The GRAMMY for Best New Artist speaks to one of the most crucial aspects of the music community — without new artists, and great ones, the music industry would cease to exist.

Whether they've been humming beneath the surface for a minute or are truly new, talented artists at the beginning of their mainstream journeys are precious to the Recording Academy.

For the 2023 GRAMMYs, Recording Academy Membership has spoken: Anitta, Omar Apollo, DOMi & JD Beck, Samara Joy, Latto, Måneskin, Muni Long, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle, and Wet Leg are those emerging names — and one will win a golden gramophone for their debut on the global stage.

Here's a rundown of the nominees for Best New Artist at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

The 2023 GRAMMY nominations are officially here. See the complete list of nominees across all 91 GRAMMY categories.

Anitta

A few months back, J Balvin interviewed his friend Anitta, calling the singer/songwriter "one of the greatest artists of history in Brazil." The data can back it up: she recently set a Guinness World Record as the first Latin solo artist to reach No. 1 on Spotify.

But rather than revel in her achievements — as virtually anyone in her position would do — the artist born Larissa de Macedo Machado struck a note of humility.

"Most times I'm very worried about everyone, caring about everyone, thinking about my family and making sure everyone is good," she told J Balvin, when asked about her personal life. "I'm actually very much the opposite of this powerful, invincible person that I sell as an artist."

This dichotomy of bravado and vulnerability is central to Anitta's artistry, and her boundary-busting appeal on the global stage.

Just watch her perform "Envolver" at the VMAs: visually, she's busting sultry moves, clad in scarlet. She can seem larger-than-life, and in some ways, she is. But that voice contains deeply human hues of sensitivity and resilience.

In April 2022, Anitta released her fifth album, Versions of Me — and it was a sensation, hitting 1 billion streams on Spotify. It's a starmaking turn, both due to the caliber of songs like "I'd Rather Have Sex," "Boys Don't Cry" and "Gimme Your Number" and startling messaging; just look at the album art, which features various plasticine permutations of Anitta's face.

"Even after millions of plastic surgeries, doctors and interventions... my inside just stays the same," Anitta stated. "I could see through all the pictures everyone is posting wishing me happy bday that my soul kept all the important things I had inside since I was a kid."

With her artistry in full flower on Versions of Me, those "important things" haven't been simply unleashed — they've fundamentally altered the music landscape both in Brazil and stateside. Talk about it paying off to open your heart.

Omar Apollo

Omar Apollo is a walking, breathing example of the iceberg theory — that the exposed tip belies a gargantuan foundation beneath the waters.

Born to Mexican parents and raised in Indiana, Omar Apollo began charting his course through highly variable sounds by working a day job and uploading music to SoundCloud.

All the while — true to his generation reared in the iPod era — he soaked up the wildly variable sounds of Prince, Rick James, Paul Simon, the Internet, and beyond. Back in 2019, while planting the seeds for his debut album, IVORY — which dropped last April — the bilingual singer/songwriter hinted that future music would be as multifarious as his influences.

"I love dancing, and I love funk. But I don't think it will ever be just one thing," he told the website Lyrical Lemonade, while also expressing a desire to incorporate rapping Spanish lyrics.  "I think the album will have a lot of elements, and be really diverse."

He wasn't kidding: the labored-over IVORY was a swing for the fences, and Apollo connected.

Touching on styles as disparate as Latin trap, psychedelia, traditional Mexican music, funk, and electro-pop — while embracing his Latinx and LGBTQ+ identities — IVORY can go toe-to-toe with the classics that galvanized him, like Nirvana's Nevermind, Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Partly produced by the Neptunes and featuring Daniel Caesar and Kali Uchis, IVORY is a sterling gateway into Apollo's creative vision; on highlights like "Invincible," "Evergreen" and "Bad Life," he breezes from mood to mood, and style to style.

All that woodshedding paid off: Apollo is an artist everyone should watch — no matter which genre sphere you might occupy, it's all in his universe.

DOMi & JD Beck

Despite the constant, hurtling innovations in jazz throughout the 20th century and young 21st, that world can often seem fenced off, relegated to the sidelines of the music industry.

While crossovers have always existed, DOMi & JD Beck are a brand-new kind — plugging jazz virtuosity into the zoomer sphere of memes, TikTok soundbites and all-caps song titles.  "It's us growing up and being around all that stuff. We're just used to making memes and we like stupid videos," Dallas-reared drummer Beck told SPIN in 2022. But as the band told GRAMMY.com, "Most music isn't about music anymore. It's just used as a tool for money and selling bulls—. Hopefully we can help change that."

Indeed, Beck's partnership with French-born keyboardist DOMi is ultimately art-forward — despite the abundant silliness within their act. ("SNIFF," from their 2022 debut NOT TIGHT, was initially titled "u can sniff my butt," after all.)

Both youngsters are virtuosos in every sense — and even more profoundly than that, they're on a mission to make virtuosity cool again.

By Beck's admission, they've never recorded in a proper studio; NOT TIGHT was recorded in a small room with a 49-key MIDI keyboard, drum set and coffee table. Despite the freedom of recording separately and without the constraints of a live setup, this is ultimately the sound of two humans making music.

Despite the extreme technical facility, NOT TIGHT is eminently catchy and listenable — and as such, could get kids who don't know Herbie Hancock from Kurt Rosenwinkel into America's Music — at the very least, because both those luminaries appear on the album.

Purists and neophytes alike are advised to leave the "cool" factor at the door, and enter DOMi & JD Beck's colorful, goofy and creative world. Because if jazz lives or dies based on whether younger generations embrace it, then this is the future of the music. Now that's tight.

