In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Shawna Potter felt defeated. After nearly a decade fighting for women's rights and advocating for safer spaces and bystander intervention training, Potter, the front person for the Baltimore-based hardcore collective War On Women saw the inauguration of the 45th president as a direct threat to those very rights she'd been fighting to protect. So she did what a lot of people did after the election: she took some time off, put down her pen, and focused her energy elsewhere.

Since that fateful day four years ago, exhaustion be damned, Potter and the rest of War On Women—including co-founder Brooks Harlan, bassist and vocalist Sue Werner, guitarist and vocalist Jennifer "Jenarchy" Vito and drummer Dave Cavalier—have refused to stay silent, using their voices instead to produce two blistering critiques of the most important social issues we face today. The first album, 2018's Capture The Flag, saw Potter eviscerate America's gun culture, toxic masculinity and the current administration on songs like "Predator in Chief" and "YDTMHTL," which includes guest vocals from activist and Bikini Kill lead singer, Kathleen Hanna.

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The second album, Wonderful Hell, released digitally today and out physically on November 13 via Bridge Nine Records, was written pre-COVID, during a time when Potter felt overwhelmed by life in Trump's America. Loosely echoing the words of the late John Lewis and his idea of making "good trouble," Wonderful Hell leaves no injustice unchecked or systems of oppression unscathed. Tracks like "This Stolen Land" and "Her?," produced by Harlan and Jawbox frontman J. Robbins, pairs heavy guitar and anthemic chants with Potter’s pointed attacks on immigration policy and the sexism women face in public office ("But Her Emails/ But her makeup/ But her health/But her age," she screams). And "Milk and Blood" finds Potter unapologetically tearing down and setting fire to capitalism and the patriarchy. She also delves into the personal on "Big Words," where she details the dissolution of a close friendship, ending with the devastating line: "Hurt People/ Hurt People."

Mainly, though, this album serves as a necessary salve for the chaos of 2020, and a reminder that raising wonderful, beautiful hell in uncertain times is the best way to make change.

"This album is really about me finding my way out of that pit, and remembering that I can make a difference," Potter told GRAMMY.com in mid-October. "That it’s worth staying in the fight and that there's still fight left in me. It’s about knowing that other people feel that way, too, and that maybe they need a reminder that they're still needed."

With the 2020 election only days away, War On Women is here to remind you to stand up and exercise your right to vote on November 3. We caught up with Potter recently in the midst of moving to a new apartment to discuss the making of the new album, participating in activism at any age and the importance of casting your vote this year.

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Since lockdown began eight months ago, what have you been doing? Has it been difficult on you? 

I’m just really trying to enjoy my home and nest. That part has been a little easier than I thought. I'm actually making dinner every night instead of microwaving it, and I'm trying to make sure I move my body. I don't know where this comes from, but one of the main tenets of not feeling hopeless in a situation like this is to feel productive every day. And that can be defined in a lot of different ways. Sometimes, that literally is just to make dinner tonight. That's the thing you did, and that's fine, that's enough. I just try to make sure that I feel productive and get something accomplished, no matter how small, every day.

What do you suggest people do when they're feeling that sense of hopelessness and dread, which is such a common feeling people are experiencing right now?

That’s kind of what the album is about, at least a couple of songs. The first thing is to forgive yourself for having feelings; to not add the extra stress of feeling guilty for feeling hopeless. That's a waste of time. Then, it's to assess what you can do to get through the day. It can be taking that shower, making that meal, accomplish one little goal, organize your nail polish by color. I’ve done that.

It’s the little things.

Yeah, it helps.

Since you've been feeling this sense of hopelessness about the state of the country, about politics, how did you get to a good enough place to start writing an album again?

It was tough. It was a little foregoing after the last record because we put so much into recording an album. We really, really care, we really want to make it as good as possible within our limitations, and spend a lot of time on it. When an album is finished, I’m kind of like, "Cool, I don’t have to write any songs for a long time." I can take a break. I can turn off the writer part of my brain. I think taking a break and taking in new things, new media, and new ideas, that's a gestation period that’s necessary to actually produce something later on.

So I did my normal thing of just taking a break, and every now and again when something would interest me, I would write it down in my lyric book and look at it later. The last album, Capture The Flag, felt really rushed. It basically felt like a social experiment where we were wondering: "Can we get this done in this period of time? Oh, cool, we did? Let's never do it again." I think that was in the back of my mind when I started thinking about this album. I knew we were going to have to start chipping away at songwriting a little sooner so that we could take our time, not feel rushed and get it done by the time it’s all supposed to come together. I wrote a couple of personal songs. I wrote "The Ash is Not the End," which has elements in there about feeling hopeless and wondering what to do next. What’s the answer when we’re dealing with all this caustic masculinity that is killing people? And I wrote "Big Words," which is a song about a friendship that didn’t go the way I planned, and being disappointed in that. It took a little while to start to feel fired up again about writing about the politics of being an oppressed person.

I feel like this directly connects to the album title, Wonderful Hell. What we’re living in right now can feel hell-ish, and by using "wonderful" in the title, it conveys a sense of hope…

...that we can get to the other side; that there are still moments of absolute beauty and kindness in this world. There’s also the double meaning of raising that hell yourself. To raise "wonderful hell" is to challenge a f**ked up system because you know things can get better for everyone. So it's a feeling, it's where we are, and it's what we can do.

