Samara Joy is the first jazz singer to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in twelve years.
Samara Joy won the award for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
The 23-year-old American jazz singer received the coveted award on Sunday, February 5 at an awards ceremony held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles from last year's category winner, Olivia Rodrigo.
Samara Joy has been named the winner of the Best New Artist category at the 2023 Grammy Awards beating artists such as Måneskin, Anitta, Latto, Wet Leg and Omar Apollo.
"Thank you very much for this honor, thank you to everyone who listened and supported me," she said in her speech
He then commented on the other nominees: “All of you are a great source of inspiration because of who you are. You express yourself using authentically who you are. So I am here, simply because I am myself, simply because I am who I was born to be. I'm so grateful."
Samara Joy is the sixth woman in a row to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, following in the footsteps of Alessia Cara, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion and Olivia Rodrigo.
She is also the first jazz singer to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist since Esperanza Spalding in 2011.
Samara Joy also won the award for Best Jazz Album at this year's event with her debut album "Linger Awhile" (Verve Records).
At just 23 years old, Samara Joy has a unique ability to revive beloved and classic songs for a new audience, as evidenced by her growing following on TikTok. Music has always had a defining presence in her family.
Her grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, led the famous Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes, and her father toured with the legendary Andrae Crouch.
Although Samara Joy, who was born in the Bronx, New York, enjoyed the process of exploring music history from an early age, she only discovered her passion for jazz when she was asked to join her high school's jazz orchestra.
Samara Joy is the winner of the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition, and holds a BA from State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase College's Jazz Studies Program and is a recipient of the Ella Fitzgerald Fellowship.
In 2022, Samara Joy wowed crowds at jazz clubs, festivals, and cultural institutions around the world, including her "sparkling, auspicious debut" (NPR) at the Newport Jazz Festival, and appeared on television shows such as the "Today Show" , "The Kelly Clarkson Show" and Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show."
The New York Times praised the "silky-voiced rising star" who is "helping jazz take a youthful direction," while NPR All Things Considered called her "a classic jazz singer from a new generation."
Samara Joy's debut album, Linger Awhile, in addition to its Grammy and NAACP nominations, appeared on the best albums of the year lists of media such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Ebony, Philadelphia Inquirer , Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Slate, JazzTimes, WBGO, WRTI, KEXP and more.