Samara Joy

Young jazz singer Samara Joy arrived on the map proudly wearing two primary influences on her sleeve: Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. But it only takes one gig to show that Joy's art is new — for the mere reason that it's her doing it.

Sure, Joy might take direct inspiration from the approaches of Vaughan, Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and the rest — from phrasing to vocalese and beyond. But nobody on earth has possessed her charm, her flair, her communication style.

Joy's 2021 self-titled debut on Whirlwind Recordings was suffused with buoyant charm and technical facility; her 2022 follow-up for Verve, Linger Awhile, only ups the ante.

With TikTok sway, heavy touring and "The Today Show" under her belt, Joy only matured as an interpreter of standards — and on Linger Awhile, she tackles tunes like Nancy Wilson's "Guess Who I Saw Today," a reimagined version of Ronnell Bright's "Sweet Pumpkin" and the Frank Sinatra- and Nina Simone-popularized "Can't Get Out of This Mood."

"There's such an incredible and rich history of Black female singers. I see so much of myself in them and see the way they paved the way so I can do what I'm doing," Joy said in a recentinterview. "And then the way that they sing and the songs they sing, I can relate to and hopefully carry it and pass it down so that nobody forgets those Black female singers who have such an impact and influence on music as a whole."

Watch Joy lay waste to a club, and you'll know she's here to stay. And given the momentum of her incline over the past handful of years, who knows who she'll inspire in turn — to make a song their own with heart, flair and panache.

Latto

Can we all agree that it's been a tremendous few years for hip-hop? Not only has the work been widely excellent, but what was once a male-dominated genre is now making space for people of all gender expressions and walks of life.

Not that it's always been easy. Since young Atlanta rapper Latto broke out in 2020 with her maximum-blustery "Bitch from the Souf," she's been clear that navigating the music industry as a woman has been challenging — to say the least.

"Female rappers are being silenced in the industry and bullied behind closed doors," the MC born Alyssa Michelle Stephens told Complex in 2022, just before releasing her watershed album 777. "A lot of times we're bullied behind closed doors by these corporations or male artists or male producers or billion-dollar businesses and labels going against you."

No matter whoever's assailed Latto in her career, she'll inarguably have the last laugh: 777 is a beast of a hip-hop, pop and R&B album, augmented by high-profile guests from 21 Savage to Childish Gambino to Lil Wayne. From the ultra-catchy lead single "Big Energy" to the effervescent, Pharrell-produced "Real One," 777 is an extremely effective calling card for this emerging talent.

"I think I'm just on the cusp of my break, and it's just difficult to watch if you're not a fan," Latto said in the same interview. "If you're a hater and you're watching me win and getting more and more accomplishments under my belt, it's got to be frustrating to watch."

If you're a member of the online peanut gallery, perhaps that's the case. But for everyone else — including Recording Academy Membership — it's been thrilling.

Måneskin

Måneskin may have brought a 55-year-old song, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' "Beggin'," to the TikTok generation — but that's just one part of the story when it coems to this deeply, thrillingly weird glam-rock sensation.

In many ways, they represent the "return to rock" that so many have longed for after a long minute of trap hats and autotune. But they don't look or sound like the return of Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath; singer Damiano David's studded codpiece alone might disabuse you of that fantasy.

The Italian band with a Danish name meaning "moonlight" sounds more like 2000s indie bands like Franz Ferdinand or the Bravery than Soundgarden or Aerosmith — although Steven Tyler is a cardinal influence on David.

Read More: Here's The Rundown On Måneskin, The Italian Glam-Pop Heroes Who Just Brought The 54-Year-Old Song "Beggin'" Back Into Vogue

The ex-street-buskers hit the national stage in 2017 on the Italian "X Factor," where they performed a handful of covers that were awfully telling. Naturally, they did Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" and the Killers' "Somebody Told Me" — both right in their wheelhouse. But then they also performed something out of time: "Beggin'," which was released during the Summer of Love.

After winning second place on "The X Factor," "Beggin'" picked up steam on their debut 2017 EP, Chosen, Since then, it's become a TikTok sensation, sweeping the charts worldwide. 

For more entryways into Måneskin's universe, check out the snotty "I Wanna Be Your Slave," redone with Iggy Pop in 2021. And they performed the outrageously horny "Mammamia" on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

Really, any direction you come at this flamboyant, gender-bending band is bound to be rewarding, as they play by nobody's rules but their own.

"We're just doing music. If it's considered rock or pop or whatever, it's entirely not important to us," bassist Victoria De Angelis told Loudwire in 2021. "The main thing is I think people should just listen to the music and judge the music without having preconceived notions."

Muni Long

With each passing year, the Recording Academy makes a more concerted effort to highlight music makers behind the scenes — as seen in their new Songwriters & Composers Wing and Behind The Record initiative.

So it's worth noting that Muni Long has a very special presence among the 2023 GRAMMYs nominees for Best New Artist — she was behind the curtain, and is now very much at the fore.

If you're a liner-notes sleuth, you might remember Muni Long (pronounced "money long") from her work on H.E.R.'s Back of My Mind — which was nominated for a golden gramophone for Album Of The Year at the 2022 GRAMMYs.

But that's just the beginning: Long has co-written with Rihanna, Fifth Harmony, Kelly Clarkson, and Ariana Grande, among many other leading lights.

Now, she's consolidated her decade-plus of stellar work on 2022's Public Displays of Affection, where old tunes from previous EPs — including her viral smash hit "Hrs and Hrs" — commingle with new tracks.

“I am learning to search myself for answers before I go outside and seek others. No additional approval or validation or help, because if you pay attention you will just make decisions based on the purest intention,” Long told GRAMMY.com in 2022. “Versus making a decision that's going to make things faster for you or bring you the most money… because you're blinded by your ambition.”