And it feels good to raise that hell, even if you're doing something small like canvassing or making phone calls. You're contributing a lot to the community in those small acts.

If everyone does something small, it adds up to something big 100%. I totally feel that way. I talk about that a lot when I do workshops and trainings about bystander intervention, creating safer spaces, and calling out your friends when they say something kind of racist or sexist. It’s a small thing, but it actually builds up and makes a big impact over time. You don’t need a bunch of heroes or everyone saving the world all on their own. All of our small actions add up.

How long have you been an activist? Was that something that started early for you?

I came to it late, honestly. I was pretty apathetic growing up. I think when I was young, I knew that some people weren’t treated fairly because of who they were, the color of their skin, or the fact that they were women. But I didn't understand why or what to do about it. I thought it was unfair. I didn’t want anyone to treat me like that, but I was not willing to do anything about it. I actually remember thinking that because I wasn’t able to vote until I was 18, I didn’t have to pay attention because I couldn’t make a difference. Obviously, within the last few years, we've seen such a huge surge in young activist energy and impact that I feel ridiculous for ever feeling that way. But when I was young, I didn’t think I had to pay attention until I was eighteen. Even then, I was still like, "Well, I voted, what else do you want from me?" Activism really did coincide at the start of this band when I started thinking that there's more than just voting; there's more issues than just the issues I face. That's when I became a student of: What's going on that affects me, that affects others, how is it connected, how can I help, how can I ask for help?

The funny thing is that I was always reading BITCH and BUST magazine. I was listening to Bikini Kill, and I felt like, "Yeah, of course I'm a feminist. I want to do what I want." I don't know why I wasn't more active about it. I vividly remember reading an article in BITCH that was saying George W. Bush and his administration were trying to limit access to abortion. After reading that, I thought it was bullshit. They can't even get pregnant. Why the f**k should they have any say at all about what anyone does with their body? That's when I needed to learn and figure out what was going on. It all started in my mid-20s. Hopefully we’ll let people know that it's okay if they're just coming into activism today. Welcome.

Later is better than never. There's a lot to be said about taking the time to educate yourself, and to learn and listen.

That's the key. That journey of education never actually ends. As soon as you really sit with that, it's so much easier to deal with the moments where you make a mistake accidentally or you put your foot in your mouth. People f**k up, people aren't perfect, but once you know that you'll never be perfect, and there's always something you can to learn, it takes away from the stress and shame of not being perfect, which is impossible.

I feel like you guys do something very specific and very important in your music, which is calling out injustices and the people who commit them. Has that always been an important idea for you and for the band?

That’s a cool way to put it. I never really thought about that before. I do remember thinking that this is not the band to be lyrical about something with a lot of metaphors or flowery language. This was the band that if I'm ever going to just say something, this is the time to do that; just f**king say it. What are you mad about? What's going on? Who's responsible? But I don't think about it too hard. If you're just talking about sexism, that's a really huge umbrella. The same goes for feminism, politics, our band—it's just too big. There is a way to talk about the larger issue. I can't address violence against women globally in a song, but I can talk about the disappearance of women from Juárez, Mexico. I can also talk about a specific activist letter that was submitted to the newspaper taking credit for the murder of someone thought to be partially involved in the mass disappearing of women from Juárez. It’s like zooming in on an aspect of a very large story or subject. That interests me very much.

A great example of this is on a song like "On This Stolen Land" where you’re calling out the harmful immigration policies that have been enacted over the past few years. To hear it called out like that, it feels good because it expresses a lot of the discontent that people are feeling.

In that song, I’m basically saying, "You guys, your whole f**king premise is off. Like, you’re starting from the wrong place. How can you argue for what you’re doing now to people at the border when you’re just wrong?"

That’s why Wonderful Hell is really timely. It’s tapping into a lot of what we’re going through right now. But didn’t you write this album before COVID hit the U.S.?

All the lyrics were finished and we were recording before COVID hit. We kind of finished as lockdown started. I feel like the political lyrics are always going to predict the future a little bit. The world isn’t getting better in a perfect, linear way.

If anything, since you’ve written it, it seems like things have gotten worse. Did you have to push the album back, or was it always the plan to put it out at the end of October?

I was really pushing for it to come out before the election. That was always the most likely thing that was going to happen no matter what. But the label made the decision in the days of the pandemic to release it digitally on October 30 and physically in November. I was really adamant about having it out around the time of the election. I was thinking that if we can’t help people get through those few days before, maybe the years after, what is the point of this record?

More than other recordings, that’s what this record is for me. I think it sounds kind of silly to be like, "Oh, I hope people really get a lot out of my record." Whatever, music is subjective, I don’t know if you’ll like it or not, I don’t give a f**k. But that's the vibe that this record gives me, that's what I was feeling while writing it. It was me saying, "Okay, pick yourself off the floor, it’s time to get back to work, there’s still work to do, you can do this, we can do this together. We’ll get through this even though it f**king sucks." Sometimes we need a reminder, especially around election time. People are going to need to remember that we’ll see the other side of it. Other than all the people that the Trump administration will literally kill, we’ll have to find our way to the other side.

Was the rest of the band on board with this? 

