Every year, a countless number of new singers impress the music world with their talent and a select few are nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. Best New Artist is one of the most promising awards at the Grammys because it can lead to a lifetime of fame for the recipient. This year, Olivia Dean, Sombr, The Marías, Lola Young, Alex Warren, Leon Thomas III, Addison Rae, and Katseye were all nominated for this award.
Olivia Dean has recently grown to be popular amongst Gen Z and Millennial women who listen to R&B and Soul Pop. Growing up in London with musical parents, Dean has been singing her whole life. On Nov. 14, 2025, she announced her “The Art of Loving” tour, but by Nov. 18, 2025, she had to add more dates in Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Toronto, and New York due to all of her shows being sold out in minutes. Her second album, “The Art of Loving” started at number one on the UK albums chart in October 2025. The song “Man I Need” off the album surpassed 200 million streams on Spotify.
Sombr has also been growing in popularity amongst Gen-Z listeners throughout the past year for. In 2023, at age 17, Sombr’s song “Caroline” went viral on TikTok which kickstarted his career. Now, at only 20 years old, Sombr’s hit songs “Undressed” and “Back to Friends” have combined streams of over 1 billion. At the 2025 MTV Video awards, he received the award for Best Alternative Video for his song “Back to Friends”.
In comparison to these newcomers, The Marías have been a striking force in the indie and alternative music genre since they were formed in Los Angeles in 2016. Lead singer Maria Zardoya and drummer/producer Josh Conway founded the band and later recruited their guitarist Jesse Perlman and keyboardist Edward James. Before this nomination, The Marías had received two Grammy nominations: Best Engineered Album for their 2021 album, “Cinema” and another of the same category for their feature on Bad Bunny’s 2022 album, “Un Verano Sin Ti”.
The other nominees have some notable achievements as well, not only coming to fame the traditional way. Both Alex Warren and Addison Rae were originally famous for being members of the 2019 TikTok Hype House, which brought them into the public eye and became the foundation of their fame. Warren wrote the song “Ordinary”, which broke the record for the longest-running number one song on the Pop Airplay Chart in mid-2025; Rae’s hit song “Diet Pepsi” has reached number 54 on Billboard Hot 100. Another one of the nominees, Leon Thomas III, started off as a child actor who starred in many Nickelodeon shows like Victorious and iCarly. Thomas already has a Grammy for his collaboration with SZA on the 2022 song, “Snooze”. Similar to Thomas, Lola Young has also taken a more traditional route to fame through early talent recognition in the UK. Her hit song, “Messy” took the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks straight in Jan. of 2025.The Popstar group, Katseye has their own Netflix documentary, “Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE”.
All of these artists contribute so much to the music industry, and clearly deserve the nomination. Who do you want to win? The Grammy’s are on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, so be sure to watch to find out who wins this award!