After her impassioned work in a less visible space, everyone deserves to know Long's name. With her nomination for a GRAMMY for Best New Artiat, the world just might.

Tobe Nwigwe

Arguably one of the most positive developments in the last decade of music has been the even further elevation of Nigeria on the world stage — in all its facets and permutations.

And that's come by way not only by heralded Afrobeats artists like Wizkid and Burna Boy, but by straight-up hip-hop — like that from the Houston MC Tobe Nwigwe.

A college football player with NFL aspirations, Nwigwe's life path was diverted by a foot injury in 2009. After pivoting to starting a nonprofit for Houston youth, Nwigwe got attention by way of videos of himself rapping with his kids and wife, Ivory "Fat" Rogers, on social media.

One thing led to another, and Nwigwe hit the ground running as a recording artist, releasing a whopping nine EPs between 2017 and 2021.

During the summer of 2020, Nwigwe got the spotlight by way of "I Need You To (Breonna Taylor)," a song of resistance against racist police violence. 

His latest project, 2022's moMINTS, exudes love for Houston through  tunes that stick in the brain, like "DESTRUCTION," "LORD FORGIVE ME" and "CATFISH BLACKENED." Beyond love for his hometown alone, Nwigwe's work has a feeling of earthiness, of family bonds, and fidelity of vision.

"I think I've gotten a lot of clarity on just how I want to do things, how I want to present myself, not necessarily who I am," he told XXL in 2022. "[B]y the grace of God, I was able to know what my purpose was before I started doing all this, but just how to present what I'm doing and in a way that is uniquely me."

Molly Tuttle

Representing the Newport Folk-adjacent pantheon — the world that includes strummers and pickers from the indie-folk, bluegrass and Americana communities — is Molly Tuttle. 

The banjoist, guitarist and songwriter hails from a musical lineage via her musician father and grandfather.Her latest album, 2022's Crooked Tree, takes a heartfelt inventory of her earliest experiences — she even revisited her family farm while conceptualizing the album.

"My family doesn't own the farm that my father grew up on anymore, but my grandma and I drove out there last spring and walked around and reminisced about the old times," she said in a statement.

"As a kid growing up in the suburbs of San Francisco, I loved being in this completely different landscape and spending so much time out on the porch," she continued. "Just talking and playing music and watching the lightning bugs at night."

During her childhood , Tuttle initially played violin, but swiftly fell in love with the guitar, soaking up the bluegrass records that filled the air at home. Her tutelage at Berklee College of Music led her to Nashville — ground zero for roots music that practically grows from the ground.

After two studio albums on Compass — 2019's When You're Ready and 2020's But I'd Rather Be With You — Tuttle has become a Nonesuch signee, and a GRAMMY nominee for Best New Artist, before her 30th birthday. 

In a way, as a bearer of the bluegrass flame, the whole tradition has led to her. Whatever she sings or strums next, it's the Recording Academy Membership's pleasure to bear witness.

Wet Leg

The witty, lusty, needle-sharp duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers was impossible to ignore in 2022; their self-titled debut landed in the industry like a water balloon.

"I went to school and I got the Big D!" the post-punkers announced in their breakout single "Chaise Longue," a song everybody had some extreme reaction to — chief among them, jaw-dropping relief that wackadoo fun was back in indie rock.

DOMi and JD Beck, their fellow GRAMMY nominees for Best New Artist, once described themselves as "anti-everything," which aptly describes Wet Leg as well — something must be in the water as 2023 approaches. 

The pair formed Wet Leg on a lark while riding a Ferris wheel; their songs take aim at pretentious rock-arteest attitudes of all stripes —  and what a relief it is to hear songs that are, by design, about nothing.

It's anyone's guess where Wet Leg's irreverence and cheek will lead them — they could take the template of Wet Leg and go full pop, or even more deconstructionist and dadaist.

But whatever happens, you can't say it won't be interesting — as it doesn't get much more interesting than this deeply satirical, always catchy, very welcome anomaly of a rock band.

2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Nominees List

 The 2023 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 65th GRAMMY Awards, returns to Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023, and will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT.

The eligibility period for the 65th GRAMMY Awards is Friday, Oct. 1, 2021 – Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. All eligible awards entries must be released within this timeframe.

The Recording Academy and GRAMMY.com do not endorse any particular artist, submission or nominee over another. The results of the GRAMMY Awards, including winners and nominees, are solely dependent on the Recording Academy’s Voting Membership.

"Honestly, I feel like a zaddy," Omar Apollo says with a roguish grin, "because I'm 6'5" so, like, you can run up in my arms and stay there, you know what I mean?"

As a bonafide R&B sensation and one of the internet’s favorite boyfriends, Apollo is likely used to the labels, attention and online swooning that come with modern fame. But in this instance, there’s a valid reason for asking about his particular brand of "zaddyhood": he’s been turned into a Bratz doll.

In the middle of June, the popular toy company blasted  a video to its nearly 5 million social media followers showing off the singer as a real-life Bratz Boy — the plastic version draped in a long fur coat (shirtless, naturally), with a blinged-out cross necklace and matching silver earrings as he belts out his 2023 single "3 Boys" from a smoke-covered stage.

The video, which was captioned "Zaddy coded," promptly went viral, helped along by an amused Apollo reposting the clip to his own Instagram Story. "It was so funny," he adds. "And it's so accurate; that's literally how my shows go. It made me look so glamorous, I loved it."

The unexpected viral moment came with rather auspicious timing, considering Apollo is prepping for the release of his hotly anticipated sophomore album. God Said No arrives June 28 via Warner Records.

