Don Toliver, who has had five consecutive top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 dating back to March 2020, is on the entry list of 331 artists vying for a best new artist nomination at the 2027 Grammy Awards — while Megan Moroney, who won new artist of the year at the CMA Awards in November 2024, is not.
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Toliver notched his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 earlier this year with Octane, which represented a significant breakthrough in his career, even though his prior successes were nothing to sneeze at.
The language in the 69th Grammy Awards Rules & Guidelines booklet governing this category states: “While there will be no specified maximum number of previous releases, the screening committees will be charged with determining whether the artist had attained [a] high degree of impact in the music industry prior to the eligibility year. Such a determination would result in disqualification.”
Sam Fender, who was nominated for best new artist at the Brit Awards in February 2020, is eligible here, on the grounds that “Rein Me In,” his collab with Olivia Dean, became his first hit on the Billboard Hot 100. (Dean won in the category at the Grammy ceremony in February.)
The academy this year upped the number of times an artist can be entered in this category from three to four. That was good news for Ella Langley and Ken Carson, both of whom had been entered three times previously in the category and would have been disqualified under the old rules. They both made the entry list for the upcoming Grammy awards, as did Geese, which had been entered twice in the category, while its lead singer, Cameron Winter, was entered last year following the release of his solo debut album. Those three total entries would likewise have made Geese ineligible under the old rules.
Four of the artists who were nominated for best new artist at the MTV VMAs on Sept. 27 – Sienna Spiro (who won at the VMAs), Bella Kay, Malcolm Todd and Stella Lefty – are on the Grammy entry list. The other two VMA nominees, Cortis and Myles Smith, are not.
Three of the acts who are nominated for new artist of the year at the CMA Awards on Nov. 18 – Avery Anna, Carter Faith and Stephen Wilson Jr. – are on the Grammy list. The other two CMA nominees, Tucker Wetmore and Emily Ann Roberts, are not.
Kwn and Monaleo, who were nominated for best new artist at the BET Awards on June 28, are both on the entry list there.
Audrey Hobert, 27, and her younger brother Malcolm Todd, 23, are separately entered in the category. Violet Grohl, daughter of 19-time Grammy winner, Dave Grohl, is also listed, as is North West, daughter of 24-time Grammy winner Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian.
The Last Dinner Party, which won best new artist at the Brit Awards in March 2025, is on this year’s Grammy list, as are The Red Clay Strays, which won vocal group of the year at the CMA Awards in November 2025, and Langley, who was nominated for new artist of the year at the CMA Awards at the 2025 ceremony. (She lost there to Zach Top but is seen as the front-runner, or perhaps co-front-runner with Spiro, to win here.)
Other prominent artists who are on the entry list for best new artist at the upcoming Grammys, not already named in this report, include CMAT, Yeat, Yung Miami, Fcukers, Moriah, Role Model, Muna, Miles Caton, October London, Key Glock, Magnus Ferrell, Dexter and the Moonrocks, The Beaches, Holly Humberstone, Suki Waterhouse, Rod Wave, Treaty Oak Revival, Alana Springsteen, Bossman Dlow, Remi Wolf and Kashus Culpepper.
Dominic Fike was bounced from the category for having a previous Grammy nomination, as a featured artist on the deluxe edition of Justin Bieber’s Justice five years ago.
Other artists thought to be borderline cases who did not make the eligibility list include Ravyn Lenae, Mariah the Scientist and Dijon.
ADÉLA was not submitted for best new artist, despite being eligible. Her team is likely holding off until the 2028 ceremony, when her debut album PRIMA will be eligible for consideration. (Since there is a limit to the number of times an artist can be entered, labels and artist teams don’t want to “waste” an entry when they are not likely to be nominated.)
The rules in this category have changed over the years as the Recording Academy has struggled to strike just the right balance: not too strict, not too lenient. In the past, the academy has sometimes disqualified artists for reasons that may now seem petty; take Whitney Houston, who had recorded a couple of duets prior to releasing her debut album and was therefore deemed ineligible, or singer-songwriter Richard Marx, who had contributed a song to a soundtrack. Other times, the academy has leaned too far in the other direction. Robert Goulet won in 1963, two years after he became a star in the Broadway musical Camelot. When Alessia Cara claimed the prize in 2018, it was nearly two years after her ballad “Here” hit the top five on the Hot 100.
Three past winners for best new artist – Crosby, Stills & Nash (who won in 1970), Jody Watley (1988) and Lauryn Hill (1999) – wouldn’t be eligible under today’s rules. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were all already known for their work in previous groups, as were Watley (in Shalamar) and Hill (Fugees).
A total 331 artists are eligible for best new artist this year, down slightly from the 337 who were on the entry list last year. There were 368 entries in the category in 2022, 405 in 2023 and 323 in 2024.
First-round voting opened on Monday (Oct. 12). Voters have until Oct. 22 to make their choices. Nominations will be announced on Nov. 16. Final-round voting runs from Dec. 10 through Jan. 7. The winners will be revealed on Feb. 7 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.