Ranking the Grammy's choices for Best New Artist from 1998 to 2018

The 2001 Best New Artist nominees, which included Brad Paisley, Papa Roach, Jill Scott and Sisqó, was one of the odder groupings. The fact that country singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne took home the prize, her only Grammy Award ever, is even odder, given the fact that she had already released six artist albums prior to winning. While she’s been releasing albums for 30 years now, Lynne’s Best New Artist Award was a miss for Grammy voters, but a win for Lynne overall.

It may have been “All About That Bass” in 2015, but 2016 was the key year for Meghan Trainor. Released in 2014 and again in 2015 as part of her debut album, “Title,” “All About That Bass” earned Trainor two Grammy nominations, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, in 2015, setting her on the path to win Best New Artist on year later. The inescapable track, which borders on novelty hit, along with Trainor herself, are prime examples of the Grammy’s penchant for safe picks.

Of the artists nominated alongside Zac Brown Band at the 2010 Grammys, MGMT were the only real competitors. The others — Keri Hilson, Silversun Pickups and The Ting Tings — stood no chance. The country-loving Grammy voters gave the title to Zac Brown Band, who became the fourth country music act to win the award.

As Evanescence was accepting its Best New Artist Award, rap icon 50 Cent crashed the stage and (softly) interrupted the band’s speech. He should have grabbed the Grammy on his walk offstage. You were robbed, 50!

While she’s best known for “I Don’t Want to Wait,” which served as the iconic opening theme song to teen drama TV show “Dawson’s Creek,” Paula Cole put up a good fight at the 1998 Grammys. She was nominated in all “big four” categories that year, but her Best New Artist trophy remains her sole win.

If we’re being honest here, this award really went to fun.’s in-house super-producer/ songwriter Jack Antonoff. The rest of the band was just there to collect the trophy. While the group took home the Song of the Year Award, which probably should have gone to Miguel or Carly Rae Jepsen that year, for the omnipresent “We Are Young,” fun. is forgettable.

Simply put, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis robbed Kendrick Lamar, a superior rapper, lyricist and artist, threefold: The Seattle duo beat out the Compton rapper for Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Album and Best New Artist. (Macklemore himself eventually texted Lamar admitting so.) But they made up for it at the awards show when they performed “Same Love,” which supports gay and lesbian rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage, at the 2014 Grammys as a mass wedding of gay and heterosexual couples took place simultaneously.

In 2005, Maroon 5 beat out Kanye West for Best New Artist, which alone should cancel the L.A. pop rock band. While Maroon 5 are headlining this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, West towers over them in Grammys with 21 wins to their three.

As one of the breakout artists of 2017, Alessia Cara made history at the 2018 Grammys. She notched four big nominations that year, including Song of the Year and Best Music Video for “1-800-273-8255,” her collaboration with rapper Logic, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Stay” with EDM giant Zedd. While she lost those categories, she took home the Best New Artist title, becoming the first Canadian artist to win the award. It was a major moment for Cara and our neighbors up north.

Indie folk singer Bon Iver, pronounced “Bone-ee-VARE,” shocked the music industry with his upset win for Best New Artist, beating out huge acts like Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, Skrillex and The Band Perry. The internet was so stunned and confused by Bon Iver’s win that trolls launched a Tumblr site compiling nasty tweets and the dedicated Twitter handle Who Is Bonnie Bear?, which mocked peoples’ common mispronunciation of the group’s name. Bon Iver has remained indie since winning big, but he has landed high up on the Billboard charts.

Esperanza Spalding’s Grammy win is impressive simply for the fact that a bona fide jazz artist won the category, which notoriously skews toward safer pop acts. In 2011, she became the first jazz artist to win for Best New Artist, her first Grammy ever, and beat out mega pop stars like Justin Bieber and Drake and huge rock acts like Florence & The Machine and Mumford & Sons. The fact that she remained loyal to the esoteric genre speaks volumes about her commitment to the sound and her craft.

One of the definitive artists of the aughts, Norah Jones dominated 2002 with her debut album, “Come Away With Me” and its breakthrough single, “Don’t Know Why,” which won her Album of the Year and Record of the Year, respectively, at the 2003 Grammys. That’s an impressive run for a dynamic sound, a fusion of jazz, country and pop, that falls outside of the pop norm. Something must be right in that formula.