In fact, the star is so busy with the roll-out that, on the afternoon of our interview, he’s FaceTiming from the back of a car. The day prior, he’d filmed the music video for "Done With You," the album’s next single. Now he’s headed to the airport to jet off to Paris, where he’ll be photographed front row at the LOEWE SS25 men’s runway show in between Sabrina Carpenter and Mustafa — the latter of whom is one of the few collaborators featured on God Said No. 

Apollo’s trusted co-writer and producer, Teo Halm, is also joining the conversation from his home studio in L.A. In between amassing credits for Beyoncé (The Lion King: The Gift), Rosalía and J Balvin (the Latin GRAMMY-winning "Con Altura"), SZA ("Notice Me" and "Open Arms" featuring Travis Scott) and others, the 25-year-old virtuoso behind the boards had teamed up with Apollo on multiple occasions. Notably, the two collabed on "Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All)," which helped Apollo score his nomination for Best New Artist at the 2023 GRAMMYs. 

In the wake of that triumph, Apollo doubled down on their creative chemistry by asking Halm to executive produce God Said No. (The producer is also quick to second his pal’s magnetic mystique: "Don't get it twisted, he's zaddy, for sure.") 

Apollo bares his soul like never before across the album’s 14 tracks,  as he processes the bitter end of a two-year relationship with an unnamed paramour. The resulting portrait of heartbreak is a new level of emotional exposure for a singer already known for his unguarded vulnerability and naked candor. (He commissioned artist Doron Langberg to paint a revealing portrait of him for the cover of his 2023 EP Live For Me, and unapologetically included a painting of his erect penis as the back cover of the vinyl release.) 

On lead single "Spite," he’s pulled between longing and resentment in the wake of the break-up over a bouncing guitar riff. Second single "Dispose of Me" finds Apollo heartsick and feeling abandoned as he laments, "It don’t matter if it’s 25 years, 25 months/ It don’t matter if it’s 25 days, it was real love/ We got too much history/ So don’t just dispose of me." 

Elsewhere, the singer offers the stunning admission that "I would’ve married you" on album cut "Life’s Unfair." Then, on the very next song — the bumping, braggadocious "Against Me" — Apollo grapples with the reality that he’s been permanently altered by the love affair while on the prowl for a rebound. "I cannot act like I’m average/ You know that I am the baddest bitch," he proclaims on the opening verse, only to later admit, "I’ve changed so much, but have you heard?/ I can’t move how I used to."

Given the personal subject matter filling God Said No — not to mention the amount of acclaim he earned with Ivory — it would be understandable if Apollo felt a degree of pressure or anxiety when it came to crafting his sophomore studio set. But according to the singer, that was entirely not the case.

"I feel like I wouldn’t be able to make art if I felt pressure," he says. "Why would I be nervous about going back and making more music? If anything, I'm more excited and my mind is opened up in a whole other way and I've learned so much."

In order to throw his entire focus into the album’s creation, Apollo invited Halm to join him in London. The duo set up shop in the famous Abbey Road Studios, where the singer often spent 12- to 13-hour days attempting to exorcize his heartbreak fueled by a steady stream of Aperol spritzes and cigarettes.

The change of scenery infused the music with new sonic possibilities, like the kinetic synths and pulsating bass line that set flight to "Less of You." Apollo and Halm agree that the single was directly inspired by London’s unique energy.

"It's so funny because we were out there in London, but we weren't poppin' out at all," the Halm says. "Our London scene was really just, like, studio, food. Omar was a frickin' beast. He was hitting the gym every day…. But it was more like feeding off the culture on a day-to-day basis. Like, literally just on the walk to the studio or something as simple as getting a little coffee. I don't think that song would've happened in L.A."

Poetry played a surprisingly vital role in the album’s creation as well, with Apollo littering the studio with collections by "all of the greats," including the likes of Ocean Vuong, Victoria Chang, Philip Larkin, Alan Ginsberg, Mary Oliver and more.

"Could you imagine making films, but never watching a film?" the singer posits, turning his appreciation for the written art form into a metaphor about cinema. "Imagine if I never saw [films by] the greats, the beauty of words and language, and how it's manipulated and how it flows. So I was so inspired." 

Perhaps a natural result of consuming so much poetic prose, Apollo was also led to experiment with his own writing style. While on a day trip with his parents to the Palace of Versailles, he wrote a poem that ultimately became the soaring album highlight "Plane Trees," which sends the singer’s voice to new, shiver-inducing heights. 

"I'd been telling Teo that I wanted to challenge myself vocally and do a power ballad," he says. "But it wasn't coming and we had attempted those songs before. And I was exhausted with writing about love; I was so sick of it. I was like, Argh, I don't want to write anymore songs with this person in my mind." 

Instead, the GRAMMY nominee sat on the palace grounds with his parents, listening to his mom tell stories about her childhood spent in Mexico. He challenged himself to write about the majestic plane tree they were sitting under in order to capture the special moment. 

Back at the studio, Apollo’s dad asked Halm to simply "make a beat" and, soon enough, the singer was setting his poem to music. (Later, Mustafa’s hushed coda perfected the song’s denouement as the final piece of the puzzle.) And if Apollo’s dad is at least partially responsible for how "Plane Trees" turned out, his mom can take some credit for a different song on the album — that’s her voice, recorded beneath the same plane tree, on the outro of delicate closer "Glow." 

Both the artist and the producer ward off any lingering expectations that a happy ending will arrive by the time "Glow" fades to black, however. "The music that we make walks a tightrope of balancing beauty and tragedy," Halm says. "It's always got this optimism in it, but it's never just, like, one-stop shop happy. It's always got this inevitable pain that just life has. 

"You know, even if maybe there wasn't peace in the end for Omar, or if that wasn't his full journey with getting through that pain, I think a lot of people are dealing with broken hearts who it really is going to help," the producer continues. "I can only just hope that the music imparts leaving people with hope."

