Samara Joy is an American jazz singer from the Bronx, fresh off of her first two wins at the 2023 Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album. Joy’s impressive range, powerful vibrato and deep, buttery tone have earned her accolades from both seasoned professionals and jazz newcomers alike.
Similarly to many modern artists, Joy started growing her fanbase online, where the president of Verve Records, Jamie Krents, discovered her. Her presence, Krents said in an interview with the New York Times, “was one of the things that attracted us to her — seeing how genuine and intriguing she was, and how that could shine through on those channels. She’s a normal 23-year-old person who happens to be a world-class singer.”
Joy has been recognized for her talent multiple times before; during college, she became an Ella Fitzgerald Memorial Scholar and won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. Her latest album, “Linger Awhile,” features the song “Nostalgia (The Day I Knew),” for which Joy wrote original lyrics.
Songs to listen to:
The 25-year-old indie/alternative singer Hemlocke Springs initially gained traction through promoting her first single on TikTok, “gimmie all ur luv,” which achieved initial success as a sound on the app.
Springs continued posting videos while studying bioinformatics at Dartmouth College and began teasing her next single, which took off upon its release. Since then, multiple music industry powerhouses have reached out.
“I’m just flabbergasted that people are still listening — that people are walking around with me in their earbuds,” Springs said in an interview with NME. “Grimes and Remi Wolf contacted me, which was weird. And then just today, Steve Lacy reached out and said, ‘You made a classic. Please keep doing what you’re doing.’”
With only three singles out, Hemlocke Springs has over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify and she is already teasing future songs on TikTok.
Songs to listen to:
Latto, a 24-year-old rapper from Atlanta, Georgia, was nominated for Best New Artist in the 2023 Grammy awards.
Although her debut album “Queen of da Souf” came out in 2020, her song “Big Energy” was one of the smash hits of the summer of 2022. In March of the same year, she released her fifth studio album, “777,” which features big names like Childish Gambino, Lil Wayne and 21 Savage.
Even with multiple collaborations under her belt, Latto was still starstruck while attending the Grammy Awards.
“It’s so crazy to be surrounded by such talented peers and witness history. It makes me feel like I’m doing something right” she said in an interview with Vogue. “As a kid, I would watch the Grammys on TV, knowing that I would attend one day!”
Although she did not come away with a win, she fulfilled a lifelong dream and gained widespread recognition.
Songs to listen to:
Ice Spice, a 23-year-old rapper from the Bronx, is currently taking social media by storm and has her finger on the pulse of online culture. From viral TikTok sounds to new slang words (“munch” means “a desperate man”), Ice Spice knows exactly how to maintain the level of virality she has achieved.
She first went viral on Twitter for her “Buss It” challenge verse, and credits that moment for making her realize she wanted to take music seriously. Since then, she has been met with one viral hit after the next.
“I realized virality is really based on the person,” she said of her hit song “Munch (Feelin’ U).” “When you’re a viral type of person, you’re gonna always go viral.”
In the face of her rising success, Ice Spice does not seem to be slowing down. She released her first single of the year on January 6 and her first EP only two weeks later. She is also featured on the viral hyper pop hit “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” by PinkPantheress.
Songs to listen to:
While the name Muni Long might be new to some listeners, the name Priscilla Renea might sound more familiar. The rebrand shot the name Muni Long into viral status, showcasing Renea’s talent as a solo R&B superstar, but her stardom is featured on a much wider scale than many realize.
Priscilla Renea is the name credited under countless hip-hop and pop smash hits, such as Ariana Grande’s “Imagine,” Pitbulls’s “Timber,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Love So Soft” and Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It.”
The songwriter recently began releasing her own music and has been met with resounding success with a 2023 Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist. From her 2022 album “Public Displays of Affection,” the song “Hrs & Hrs” has amassed over 200 million streams, and Muni Long attributes its success to love.
“I think toxicity is what people respond to,” she said in an interview with the LA Times. “So that’s what people are making. But there’s a movement of people responding to love. I honestly feel like that’s why ‘Hrs & Hrs’ did so well.”