The cool thing about our band is that it’s very clear that I write the lyrics. I do take suggestions and even sometimes steal phrases from our bandmates. If they say something cool, I make sure  to write that down, just for the greater good of pushing an intersectional feminist message. We don’t really get into the nitty gritty very much. Hopefully, that just means that I’m doing okay by them. But in the end, I’m happy to admit that if there’s ever a time when I f**k something up—f**k up an issue, or stick my foot in my mouth—it’s on me, not the entire band. That’s a big reason why I would want to make it clear that I write the lyrics, so they don’t get any heat for something they’re not responsible for.

We also pull an album title from the lyrics because it just makes sense. I scoured the lyrics for possibilities and asked other band members for suggestions, and I kept coming back to Wonderful Hell. Nothing sounded better than that. I think that’s because that’s where I am.

I love the video for "Wonderful Hell," too. I love how one of the first things you see is a VOTE sticker on the notebook. Why do you think it’s so important for people to vote this election year?

On a personal level, even growing up apathetic to politics, I was still like, "Of course I’m going to vote. I’m a citizen of this country. This is what I’m going to do." It’s my right. People have fought for it and died for it, and I don't take that lightly. When I was younger, I would argue with my friends who thought voting was pointless, who thought their vote wouldn't count because it was just one vote. I would argue with them about their mentality. I just didn't understand it. Why wouldn't you want to vote? We get to do this thing. We get to choose the person in charge. That’s cool. That's kind of what our country is all about. I think today, and I think knowing that I have the responsibility of speaking for a band, I completely understand people's apathy and lack of drive to stand in a line for hours and hours, to not get paid because they're not at work, to vote for someone that isn't who they actually want to be running the country. I get that.

But what I've been thinking about lately, my reasons to vote, other than my normal ones, is that I can’t think of a bigger "F**k You" to Trump than Biden winning in a landslide. For Biden winning by so much that an Electoral College f**k up, or people going back on their word, or Russian interference, or voter intimidation, or voter suppression are still overcome and he wins so hard that Trump is just humiliated. That's worth it to me. To be clear, I’m f**king resentful that I have to choose between two old white cisgender men accused of sexual assault or misconduct. That is not a good choice for me. That sucks. But I know that there are people that are suffering more than me, that are more marginalized, that are at higher risk of health issues, are working to be citizens or they’re refugees. There are so many types of oppressed people that need Biden more than I need to be right.

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It’s important to vote for someone who has the people’s best interest at heart, and who is willing to take on police brutality, systemic racism, healthcare, and everything else we’ve been dealing with this year and decades before.

You’re right. This vote I’m casting is not for me, and in other years it has been.

Even with a song like "White Lies," which addresses police brutality, I can’t think of a song that’s more reflective of the times we’re living in right now, especially in the wake of George Floyd being killed in May. What were you thinking when you heard about his death?

Can you imagine that I actually wrote that song before all of that went down? I was thinking that I wish I could release this song today or when the initial protests began. I wish I could have released the song as soon as possible so that people had a place to channel their feelings. I believe in that power of music to help us process our feelings, help us verbalize our feelings, give us a place to put our feelings. I know of music's magical powers. It wasn't like "Oh, if only people knew we had a song for them right now." It was like, "People need a song. I want to give them a song. I have a song." But we just couldn't release it. And, unfortunately, we also knew that this [police brutality] isn't going to end before the album comes out because Trump isn't doing anything to lessen police brutality. Statistically, I figured there's probably going to be another murder. It was a tough decision, but we ended up not releasing it. Also, I didn’t want it to seem like we were trying to market off of a tragic death. It’s not about that.

The video for "White Lies" came out pretty recently, and it features artist Landis Expandis. What was it like working with him?

We were one of the thousands of bands trying to figure out: How do you do something like this when you can’t get together? What kind of music video do you make instead? What's appropriate? What doesn't look like everything else that everyone else is releasing? I don't want another sing-along video that looks like it was made on Zoom. That's boring. So what could we do instead? Landis is a friend of mine. He's a Baltimore Legend, a Baltimore staple. He was in the All Mighty Senators. He’s just a really cool guy.

Earlier this year during lockdown, like most artists who are thinking about how they were going to pay rent, some people were coming up with some really ingenious stuff. He was one of those people. He was inventing these characters and making videos about the lockdown and COVID and bringing some levity to a tough situation. I was talking to him the other day for this exclusive interview that I did through my Patreon about how all of a sudden the idea came to me: What if we let Landis make a video?  I realized that one of the reasons he appealed to me was because he brings that levity to a serious situation. We’ve also been known to bring humor sometimes to a tough subject because sometimes that's just the way you deal with tough shit. We don't need to see a bunch of Black and brown bodies bleeding in the street to get our message across in this song. I didn't want a video of that. Instead of us having a video of only protest footage in it, I thought why not just center this artist who not only is affected by the issues that I'm talking about in the song, and who's doing something creative, and pay him to do his thing and also give him creative control? It just seemed like a perfect situation of sharing this platform that we have with someone’s voice who deserves to be heard.

Do you have any plans to release more videos in the near future?

