–Madison Bloom
Best Pop Vocal Album
- Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine
- Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft
- Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
- Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
- Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department
Should Win: Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
Will Win: Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
For the past couple of years, Grammy voting for Best Pop Vocal Album has lined up neatly with each ceremony’s eventual Album of the Year winner, but I think the award has been more interesting when given to less conventional records (Future Nostalgia, Sweetener) that can’t quite break into a given year’s major categories. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess certainly ticks the box for originality, and, if her unapologetic queerness or red carpet antics get her shut out of the big four, it’s easy to imagine the Recording Academy using this award to stake its claim on one of our biggest rising stars.
Then again, if it’s exemplary pop music you’re after, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is a high bar to clear. While the choice to submit different tracks for Song and Record of the Year could come back to bite her, a victory here would be a well-deserved celebration of the exemplary album tracks—”Good Graces,” ”Bed Chem,” “Juno”—that have dominated Short n’ Sweet’s post-release cycle. Always lurking, of course, is another win for Grande, Eilish, or Swift, all of whom have taken this trophy home at least once before.
–Walden Green
Best New Artist
- Benson Boone
- Doechii
- Chappell Roan
- Khruangbin
- Raye
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Shaboozey
- Teddy Swims
Should Win: Chappell Roan
Will Win: Chappell Roan
There are only three acts in the running for Best New Artist this year who warrant re-explaining just how “new” a musician has to be for consideration; as long as the performer recently released a record that propelled them to broader fame, they qualify. Sabrina Carpenter dropped her first album in 2015, but it wasn’t until her sixth, Short n’ Sweet, that Americans got hooked on her sugary pop espresso. Shaboozey’s been yeehawing in the club as far back as 2014, but his record-making single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” refused to exit the Billboard charts last year. Most pleasantly unexpected of all is Khruangbin, the Houston trio whose blend of funk, psych-rock, and soul has steadily put viewers in a daze until 2024’s A La Sala boosted the band’s rise significantly. Everyone else in the running this year makes sense: Top Dawg Entertainment rapper Doechii flexed words with belligerence and star power on her third release, Alligator Bites Never Heal; Raye dominated her UK scene with the audacious My 21st Century Blues; Teddy Swims crooned his way to a billion plays with the country-soul single “Lose Control”; and Benson Boone’s TikTok rock hit “Beautiful Things” is as startling as his onstage backflips.
Maybe this year, though, we can finally have it both ways. Chappell Roan has been releasing music for eight years, but her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, didn’t arrive until October 2023, following one major label drop, an independent run, and signing to another major label. Though her campy spin on pop and drag-inspired outfits had already fostered a cult following, she claimed the mainstream in 2024 with a snowballing run of breakouts: an opening slot on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour, a viral “Tiny Desk Concert” performance, and headline-worthy crowd turnouts during midday sets at Lollapalooza and Governors Ball that forced festivals like Bonnaroo to frantically upgrade her slot to the main stage. Roan deserves Best New Artist not because of the unmissable glow-up of her live routine, but because her songs reinvent the art-pop extremities of Kate Bush and Katy Perry while bringing sincerity and sass to the modern day realities of queer longing.
–Nina Corcoran