Christina Aguilera rose from the Disney entertainment monolith to become one of the quintessential voices of the teen pop craze of the late ‘90s and early aughts, earning her the title of Pop Princess during her early years. She first broke through as a solo artist via the massive 1999 single “Genie in a Bottle,” the lead single off her multiplatinum self-titled debut album, which turned Grammy voters on to a young Aguilera. While her Grammy win count is surprisingly low, with a total of five awards, her impact on pop music and her inimitable voice have cemented her as one of the greats of her generation.

Two years after winning the “American Idol” crown, country darling Carrie Underwood made her grand debut at the 2007 Grammys, where she took home Best New Artist and Best Female Vocal Country Performance for “Jesus, Take The Wheel”; she performed on the Grammy stage for the first time ever that same year. Today, she’s a Grammy regular, with a total of seven wins and twice as many nominations. Don’t be surprised when you see her hosting the Grammys one day.

R&B/soul singer-songwriter John Legend won his first three Grammys in 2006, setting him on his quest for the EGOT, a rare distinction awarded to those who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. In 2018, he accomplished that feat, becoming one of only 15 people ever to attain an EGOT and the first black man to do so. Today, he’s got 10 Grammy wins and an additional 29 nominations. Grammy voters were on to something, for sure.

UK R&B/pop/soul singer-songwriter Sam Smith was the undeniable champion at the 2015 Grammys. (Just look at that face and armful of gold gramophones!) His 2014 debut album, “In the Lonely Hour,” was the powerhouse that catapulted him to international success. It also secured him three Grammy wins in the “big four” categories, including Best New Artist as well as Record of the Year and Song of the Year for the breakthrough single “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”; he nearly completed the quadfecta, but he lost the Album of Year Award to Beck’s “Morning Phase.” Smith remains one of the top artists in pop today, which means Grammy voters nailed this one perfectly.

Chicago hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper made history and helped break down barriers at the 2017 Grammys. He won three of his seven total nominations that year, including Best Rap Performance and Best New Artist, the first male rap solo artist to win the latter award. He also took home the Best Rap Album title for his 2016 mixtape “Coloring Book,” becoming the first streaming-only album to win the award. While Chance may not have been the direct cause behind the Grammy rule changes — the organization had announced amendments to allow nominations for streaming-only albums prior to the award ceremony — his win signified a larger cultural shift in music consumption trends and habits.

Just imagine how many Grammys Amy Winehouse would have garnered were it not for her untimely death in 2011. On the strength of her 2006 breakout album, “Back to Black,” and its massive hit, “Rehab,” Winehouse nearly swept the 2008 Grammys, taking home five awards, including three of the “big four” categories: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Due to visa issues, she was unable to perform live at the Grammys, but she instead performed via satellite from London. Even as she beamed through time and space, Winehouse sounded like an angel with a little bit of devil in her. Gone too soon.

As one of the most successful artists of the last two decades, Alicia Keys has remained in the spotlight since her 2001 debut album, “Songs in A Minor,” made her an international star and garnered the artist her first Grammys, a total of five awards on her inaugural run. Nearing 20 years since officially hitting the scene, Keys has gone on to collaborate with major artists in diverse genres and cross over into feature film work. She’s a certified musical icon, with a total of 15 Grammy wins — so far — to her name. This year, Keys completes a full circle as she hosts the Grammys for the first time ever.

It’s hard to imagine Adele as a “new artist.” Yet 10 years ago, at the 2009 Grammys, she was the fresh-faced newcomer wowing crowds with her powerful, passionate voice and heartfelt lyrics. That year was massive for Adele: In addition to her two wins, for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Chasing Pavements,” off her 2008 debut album, “19,” she performed on the Grammy stage, alongside Sugarland, for the first time ever. Today, Adele is a Grammy darling. She’s won a total of 15 awards, in addition to 18 other nominations, and is one of only two female solo artists to win Album of the Year twice for their own solo albums — the other being Taylor Swift.

Lauryn Hill’s Grammy streak in 1999 was momentous on both a personal and industry-wide level. She had already won two Grammys in 1997 as part of the rap trio the Fugees. Her phenomenal 1998 debut album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” then led her to her first Grammy Awards as a solo artist, garnering a whopping five wins, including Album of the Year. In doing so, she became the first woman to win five or more awards in a single night, while “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” became the first hip-hop album to earn Album of the Year, solidifying the genre’s much-deserved place within an industry that had relegated it to the sidelines for so long.