Yes. Our next video should be out in November, probably around the physical release date. It’s going to be for the song, "In Your Path." It’s based on the Chilean protests back in 2019, and the chants that this feminist collective used. They’re name is Las Tesis. I got in touch with them to give them a heads up that they’re chants were inspiring to me, and that I was going to use some of their words on my song. I gave them full credit on the album as a way to raise awareness and to use their words instead of speaking for them. They were cool with it. And then I told them that we were going to do a video. I asked them if they had any footage we could use that they would be comfortable with, and they gave us a video that we could incorporate into what we're doing. It was very cool to get them on board. I feel like a lot of those protests fell off of the radar really quickly. I relished the opportunity to redirect people back to it or expose some people to what they're doing if they didn't get to hear about it the first time.

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Repressed on green vinyl to celebrate 20 years of @exoticfeverrecords with new back cover: https://www.exoticfever.com/artists.php?id=115 #punk #diy #diyprojects #feminist #waronwomen #exoticfeverrecords #exoticfever #20years #hardcore #music #baltimore</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/waronwomen/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> War On Women</a> (@waronwomen) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-09-28T23:25:20+00:00">Sep 28, 2020 at 4:25pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>

You also incorporate lyrics from Shellac’s "Prayer to God" on the opener, "Aqua Tofana." What is it about that song that made you want to sample it?

The words in that song are just so f**king tough. I'm always really fascinated by songs that are really heavy and brutal, but not how we normally think of a brutal song; not musically. I really like the band HUM. They’re the heaviest band and the quietest band in the world at the same time. I like that juxtaposition. It’s just a regular guitar song, but it’s brutal.

Basically, the gist of the story is for the last however many years, I’ve been working at this big amp repair shop with Brooks. I’m not doing it right now because of COVID, but when you work in a small space and you’re listening to music, some albums come on more than others. So that album [Shellac’s 1000 Hurts] would get played a lot. Every time [“Prayer to God”] came on I was like, “Can we cover this? What are the options here?” So I always had it in the back of my mind---and I don't mind stealing little one-liners like that. That’s art, right?  I was just like, this perfectly describes how the women in this song would feel.

I think Steve Albini would be fine with that.

He's clearly not singing a feminist anthem. He might not be a straight-up misogynist, but it's still uncomfortable to hear about a man wanting someone to kill his ex-lover who is a woman. And I like that I flipped it around a little bit and had fun with some misandry.

Outside of being an album that addresses social injustices, you also call Wonderful Hell a call to action. What action would you like to see taken?

[Pauses.] Shit. [Pauses.] Because it’s not just about "Go Vote." My thought right now is that I want people to get back to doing the good work. It’s funny. It’s like the call to action is about getting yourself to a place where you can take action again. [Laughs.] There’s not a nice, easy, catchy little phrase. It’s not a simple idea because that looks different for everyone. I just want people to know that they are needed in the fight.

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Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it; its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.

Brown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing.

Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo; and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively.

In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine — often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well.

Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. G-funk continues to influence Los Angeles hip-hop, with innovative artists like Dam-Funk and Channel Tres bringing the funk and G-funk, into electro territory. Funk and disco-centered '70s revival is definitely having a moment, with acts like Ghost Funk Orchestra and Parcels, while its sparkly sprinklings can be heard in pop from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and, in full "Soul Train" character, Silk Sonic. There are also acts making dreamy, atmospheric music with a solid dose of funk, such as Khruangbin’s global sonic collage.

There are many bands that play heavily with funk, creating lush grooves designed to get you moving. Read on for a taste of five current modern funk and nu-disco artists making band-led uptempo funk built for the dance floor. Be sure to press play on the Spotify playlist above, and check out GRAMMY.com's playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.

Say She She

Aptly self-described as "discodelic soul," Brooklyn-based seven-piece Say She She make dreamy, operatic funk, led by singer-songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Piya Malik and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham. Their '70s girl group-inspired vocal harmonies echo, sooth and enchant as they cover poignant topics with feminist flair.

While they’ve been active in the New York scene for a few years, they’ve gained wider acclaim for the irresistible music they began releasing this year, including their debut album, Prism. Their 2022 debut single "Forget Me Not" is an ode to ground-breaking New York art collective Guerilla Girls, and "Norma" is their protest anthem in response to the news that Roe vs. Wade could be (and was) overturned. The band name is a nod to funk legend Nile Rodgers, from the "Le freak, c'est chi" exclamation in Chic's legendary tune "Le Freak."

Moniquea

Moniquea's unique voice oozes confidence, yet invites you in to dance with her to the super funky boogie rhythms. The Pasadena, California artist was raised on funk music; her mom was in a cover band that would play classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Get It Right" and Gladys Knight’s "Love Overboard." Moniquea released her first boogie funk track at 20 and, in 2011, met local producer XL Middelton — a bonafide purveyor of funk. She's been a star artist on his MoFunk Records ever since, and they've collabed on countless tracks, channeling West Coast energy with a heavy dose of G-funk, sunny lyrics and upbeat, roller disco-ready rhythms.

Her latest release is an upbeat nod to classic West Coast funk, produced by Middleton, and follows her February 2022 groovy, collab-filled album, On Repeat.

Shiro Schwarz

Shiro Schwarz is a Mexico City-based duo, consisting of Pammela Rojas and Rafael Marfil, who helped establish a modern funk scene in the richly creative Mexican metropolis. On "Electrify" — originally released in 2016 on Fat Beats Records and reissued in 2021 by MoFunk — Shiro Schwarz's vocals playfully contrast each other, floating over an insistent, upbeat bassline and an '80s throwback electro-funk rhythm with synth flourishes.