 Apollo agrees that God Said No contains a "hopeful thread," even if his perspective on the project remains achingly visceral. Did making the album help heal his broken heart? "No," he says with a sad smile on his face. "But it is proof of pain. And it’s a beautiful thing that is immortalized now, forever. 

"One day, I can look back at it and be like, Wow, what a beautiful thing I experienced. But yeah, no, it didn't help me," he says with a laugh. 

Peso Pluma marked his musical destiny with a Tupac tribute tattoo in the center of his clavicle: "All Eyez On Me." 

The Mexican artist, born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, doesn't remember exactly what year he inked his chest. He knows it was well before his debut in music. Those four words reflected Peso's irrefutable confidence that the world's eyes would eventually be on him. 

The world's eyes are indeed on Peso Pluma. In less than two years, the singer achieved global fame by singing corridos tumbados, traversing a path never before trodden by a música Mexicana artist. 

At 25, Peso Pluma is at the forefront of a new generation of música Mexicana artists that have successfully modernized traditional Mexican rhythms, such as corridos, by infusing them with elements from urban music and a hip-hop aesthetic. The weight of representing an entire genre and a country could be great for some. But pressure doesn't affect Peso Pluma; on the contrary, it motivates him to keep working to exalt his roots. 

"We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. And that doesn't mean we have to slow down; it doesn't mean everything is over. This is the beginning of everything," Peso Pluma said in a TikTok video before a performance at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, Canada, a little over a year ago. 

Out June 20, Peso's extensive new album ÉXODO seeks to cement his global star status further. Over 24 tracks, the singer continues to explore corridos tumbados and digs into his urban side via much-awaited collaborations with reggaeton and hip-hop icons. Among those big names is Peso's teenage idol, the American rapper and producer Quavo, as well as further afield collaborations with Cardi B.  

"ÉXODO is a project I've been working on for over a year before we even won the GRAMMY. GÉNESIS was an incredibly special project, and I knew we couldn't make the same diamond twice," the singer tells GRAMMY.com in a written interview. 

Peso Pluma's path to the global stage has been lightning-fast. While he started releasing songs in 2020, Peso will remember March 2023 as the month that propelled him into global mega-stardom. His collaboration with Eslabón Armado on "Ella Baila Sola" led him to become a household name outside his native Mexico.  

The hit resonated with an audience eager for new sounds, accompanying social media videos and surpassing a billion streams on Spotify. "Ella Baila Sola" became the first Mexican music track to top the platform's global chart. On Billboard, it conquered No. 1 on the magazine's Global 200 chart for six weeks and reached the coveted No. 4 spot on the Hot 100 chart. The mega-hit took Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado to make their Latin GRAMMY stage debut in November with an electrifying performance.  

Another collaboration, "La Bebe (Remix)" with Mexican reggaeton artist Yng Lvcas, released a day after "Ella Baila Sola," also contributed to Peso Pluma's virality in a completely different genre, but one in which he feels comfortable: urban music. 

Learn more: Peso Pluma's 10 Biggest Collabs: From "Bzrp Sessions" To "Ella Baila Sola" &"Igual Que Un Ángel" 

As Peso Pluma gained traction with a global audience, his February 2022 single with Raúl Vega, put him, for better or worse, on the map in Mexico. The warlike content of "El Belicón" lyrics and video clip attracted attention for the way it allegedly promoted narcoculture. 

Despite growing criticism, Peso Pluma remained tight-lipped regarding references to high-profile members of the Mexican drug trade, as well as drug use and trafficking. In a rare admission to GQ magazine, the singer explained this is a "delicate subject to talk about, but you have to touch on it with transparency — because it's the reality of things." 

"In hip-hop, in rap, just like in corridos, and other urban music like reggaeton, it talks about reality. We're not promoting delinquency at all. We're only talking about things that happen in real life," the singer explained.

With the success of "El Belicón" and "Ella Baila Sola" under his belt, Peso Pluma released GÉNESIS in June 2023. Despite being his third album, Peso considers it his true debut in music. 

"I didn't want to delete my previous albums [Efectos Secundario and Ah Y Que?] because they represent my beginnings," Peso told Billboard in a cover story published a few weeks after the release of GÉNESIS. In the same conversation, the singer said he saw himself winning his first GRAMMY and breaking more records. 

Read more: 5 Takeaways From Peso Pluma's New Album 'GÉNESIS' 

In February 2024, Peso Pluma did just that. He took home the golden gramophone for Best Música Mexicana Album (Including Tejano) — his first GRAMMY Award. This victory didn't weigh on him as he approached his next production. "It pushed me to want to create something different that the fans haven't heard from me before," Peso Pluma tells GRAMMY.com. 

While GÉNESIS and ÉXODO may differ in substance, they share similarities beyond music. That both records pull from the Bible for their names is not a random occurrence; the opening book of the Hebrew and Christian Bible delves into the genesis of creation, while the Book of Exodus explores the themes of liberation, redemption, and Moses' role in leading the Israelites through the uncharted waters of the Red Sea. 

"ÉXODO is the continuation of GÉNESIS, which was the beginning," Peso Pluma explains to GRAMMY.com. "ÉXODO means new beginnings, a new era for me. We are preparing for the next chapter, and that's what we are doing for Mexican music, paving the way, laying the groundwork for what's next because it doesn't stop here."  

His "sophomore" album is divided into two discs: the first is corridos, and the second is urban. It also continues the line of collaborations, with twenty tracks where Peso Pluma shares the limelight. 

"Some of my fans were craving música Mexicana, and some were craving urbano, and I wanted to give them everything while still staying true to myself and choosing songs and lyrics that spoke to me," he continues.  