Muni Long is Renea’s testament to the power of her own talents, one that is clearly already paying off.
Songs to listen to:
- “Hrs & Hrs”
- “Time Machine”
- “Pain”
The success of Tobe Nwigwe has been a long time coming. While he has proven his talent through multiple album releases, an Emmy nomination and plenty of recognition from other stars, his breakthrough into mainstream culture is just beginning.
Nwigwe, a rapper, actor, and artist from Houston, Texas, was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammy Awards. He started gaining momentum on TikTok in 2022 with his song “ROUND HERE (PART ONE),” catching viewers’ attention with his color-coordinated costumes and sweeping views of huge dance numbers.
Nwigwe’s passion for his music is clear: “I just felt way more comfortable being 100 percent myself in all aspects in my life. I’m going to draw from my real experience and my real life, my real situations and I’m going to put that in my music,” he said in an interview with CBS News.
His hip-hop/rap music is influenced by both his positive outlook on life as well as his religious beliefs. Both Nwigwe and his wife, Marticia “Fat” Nwigwe, were most recently featured on the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” soundtrack.
Songs to listen to:
New Jersey native Fousheé is no stranger to the music business either, and music lovers may be much more familiar with her than they realize. Fousheé has both songwriting credits and background vocals on Steve Lacy’s smash hit song “Bad Habit,” as well as a feature on King Princess’s latest album.
Fousheé’s debut album “softCORE,” a project that marries pop punk with R&B, came out late last year. In its wake, the 29-year-old singer-songwriter has covered major ground.
Her credits on Steve Lacy’s “Gemini Rights” earned her her first Grammy nomination, and she is currently on tour as Lacy’s opening act.
Fousheé already has post-tour plans: “I’m gonna go straight into the album. I’m feeling really inspired right now … I’m just seeing the growth in myself and my writing. I’ve learned all these new things musically. I think Steve has taught me a lot about how to be in this industry,” she said in an interview with GQ.
What she wants fans to know about her, though? Nothing.
“I’d be happy if people don’t know anything about me and they just know my music,” she said. “I like being mysterious.”
Songs to listen to:
- “simmer down”
- “i’m fine”
- “supernova”
The music career of Omah Lay, a 25-year-old Nigerian singer-songwriter, kicked off in 2020 when a single he self-produced, “Holiday,” went viral on social media. From there, Lay released “Get Layd” in 2020.
“I think that was actually the start of everything,” Lay said of the song “Damn” and its 6LACK remix. “That was when we were beginning to realize that, ‘Oh, these people actually f—k with Afrobeats.’ It was a moment,” he told Billboard.
Part of Lay’s mission is to bring Afrobeats and Afropop to mainstream music culture, which he began to achieve with the song “attention.” The song features Justin Beiber, who Lay listened to growing up.
Songs to listen to
- “Damn”
- “understand”
- “i’m a mess”
Listeners may best know British rapper, singer and actress Little Simz from her viral TikTok song “Venom,” but her career has a much wider reach. She first started releasing music in 2014, but she is now dominating music headlines following the release of her 7th studio album, “NO THANK YOU.”
Her recent performances prove that the rapper has much more depth than a seconds-long TikTok sound. On February 20, Little Simz took the stage on the Stephen Colbert Show with the Harlem Gospel Choir, B String Quartet and the Late Show Band to deliver a powerful rendition of “Heart on Fire.”
In 2022, she was named one of the Women of the Year by Harper’s BAZAAR.
“I’ve had a wicked year — prosperous — though a bit mad at times. I’m quite relaxed about the success. I’m just proud of myself, because I’ve done something I set out to achieve, and it’s nice seeing dreams come into fruition. I am not anywhere near peaking, though. In a way, it sets off a new fire in my belly,” she said.
Following the success of “NO THANK YOU,” Little Simz plans to ride the wave into the future. Seeing as she just took the stage at the BAFTAs with Joan Armatrading, it is safe to say that Little Simz is only going up from here.
Songs to listen to
Check out this playlist on Spotify to hear some of these artists’ newer releases.