Their music manages to be both nostalgic and futuristic — and impossible to sit still to. 2021 single "Be Kind" is sweet, mellow and groovy, perfect chic lounge funk. Shiro Schwarz’s latest track, the joyfully nostalgic "Hey DJ," is a collab with funkstress Saucy Lady and U-Key.

L'Impératrice

L'Impératrice (the empress in French) are a six-piece Parisian group serving an infectiously joyful blend of French pop, nu-disco, funk and psychedelia. Flore Benguigui's vocals are light and dreamy, yet commanding of your attention, while lyrics have a feminist touch.

During their energetic live sets, L'Impératrice members Charles de Boisseguin and Hagni Gwon (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), and Tom Daveau (drums) deliver extended instrumental jam sessions to expand and connect their music. Gaugué emphasizes the thick funky bass, and Benguigui jumps around the stage while sounding like an angel. L’Impératrice’s latest album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, is a sunny, playful French disco journey.

Franc Moody

Franc Moody's bio fittingly describes their music as "a soul funk and cosmic disco sound." The London outfit was birthed by friends Ned Franc and Jon Moody in the early 2010s, when they were living together and throwing parties in North London's warehouse scene. In 2017, the group grew to six members, including singer and multi-instrumentalist Amber-Simone.

Their music feels at home with other electro-pop bands like fellow Londoners Jungle and Aussie act Parcels. While much of it is upbeat and euphoric, Franc Moody also dips into the more chilled, dreamy realm, such as the vibey, sultry title track from their recently released Into the Ether.

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Living Legends is a series that spotlights icons in music still going strong today. This week, GRAMMY.com spoke with Billy Idol about his latest EP,  Cage, and continuing to rock through decades of changing tastes.

Billy Idol is a true rock 'n' roll survivor who has persevered through cultural shifts and personal struggles. While some may think of Idol solely for "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding," the singer's musical influences span genres and many of his tunes are less turbo-charged than his '80s hits would belie.  

Idol first made a splash in the latter half of the '70s with the British punk band Generation X. In the '80s, he went on to a solo career combining rock, pop, and punk into a distinct sound that transformed him and his musical partner, guitarist Steve Stevens, into icons. They have racked up multiple GRAMMY nominations, in addition to one gold, one double platinum, and four platinum albums thanks to hits like "Cradle Of Love," "Flesh For Fantasy," and "Eyes Without A Face." 

But, unlike many legacy artists, Idol is anything but a relic. Billy continues to produce vital Idol music by collaborating with producers and songwriters — including Miley Cyrus — who share his forward-thinking vision. He will play a five-show Vegas residency in November, and filmmaker Jonas Akerlund is working on a documentary about Idol’s life. 

His latest release is Cage, the second in a trilogy of annual four-song EPs. The title track is a classic Billy Idol banger expressing the desire to free himself from personal constraints and live a better life. Other tracks on Cage incorporate metallic riffing and funky R&B grooves. 

Idol continues to reckon with his demons — they both grappled with addiction during the '80s — and the singer is open about those struggles on the record and the page. (Idol's 2014 memoir Dancing With Myself, details a 1990 motorcycle accident that nearly claimed a leg, and how becoming a father steered him to reject hard drugs. "Bitter Taste," from his last EP, The Roadside, reflects on surviving the accident.)

Although Idol and Stevens split in the late '80s — the skilled guitarist fronted Steve Stevens & The Atomic Playboys, and collaborated with Michael Jackson, Rick Ocasek, Vince Neil, and Harold Faltermeyer (on the GRAMMY-winning "Top Gun Anthem") —  their common history and shared musical bond has been undeniable. The duo reunited in 2001 for an episode of "VH1 Storytellers" and have been back in the saddle for two decades. Their union remains one of the strongest collaborations in rock 'n roll history.

While there is recognizable personnel and a distinguishable sound throughout a lot of his work, Billy Idol has always pushed himself to try different things. Idol discusses his musical journey, his desire to constantly move forward, and the strong connection that he shares with Stevens. 

Steve has said that you like to mix up a variety of styles, yet everyone assumes you're the "Rebel Yell"/"White Wedding" guy. But if they really listen to your catalog, it's vastly different.

Yeah, that's right. With someone like Steve Stevens, and then back in the day Keith Forsey producing... [Before that] Generation X actually did move around inside punk rock. We didn't stay doing just the Ramones two-minute music. We actually did a seven-minute song. [Laughs]. We did always mix things up. 

Then when I got into my solo career, that was the fun of it. With someone like Steve, I knew what he could do. I could see whatever we needed to do, we could nail it. The world was my oyster musically. 

"Cage" is a classic-sounding Billy Idol rocker, then "Running From The Ghost" is almost metal, like what the Devil's Playground album was like back in the mid-2000s. "Miss Nobody" comes out of nowhere with this pop/R&B flavor. What inspired that?

We really hadn't done anything like that since something like "Flesh For Fantasy" [which] had a bit of an R&B thing about it. Back in the early days of Billy Idol, "Hot In The City" and "Mony Mony" had girls [singing] on the backgrounds. 