ÉXODO's disc one starts with "LA DURANGO," the album's fourth single, featuring Eslabon Armando and Junior H. In the record, he also invites collaborators such as Natanael Cano and Gabito Ballesteros for "VINO TINTO" and Mexican rising star Ivan Cornejo on the melancholic "RELOJ," among others. 

For Side B, Peso enlisted heavyweights from the urban genre in the Anglo and Latin markets: Anitta in the steamy "BELLAKEO," Rich The Kid in the bilingual "GIMME A SECOND," and Quavo in the existential trap "PA NO PENSAR." Cardi B, Arcángel, Ryan Castro, Kenia OS, and DJ Snake complete ÉXODO's genre crossover. 

In ÉXODO, luxury, drugs, alcohol, and women continue to take center stage in the lyrics, accompanied by fast-paced guitar-driven melodies and reverb-dense vocals. However, the production sheds light on the vulnerable side of Peso and explores the unexpected consequences of becoming globally famous. 

"Fans really get to see the other side of the coin; there are two sides to me. It's darker, rawer," Peso says about the record. 

In the songs "HOLLYWOOD" and "LA PATRULLA," for example, Peso details how this musical path keeps him up at night, as well as his aspirations, and how he remains the same despite his success. 

Perhaps one of the deepest and rawest songs on the album is "14:14," a track inspired by the Bible verse 14:14 from the Book of Exodus, which, the singer explains, was fundamental amidst the turbulence he faced on the way to global stardom. 

"[The] verse 14:14 says 'The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.' This verse couldn't be truer," Peso Pluma says. "Over time, I learned to really trust in this and believe that some things are not up to me and I should trust the process."  

In the song — one of the few on the album without a collaboration — Peso references the challenges of his profession and how his faith has kept him afloat amid the vicissitudes. "Things from the job that no one understands/I hide the rosary under my shirt so I don't poison myself, so I don't feel guilty/because whatever happens, the Boss will forgive me," he sings.

In "BRUCE WAYNE," Peso Pluma croons about the passionate feelings his career arouses: "First they love you, and then they hate you/wishing the worst, envy and death," the song says. 

The singer resorts to comparing himself to a superhero figure again. In an unusual twist, Peso crosses comic universes, moving from his now traditional reference to Spider-Man to one from the DC Comics world: Bruce Wayne, Batman's secret identity. A wealthy man, part of Gotham's high society, Bruce Wayne is known for transforming his darkness into power while remaining reserved and isolated.  

"Everyone has two sides of them, even me," Peso tells GRAMMY.com. "Peso Pluma on stage is a high-energy person, someone who is powerful and dominates a show and isn't afraid of anything. And then there is Hassan, who's chill and more relaxed and who deals with all the realities of life." 

During the year and a half it took him to complete ÉXODO, Peso Pluma had to deal with the diverse nuances of a global star's life, including a widely publicized breakup from Argentine rapper/singer Nicki Nicole, the cancellation of one of his shows in October 2023 after a Mexico drug cartel issued a death threat against him, and a media frenzy over his alleged admission to a rehabilitation clinic, the latest a rumor he laid to rest during a March interview with Rolling Stone for his Future of Music cover story. 

"The reality is, all these days, I've been in the studio working on ÉXODO," the artist explained to Rolling Stone. 

Most of 2023 was a successful balancing act for Peso Pluma, who combined touring, an album release, rare media engagements, two Coachella appearances, all the while developing another record. According to the singer, ÉXODO was created in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Mexico. "We go to the studio everywhere!" Peso says. "It doesn't really matter where we are; I love to get into the studio and work when we have free time." 

Like GÉNESIS, ÉXODO will be released via Peso Pluma's Double P Records, of which he is the CEO and A&R. Much of the talent the Mexican singer has signed to his label took part in the album's production, and songwriting process. 

"For the Mexican music side, I had the whole [touring] band with me; I like to have them involved in the process so that we can all give our input on how it sounds, discuss what we think needs to be changed, create new ideas," he explains. 

Peso Pluma knows that echoing the success of 2023 is no easy task. He was the most streamed artist in the U.S. on YouTube, surpassing Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny, and was the second most-listened to Latin artist in the country, amassing an impressive 1.9 billion streams, according to Luminate. 

Música Mexicana emerged as one of the most successful genres in 2023, witnessing a remarkable 60 percent surge in streaming numbers, adds Luminate's annual report, crediting Peso Pluma along Eslabon Armado, Junior H, and Fuerza Regida as part of this success. 

Collaborations on and off the mic have undoubtedly played a significant role in the rise of Música Mexicana on the global stage. Peso knows that the key to continuing onward is teaming up with renowned artists inside and outside his genre. 

"All of us coming together is what pushed música Mexicana to go global," the singer affirms. "We showed the world what Mexico has to offer, and now no one can deny the power and talent we have in our country."  

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Twenty-six-year-old rapper Anycia truly lives in the present. The Atlanta-born artist describes her most viral hits as if they were everyday experiences — she's simply going out of town on "BRB" and mad at a partner in "Back Outside" featuring Latto. 

Despite her calm demeanor and cadence, Anycia is a self-proclaimed "firecracker" and credits her success to her long-held confidence. 

"I [command] any room I walk in, I like to introduce myself first — you never have to worry about me walking into the room and not speaking," Anycia tells GRAMMY.com. "I speak, I yell, I twerk, I do the whole nine," adding, "I see tweets all the time [saying] ‘I like Anycia because she doesn’t rap about her private parts’... are y’all not listening?" 

