs prior to this year, Colombian rock star Juanes was tapped to take on the role of an elder statesman at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs. 

On the stage in Sevilla, Juanes performed with the 10 nominees for Best New Artist: Borja, Conexión Divina, Ana Del Castillo, Natascha Falcão, Gale, Paola Guanche, Joaquina, León Leiden, Maréh, and Timø.

With vocal back up from the the brightest new voices in Latin music Juanes rendered a stirring performance of his emotional single "Gris" from his 2023 album Vida Cotidiana. In recent years, Juanes has explored a variety of sounds in his music, including traditional Colombian sounds such as cumbia. This year, he returned to his roots in rock with the intensely personal full-length album, which was inspired by the complexities of his marriage and family life during COVID-19 lockdown.

Juanes’ number was a satisfying full arena rock moment, complete with dazzling lights and artistic video projection of the song's lyrics. The power ballad has a somber and aching tone, and with the chorus behind him the feeling of the song rang out loud and clear.

The record came out in May to critical acclaim and has received nominations for both Album Of The Year and Best Pop/Rock Album, categories Juanes has won multiple times in the past. The "La Camisa Negra" singer is nominated in the Best Rock Song category for "Gris," as well.

Vida Cotidiana is also nominated for Best Latin Rock or Alternative album at the 2024 GRAMMYs, alongside worlds from Cabra, Diamante Eléctrico, Natalia Lafourcade, and Fito Paez.

2023 Latin GRAMMYs: See The Complete Nominations List