We always had a bit of R&B really, so it was actually fun to revisit that. We just hadn't done anything really quite like that for a long time. That was one of the reasons to work with someone like Sam Hollander [for the song "Rita Hayworth"] on The Roadside. We knew we could go [with him] into an R&B world, and he's a great songwriter and producer. That's the fun of music really, trying out these things and seeing if you can make them stick. 

I listen to new music by veteran artists and debate that with some people. I'm sure you have those fans that want their nostalgia, and then there are some people who will embrace the newer stuff. Do you find it’s a challenge to reach people with new songs?

Obviously, what we're looking for is, how do we somehow have one foot in the past and one foot into the future? We’ve got the best of all possible worlds because that has been the modus operandi of Billy Idol. 

You want to do things that are true to you, and you don't just want to try and do things that you're seeing there in the charts today. I think that we're achieving it with things like "Running From The Ghost" and "Cage" on this new EP. I think we’re managing to do both in a way. 

**Obviously, "Running From The Ghost" is about addiction, all the stuff that you went through, and in "Cage" you’re talking about  freeing yourself from a lot of personal shackles. Was there any one moment in your life that made you really thought I have to not let this weigh me down anymore?**

I mean, things like the motorcycle accident I had, that was a bit of a wake up call way back. It was 32 years ago. But there were things like that, years ago, that gradually made me think about what I was doing with my life. I didn't want to ruin it, really. I didn't want to throw it away, and it made [me] be less cavalier. 

I had to say to myself, about the drugs and stuff, that I've been there and I've done it. There’s no point in carrying on doing it. You couldn't get any higher. You didn't want to throw your life away casually, and I was close to doing that. It took me a bit of time, but then gradually I was able to get control of myself to a certain extent [with] drugs and everything. And I think Steve's done the same thing. We're on a similar path really, which has been great because we're in the same boat in terms of lyrics and stuff. 

So a lot of things like that were wake up calls. Even having grandchildren and just watching my daughter enlarging her family and everything; it just makes you really positive about things and want to show a positive side to how you're feeling, about where you're going. We've lived with the demons so long, we've found a way to live with them. We found a way to be at peace with our demons, in a way. Maybe not completely, but certainly to where we’re enjoying what we do and excited about it.

[When writing] "Running From The Ghost" it was easy to go, what was the ghost for us? At one point, we were very drug addicted in the '80s. And Steve in particular is super sober [now]. I mean, I still vape pot and stuff. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but it’s incredible. All I want to be able to do is have a couple of glasses of wine at a restaurant or something. I can do that now.

I think working with people that are super talented, you just feel confident. That is a big reason why you open up and express yourself more because you feel comfortable with what's around you.

Did you watch Danny Boyle's recent Sex Pistols mini-series?

I did, yes.

You had a couple of cameos; well, an actor who portrayed you did. How did you react to it? How accurate do you think it was in portraying that particular time period?

I love Jonesy’s book, I thought his book was incredible. It's probably one of the best bio books really. It was incredible and so open. I was looking forward to that a lot.

It was as if [the show] kind of stayed with Steve [Jones’ memoir] about halfway through, and then departed from it. [John] Lydon, for instance, was never someone I ever saw acting out; he's more like that today. I never saw him do something like jump up in the room and run around going crazy. The only time I saw him ever do that was when they signed the recording deal with Virgin in front of Buckingham Palace. Whereas Sid Vicious was always acting out; he was always doing something in a horrible way or shouting at someone. I don't remember John being like that. I remember him being much more introverted.

But then I watched interviews with some of the actors about coming to grips with the parts they were playing. And they were saying, we knew punk rock happened but just didn't know any of the details. So I thought well, there you go. If ["Pistol" is]  informing a lot of people who wouldn't know anything about punk rock, maybe that's what's good about it.

Maybe down the road John Lydon will get the chance to do John's version of the Pistols story. Maybe someone will go a lot deeper into it and it won't be so surface. But maybe you needed this just to get people back in the flow.

We had punk and metal over here in the States, but it feels like England it was legitimately more dangerous. British society was much more rigid.

It never went [as] mega in America. It went big in England. It exploded when the Pistols did that interview with [TV host Bill] Grundy, that lorry truck driver put his boot through his own TV, and all the national papers had "the filth and the fury" [headlines].

We went from being unknown to being known overnight. We waited a year, Generation X. We even told them [record labels] no for nine months to a year. Every record company wanted their own punk rock group. So it went really mega in England, and it affected the whole country – the style, the fashions, everything. I mean, the Ramones were massive in England. Devo had a No. 1 song [in England] with "Satisfaction" in '77. Actually, Devo was as big as or bigger than the Pistols.

You were ahead of the pop-punk thing that happened in the late '90s, and a lot of it became tongue-in-cheek by then. It didn't have the same sense of rebelliousness as the original movement. It was more pop.

It had become a style. There was a famous book in England called Revolt Into Style — and that's what had happened, a revolt that turned into style which then they were able to duplicate in their own way. Even recently, Billie Joe [Armstrong] did his own version of "Gimme Some Truth," the Lennon song we covered way back in 1977.

When we initially were making [punk] music, it hadn't become accepted yet. It was still dangerous and turned into a style that people were used to. We were still breaking barriers.

You have a band called Generation Sex with Steve Jones and Paul Cook. I assume you all have an easier time playing Pistols and Gen X songs together now and not worrying about getting spit on like back in the '70s?