With authenticity as her cornerstone, Anycia's genuine nature and versatile sound appeal broadly. On her recently released sophomore LP, Princess Pop That, Anycia's playful personality, unique vocal style and skillful flow are on full display. Over 14 tracks, Anycia keeps her usual relaxed delivery while experimenting with different beats from New Orleans, New York, California, and of course, Georgia. 

"I'm learning to be myself in different elements. I'm starting to take my sound and make it adapt to other beats and genres," she says. "But this whole album is definitely a little showing of me dibbling and dabbling.

The rising hip-hop star gained traction in June 2023 with her sultry single, "So What," which samples the song of the same name by Georgia natives Field Mob and Ciara. When Anycia dropped the snippet on her Instagram, she only had a "GoPro and a dream." Today, she has millions of views on her music videos, collaborations with artists like Flo Milli, and a critically acclaimed EP, Extra. On April 26, she'll release her debut album, Princess Pop That, featuring Cash Cobain, Luh Tyler, Kenny Beats, Karrahbooo and others. 

Ahead of the release of Princess Pop That, Anycia spoke with GRAMMY.com about her influences, maintaining individuality, working with female rappers, and using her music as a therapeutic outlet.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Where did the title Princess Pop That come from?

Princess Pop That is my little alter ego, and my Twitter and finsta name. It's kind of like a Sasha Fierce/Beyoncé type of situation. 

The cover of your album gives early 2000 vibes. Is that where you draw most of your inspiration from?

Yeah. My everyday playlist is literally early 2000s music. I even still listen to [music] from the '70s – I just like old music! 

My mom is a big influence on a lot of the music that I like. She had me when she was like 19, 20. She's a Cali girl and has great taste in music. I grew up on everything and I feel like a lot of the stuff that I'm doing, you can kind of see that influence.

I grew up on Usher, Cherish, 112, Jagged Edge, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Teena Marie, Luther Vandross and Sam Cooke. Usher was my first concert, ever and actually my last concert — I went to his residency in Vegas with my mom. That's like our thing.

I know you had your hand in many different professions — including barbering and working at a daycare — how did you get into rapping?

I always liked music, but [thought] girl, we need some money right now. Rapping and music is cool, but I always had one foot in and one foot out. When I was [working] my jobs, it was more this is what I need to be doing right now — but I wasn't happy. 

It got to a point where I noticed that I was doing all these things, and it worked but it wasn't working for me. I didn't want to get caught up; I didn't want to be stuck doing something just because it works. I wanted to do something that I actually love to do. I decided to quit both jobs because I was literally making me miserable. 

I feel like that's what happened with a lot of our parents — they lose focus of their actual goals or what they actually wanted to do, and they get so caught up in what works in the moment. One thing about me, if I don't like something I'm done. I don't care how much money I put into it, if I'm not happy and it doesn’t feed me spiritually and mentally I'm not doing it. Right after [I quit] I was in the studio back-to-back making music. It eventually paid off.

Walk us through your music making process. 

A blunt, a little Don Julio Reposado, a space heater because I’m anemic. Eating some tacos and chicken wings or whatever I’m feeling at the moment. It’s not that deep to me, I like to be surrounded by good energy in the studio. 

People like to say female rappers aren’t welcoming or don’t like to work with each other. You’re clearly debunking this myth with songs like "Back Outside" featuring Latto and "Splash Brothers'' featuring Karrahbooo. What was it like working with them and how did these collaborations come about? 

Karrahbooo and I were already friends before we started rapping. It was harder for people to get us to do music because when we were around each other we weren't like, "Oh we need to do a song together." We had a friendship. 

Working with Latto, we didn't collab on that song in the studio. I did the song myself after being really upset at a man. I made the song just venting. I didn't even think that I was ever gonna put that song out, honestly. Latto ended up hitting me up within a week's span just giving me my flowers and telling me she wanted to do a song [together]. I ended up sending her "Back Outside" because I felt like she would eat [it up] and she did just that. 

She did! Are there any other female rappers you’d like to work with?

I really want to work with Cardi B — I love her! I'm also looking forward to collaborating with GloRilla. 

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Many female rappers come into the industry and feel like they have to start changing themself to fit a certain aesthetic or archetype. However, everything about you seems super unique — from your voice to your style and appearance. How do you maintain your individuality? 

Being yourself is literally the easiest job ever. When you're doing everything you're supposed to be doing, you're being genuine while you're doing it and you’re just being 110 percent authentically yourself — I feel like everything works out for you perfectly fine. 

I haven't had the urge to change anything or do anything different. The reason people started liking me was because I was being myself. Even if it wasn't accepted, I'm not going to stop being myself. I do what works for me and I feel like everybody should just do what works for them and not what works for the people outside of them. 

That's what creates discomfort for yourself, that’s how you become a depressed artist — trying to please everybody [but] yourself. I feel like people lose sight of that fact. Aside from this being a job or a career for me now, it’s still my outlet and a way I express myself;  it's still my form of art. I will never let anybody take that from me. It's intimate for me. 

Speaking of intimacy, what was the inspiration behind "Nene’s Prayer"? I want to know who was playing with you.

I was just having a little therapy session in the booth and everyone ended up liking it. Instead of getting mad, flipping out and wanting to go to jail I just put in a song. Even though I said some messed up things in the song, it’s better than me doing those messed up things. 

Have you ever written a lyric or song that you felt went too far or was too personal?

Nope. A lot of the [topics] that I [rap about] is just stuff girls really want to say, but don't have the courage to say. But me, I don’t give a damn! If it resonates with you then it does, and if it doesn't — listen to somebody else. 

Exactly! What advice would you give to upcoming artists trying to get noticed or have that one song that pops?

