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The Grammy Awards are this weekend. I don't know how I wasn't nominated, but a bunch of superstars did get nominations. Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga among others up for awards such as Song, Record and Album of the Year. NPR Music's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento will be watching for a different category, Best New Artist.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: One of the biggest misconceptions about the Best New Artist Grammy is that it's an award for debut artists. Sometimes it's true. But in reality, Best New Artist is for musicians who are having a breakthrough moment and making a big cultural impact. Take the English singer Olivia Dean.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAN I NEED")
OLIVIA DEAN: (Singing) Already gave you the time and the place, so don't be shy.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: As she told NPR in the fall...
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DEAN: I've been writing music and putting songs out for almost 10 years now. I feel like I've always been here. But at the same time, it feels like suddenly everybody is sort of looking at me, which is both amazing and also like, ah.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So what happened in 2025? Part of it is that her single, "Man I Need," had a huge moment on TikTok. According to the app, it's been used in over 1.7 million videos, which quickly boosted the song on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. And that's not isolated to Olivia Dean. In fact, it's kind of a common denominator across all eight Best New Artist nominees.
ROB STEINER: If there's anything that speaks to kind of TikTok's power right now, I think it's this category in particular, for sure.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's Rob Steiner. He's a media analyst with Luminate, a company that tracks music industry data. Last year, Luminate partnered with TikTok on a music impact report. It found that 84% of songs that entered the Billboard Global 200 chart in 2024 went viral on TikTok first, like "Espresso" by previous Best New Artist nominee Sabrina Carpenter.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ESPRESSO")
SABRINA CARPENTER: (Singing) Now he's thinking about me every night, oh. Is it that sweet?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Steiner says chart crossover has a lot to do with the fact that TikTok has always been a music-based platform. Songs fuel the biggest trends on the platform, from popular dances to memes. It's also a huge driver of music discovery.
STEINER: A lot of the trends that we see on TikTok are audio-based. Like, obviously, video is part of it. But, like, the sound is a huge aspect of it as well.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Two of the artists nominated for Best New Artist this year were actually TikTokkers first. Gen Z pop star Addison Rae gained a huge following around 2019 for posting videos of herself dancing to viral songs. By 2025, she used her popularity to launch her music career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DIET PEPSI")
ADDISON RAE: (Singing) When we drive in your car, I'm your baby. So sweet. Losing all my innocence in the back seat.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: The same is true of Alex Warren. He went from posting pranking videos online to releasing a romantic ballad that became a staple on wedding playlists. And it climbed to the very top of the charts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ORDINARY")
ALEX WARREN: (Singing) You're taking me out of the ordinary.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: For Best New Artist nominees who already built careers outside of the app, there's still a lot to gain. The indie pop band The Marías has been around for 10 years, but their song "No One Noticed" took off on TikTok.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO ONE NOTICED")
THE MARÍAS: (Singing) Maybe I lost my mind.
STEINER: The singer, María, she essentially leaked the song on her TikTok account. As a result, this track they had that wasn't planned on being a single or any bigger promotion, it ended up being their biggest song.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Steiner says there's no rhyme or reason to what makes a song go viral. But if the Best New Artist nominees this year can show us anything, it's that success on TikTok is now being seriously recognized by the Recording Academy.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE MARÍAS SONG, "NO ONE NOTICED") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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