Yeah, definitely. When I got to America I told the group I was putting it together, "No one spits at the audience."

We had five years of being spat on [in the UK], and it was revolting. And they spat at you if they liked you. If they didn't like it they smashed your gear up. One night, I remember I saw blood on my T-shirt, and I think Joe Strummer got meningitis when spit went in his mouth.

You had to go through a lot to become successful, it wasn't like you just kind of got up there and did a couple of gigs. I don't think some young rock bands really get that today.

With punk going so mega in England, we definitely got a leg up. We still had a lot of work to get where we got to, and rightly so because you find out that you need to do that. A lot of groups in the old days would be together three to five years before they ever made a record, and that time is really important. In a way, what was great about punk rock for me was it was very much a learning period. I really learned a lot [about] recording music and being in a group and even writing songs.

Then when I came to America, it was a flow, really. I also really started to know what I wanted Billy Idol to be. It took me a little bit, but I kind of knew what I wanted Billy Idol to be. And even that took a while to let it marinate.

You and Miley Cyrus have developed a good working relationship in the last several years. How do you think her fans have responded to you, and your fans have responded to her?

I think they're into it. It's more the record company that she had didn't really get "Night Crawling"— it was one of the best songs on Plastic Hearts, and I don't think they understood that. They wanted to go with Dua Lipa, they wanted to go with the modern, young acts, and I don't think they realized that that song was resonating with her fans. Which is a shame really because, with Andrew Watt producing, it's a hit song.

But at the same time, I enjoyed doing it. It came out really good and it's very Billy Idol. In fact, I think it’s more Billy Idol than Miley Cyrus. I think it shows you where Andrew Watt was. He was excited about doing a Billy Idol track. She's fun to work with. She’s a really great person and she works at her singing — I watched her rehearsing for the Super Bowl performance she gave. She rehearsed all Saturday morning, all Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning and it was that afternoon. I have to admire her fortitude. She really cares.

I remember when you went on "Viva La Bam" back in 2005 and decided to give Bam Margera’s Lamborghini a new sunroof by taking a power saw to it. Did he own that car? Was that a rental?

I think it was his car.

Did he get over it later on?

He loved it. [Laughs] He’s got a wacky sense of humor. He’s fantastic, actually. I’m really sorry to see what he's been going through just lately. He's going through a lot, and I wish him the best. He's a fantastic person, and it's a shame that he's struggling so much with his addictions. I know what it's like. It's not easy.

Musically, what is the synergy like with you guys during the past 10 years, doing Kings and Queens of the Underground and this new stuff? What is your working relationship like now in this more sober, older, mature version of you two as opposed to what it was like back in the '80s?

In lots of ways it’s not so different because we always wrote the songs together, we always talked about what we're going to do together. It was just that we were getting high at the same time.We're just not getting [that way now] but we're doing all the same things.

We're still talking about things, still [planning] things:What are we going to do next? How are we going to find new people to work with? We want to find new producers. Let's be a little bit more timely about putting stuff out.That part of our relationship is the same, you know what I mean? That never got affected. We just happened to be overloading in the '80s.

The relationship’s… matured and it's carrying on being fruitful, and I think that's pretty amazing. Really, most people don't get to this place. Usually, they hate each other by now. [Laughs] We also give each other space. We're not stopping each other doing things outside of what we’re working on together. All of that enables us to carry on working together. I love and admire him. I respect him. He's been fantastic. I mean, just standing there on stage with him is always a treat. And he’s got an immensely great sense of humor. I think that's another reason why we can hang together after all this time because we've got the sense of humor to enable us to go forward.

There's a lot of fan reaction videos online, and I noticed a lot of younger women like "Rebel Yell" because, unlike a lot of other '80s alpha male rock tunes, you're talking about satisfying your lover.

It was about my girlfriend at the time, Perri Lister. It was about how great I thought she was, how much I was in love with her, and how great women are, how powerful they are.

It was a bit of a feminist anthem in a weird way. It was all about how relationships can free you and add a lot to your life. It was a cry of love, nothing to do with the Civil War or anything like that. Perri was a big part of my life, a big part of being Billy Idol. I wanted to write about it. I'm glad that's the effect.

Is there something you hope people get out of the songs you've been doing over the last 10 years? Do you find yourself putting out a message that keeps repeating?

Well, I suppose, if anything, is that you can come to terms with your life, you can keep a hold of it. You can work your dreams into reality in a way and, look, a million years later, still be enjoying it.

The only reason I'm singing about getting out of the cage is because I kicked out of the cage years ago. I joined Generation X when I said to my parents, "I'm leaving university, and I'm joining a punk rock group." And they didn't even know what a punk rock group was. Years ago, I’d write things for myself that put me on this path, so that maybe in 2022 I could sing something like "Cage" and be owning this territory and really having a good time. This is the life I wanted.

The original UK punk movement challenged societal norms. Despite all the craziness going on throughout the world, it seems like a lot of modern rock bands are afraid to do what you guys were doing. Do you think we'll see a shift in that?

Yeah.  Art usually reacts to things, so I would think eventually there will be a massive reaction to the pop music that’s taken over — the middle of the road music, and then this kind of right wing politics. There will be a massive reaction if there's not already one. I don’t know where it will come from exactly. You never know who's gonna do [it].