If you got something that you want to put out into the world, you just have to have that confidence for yourself, and you have to do it for you and not for other people. I feel like people make music and do certain things for other people. That's why [their song] doesn't do what it needs to do because it’s a perspective of what other people want, rather than doing [a song] that you're comfortable with and what you like.

How do you want people to feel after listening to ‘Princess Pop That?’

I just want the girls, and even the boys, to get in their bag. Regardless of how you went into listening to the album, I want you to leave with just a little bit more self confidence. If you’re feeling low, I want you to feel like "I am that bitch." 

It's a no judgment zone. I want everybody to find their purpose, walk in their truth and feel like "that girl" with everything they do. You could even be in a grocery store, I want you to feel like the baddest bitch. 

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After establishing herself as a global pop star, Brazilian singer Anitta is bringing the music of her country to the forefront. On the just-released Funk Generation, the Latin GRAMMY nominee puts a spotlight on funk carioca — Brazilian funk.

On the 15-track album, Anitta sings in Portuguese, Spanish, and English over funk carioca beats, which are Brazil’s aggressive and hyper spin on genres like hip-hop and Miami bass. As with her previous releases, Funk Generation has elements of EDM, reggaeton, and pop, but the rhythms also known as baile funk are the star. The album represents a new era for Anitta, which she first kicked off in June with "Funk Rave," a single and video that captures the spirit of Brazil's favelas where funk carioca was born. 

Anitta later introduced Brazil's melodic funk subgenre to her global audience with the dreamy "Mil Veces." Now Anitta is expanding her funky world by bringing artists like Sam Smith, Brray, and Bad Gyal into her funky world.

"I'm going to accomplish making a lot of artists and people like funk," Anitta tells GRAMMY.com, adding that she hopes listeners "start embracing this rhythm that's very good, that invites you to dance, and that has an energy that's very unique to Brazil."

Funk Generation follows Anitta's rise to international stardom. Following a decade of making her mark in Brazil and later Latin America, Anitta went fully international with her 2022 album Versions of Me and the viral hit "Envolver." The album helped Anitta garner a GRAMMY nomination for Best New Artist in 2023 and a Latin GRAMMY nomination for Record Of The Year. She later told GRAMMY.com that "dreamed" of putting out a Brazilian funk album.

Anitta has made that dream come true with Funk Generation. Here are five takeaways from her genre-bending album, including insight from the Brazilian superstar herself.   

Anitta Said Making A Funk Carioca Album Was A "Challenge"

In March 2023, Anitta revealed that she was trying to get out of her contract with Warner Music, alleging a lack of support from the label. After parting ways with Warner in April, she signed a new deal with Republic Records and Universal Latin shortly after. It seems that her new label home offered the support she was looking for: She released "Funk Rave" in June 2023. 

"This funk album has been a challenge for me because it's not a rhythm that people are doing out there," she says. "It's something that’s very new that I'm going to introduce to people so they like it, listen to it, and try to do it as well."

She Wants to Continue To Breaking The Divide Between Latin America & Brazil

While Brazil is a part of Latin America, there still exists a bit of a cultural divide with Spanish-speaking Latin American countries because of language differences. On Funk Generation, Anitta aims to bridge that gap by featuring Latin music acts who embrace her  Brazilian funk vibes. 

On the sultry "Double Team," she is joined by Puerto Rican singer and rapper Brray and Barcelona-based artist Bad Gyal, who performed with Anitta for the first time at awards ceremony Premio Lo Nuestro in February. They get into the groove in Spanish with no problem alongside Anitta.

"It's been many years since Brazil has gotten to this international level, that a lot of people are listening to Brazilian songs, and I know I've worked a lot for this to happen," Anitta says. "More Latin artists coming to Brazil, who are curious and interested in making a career there.

"It's been very important for me to create this cultural exchange because the Latino countries and Brazil are side-by-side, but it's like there's a big barrier between them because of language," she continues. "With music, we can break through."

Sam Smith Embraces Funk Carioca For The First Time 

It’s not only Latin music acts who are getting in on funk carioca with Anitta. British superstar Sam Smith joins Anitta for the freaky "Ahi," and Smith's soulful voice soars over the sleek Brazilian funk rhythms. The collaboration shows how determined Anitta is to push the music of her country into the mainstream with Smith being one of most prominent pop artists from the UK to embrace the genre. 

The song also marks an important moment for LGBTQIA+ representation with Anitta, who is bisexual, teaming up with the non-binary GRAMMY winner.

Funk Generation Spotlights Brazilian Talent 

Anitta shares her platform with more Brazilian acts in the alluring "Joga Pra Lua," an EDM-infused funk banger that invites the listener to a block party where they get lost in the music. 

Translated to "play for the moon," the track is produced by fellow Brazilian DENNIS (who recently scored a global hit with the remix of "Tá OK" featuring Kevin o Chris, Karol G, and Maluma). Anitta is also joined on the track by Brazilian hitmaker Pedro Sampaio, who sings in Portuguese.

Anitta Is Looking Toward The Future Of Funk Carioca

Despite the few features, Funk Generation is an album where Anitta largely shines solo. She not only puts a spotlight on the Brazilian genre with this LP, but pushes it to new places. One of the standouts is the frenetic "Grip" where Anitta blends Brazilian funk with elements of Miami bass music that’s reminiscent of the ‘90s. She sings in Portuguese, English and Spanish throughout the song.

Whereas funk carioca played second fiddle to many other genres in her previous album, now the tables are turned in Funk Generation. She seamlessly blends pop with funk carioca in the fully English track "Love in Common" that could sneak those rhythms onto Top 40 radio. Anitta also finds a common thread between Brazilian funk, reggaeton, and Afrobeat in the multicultural banger "Aceita."

 The future of baile funk looks bright in Anitta’s hands.

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