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Country music's evolution is well represented in the 2023 GRAMMY nominees for Best Country Solo Performance. From crossover pop hooks to red-dirt outlaw roots, the genre's most celebrated elements are on full display — thanks to rising stars, leading ladies and country icons.

Longtime hitmaker Miranda Lambert delivered a soulful performance on the rootsy ballad "In His Arms," an arrangement as sparing as the windswept west Texas highlands where she co-wrote the song. Viral newcomer Zach Bryan dug into similar organic territory on the Oklahoma side of the Red River for "Something in the Orange," his voice accompanied with little more than an acoustic guitar.

Two of country's 2010s breakout stars are clearly still shining, too, as Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini both received Best Country Solo Performance GRAMMY nods. Morris channeled the determination that drove her leap-of-faith move from Texas to Nashville for the playful clap-along "Circles Around This Town," while Ballerini brought poppy hooks with a country edge on the infectiously upbeat "HEARTFIRST."

Rounding out the category is the one and only Willie Nelson, who paid tribute to his late friend Billy Joe Shaver with a cover of "Live Forever" — a fitting sentiment for the 89-year-old legend, who is approaching his eighth decade in the business. 

As the excitement builds for the 2023 GRAMMYs on Feb. 5, 2023, let's take a closer look at this year's nominees for Best Country Solo Performance.

Kelsea Ballerini — "HEARTFIRST"

In the tradition of Shania Twain, Faith Hill and Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini represents Nashville's sunnier side — and her single "HEARTFIRST" is a slice of bright, uptempo, confectionary country-pop for the ages.

Ballerini sings about leaning into a carefree crush with her heart on her sleeve, pushing aside her reservations and taking a risk on love at first sight. The scene plays out in a bar room and a back seat, as she sweeps nimbly through the verses and into a shimmering chorus, when the narrator decides she's ready to "wake up in your T-shirt." 

There are enough steel guitar licks to let you know you're listening to a country song, but the story and melody are universal. "HEARTFIRST" is Ballerini's third GRAMMY nod, but first in the Best Country Solo Performance category.

Zach Bryan — "Something In The Orange"

Zach Bryan blew into Music City seemingly from nowhere in 2017, when his original song "Heading South" — recorded on an iPhone — went viral. Then an active officer in the U.S. Navy, the Oklahoma native chased his muse through music during his downtime, striking a chord with country music fans on stark songs led by his acoustic guitar and affecting vocals.

After his honorable discharge in 2021, Bryan began his music career in earnest, and in 2022 released "Something in the Orange," a haunting ballad that stakes a convincing claim to the territory between Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell in both sonics and songwriting. Slashing slide guitar drives home the song's heartbreak, as Bryan pines for a lover whose tail lights have long since vanished over the horizon. 

"Something In The Orange" marks Bryan's first-ever GRAMMY nomination.

Miranda Lambert — "In His Arms"

Miranda Lambert is the rare, chart-topping contemporary country artist who does more than pay lip service to the genre's rural American roots. "In His Arms" originally surfaced on 2021's The Marfa Tapes, a casual recording Lambert made with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall in Marfa, Texas — a tiny arts enclave in the middle of the west Texas high desert.

In this proper studio version — recorded for her 2022 album, Palomino — Lambert retains the structure and organic feel of the mostly acoustic song; light percussion and soothing atmospherics keep her emotive vocals front and center. A native Texan herself, Lambert sounds fully at home on "In His Arms."

Lambert is the only Best Country Solo Performance nominee who is nominated in all four Country Field categories in 2023. To date, Miranda Lambert has won 3 GRAMMYs and received 27 nominations overall. 

Maren Morris — "Circles Around This Town"

When Maren Morris found herself uninspired and dealing with writer's block, she went back to what inspired her to move to Nashville nearly a decade ago — and out came "Circles Around This Town," the lead single from her 2022 album Humble Quest.

Written in one of her first in-person songwriting sessions since the pandemic, Morris has called "Circles Around This Town" her "most autobiographical song" to date; she even recreated her own teenage bedroom for the song's video. As she looks back to her Texas beginnings and the life she left for Nashville, Morris' voice soars over anthemic, yet easygoing production. 

Morris last won a GRAMMY for Best Country Solo Performance in 2017, when her song "My Church" earned the singer her first GRAMMY. To date, Maren Morris has won one GRAMMY and received 17 nominations overall.

Willie Nelson — "Live Forever"

Country music icon Willie Nelson is no stranger to the GRAMMYs, and this year he aims to add to his collection of 10 gramophones. He earned another three nominations for 2023 — bringing his career total to 56 — including a Best Country Solo Performance nod for "Live Forever."

Nelson's performance of "Live Forever," the lead track of the 2022 tribute album Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver, is a faithful rendition of Shaver's signature song. Still, Nelson puts his own twist on the tune, recruiting Lucinda Williams for backing vocals and echoing the melody with the inimitable tone of his nylon-string Martin guitar. 

Shaver, an outlaw country pioneer who passed in 2020 at 81 years old, never had any hits of his own during his lifetime. But plenty of his songs were still heard, thanks to stars like Elvis Presley, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. Nelson was a longtime friend and frequent collaborator of Shaver's — and now has a GRAMMY nom to show for it.

2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Nominees List