Since even before their 2013 debut, Think Tank, New Orleans hip-hop/soul/everything outfit Tank And The Bangas have been coloring outside the musical lines with their boundless creativity, generous groove and unique spoken-word-meets-scat soulful vocals. Led by Tank herself, the group landed in earnest in 2019 with thier major label debut, Green Balloon, with a trio of features by Robert Glasper and more than enough quirky hooks to go around.

At the top of 2020, the band finds themselves up for Best New Artist at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, an honor they may have never expected, but one that makes sense considering the menu of genres their music offers while still tasting like a gumbo of the Big Easy's best influences.

"We don't sound like what typical New Orleans is supposed to stereotypically sound like," Tank explained. "But we feel like what New Orleans feels like, and that's just plain old good."

Having watched Tank And The Bangas grow and bloom like a supersonic fleur de lis in years past, from their nacent live performance on our Buzzin' series, to winning the NPR Tiny Desk Contest, to absolutely crushing it with their performance of "Nice Things" on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon," being recognized as one of the year's Best New Artist resonates with Tank and her teammates as something bigger than themselves.

"People like us can win a GRAMMY, regular people, chill people that did not come from this amazing legacy of other famous people or whatever," Tank said. "It's not a gimmick, that you can do your thing, that you can make your music, and that people will, they'll get it."

We linked up with Tank over the phone to ask her more about the nomination, their first major label album, rubbing elbows with Michelle Obama, her love for "Frazier," and a few more surprises...

Congrats on your GRAMMY nomination! What was your first thought when you found out you were nominated for Best New Artist?

My first thought was, "I wonder what category it is." That was my first thought because we put ourselves in so many considerations. So I was like, "I wonder which one." And it was very early in the morning, so it was kind of unbelievable, and you don't understand the full weight of what's going on because it's so early in the morning. But as the day went on, it was just an incredible day, and I felt like the city [of New Orleans] rejoiced with us.

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It's funny you say that because when I listen to Tank and the Bangas, I feel like anything is possible - rhythmically, melodically, stylistically. Where does that fearlessness and freedom come from, musically?

I think it comes from being in a group among so many different people and everybody having these different backgrounds, different experiences with different family members, and a different culture, honestly. And you come together, and nobody turns down anybody's idea… unless it's just not cool, you know? You're like, "Aw, that's not cool." But for the majority part, we just kind of create and we don't make somebody feel bad about the idea that they're bringing to the table.

That's beautiful. Can you tell me a little bit about how Green Balloon, your major label debut, came together?

It was really years in the making. I mean, when we went to go live out in London for three months, I wrote there, and I kept a journal. And so, those journal pages in between, my interludes, are true pages from my journal that I kept when I was living out there. So, that was a lot of influence right there alone.

"Happy Town" was about Amsterdam. It was about my first time in Amsterdam. Yeah, many don't know that, but that was a happy place, people riding their bikes and the swans... like, what? This is crazy out here. It's so freeing. And Robert Glasper, that was a dream come true. Joshua, who is my drummer, he always wanted to ask... He said, "Man, it would be great if we got Robert Glasper on this." And I'm like, "What are you talking about? We can't go get Robert Glasper on this song. What are you talking about?" And for us to be at an NPR party for the anniversary and we all in one room, you know? I'm in a room with Bilal, Black Thought, and Robert Glasper. And I see him, and I say, "Josh, don't forget that this is your moment. Go tell him what you always wanted." And that's how we got it.

I love that story. Anything's possible, right?

That's how it feels.

You've had so many breakthrough moments, from winning NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, to your performance on "Fallon" this summer – there are so many. Does any moment stick out to you from this year when you thought, "Wow, this is really taking off"?

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Man. I had an amazing year. And I've had an amazing year [every year] ever since I began doing this music full time and living out my dream. I think, quitting IHOP, I feel like it's been pretty freaking amazing ever since then. But this year touring with that album, and the crowds knowing the music, and performing at Afropunk in Brooklyn and in Paris, and meeting Michelle Obama at the Library of Congress and her telling me what her favorite poem is on my album. You're having conversations with Jill Scott and Lalah Hathaway on a regular basis, having somebody like Robert Glasper in my phone, and having two songs come out with Norah Jones and Mickey Hart, it's been an amazing year. I don't work with a gazillion people, but the ones I work with are hand-picked and very special. And they pick me. And it just really counts to me. Not too many people can say they chill with Michelle Obama, bro. Not too many people can say these things. It's crazy.

So your first album, Think Tank, just turned six years old. What do you hear now when you listen back to Think Tank? How does that make you feel?

I love to listen to certain songs, like "God Push Me," "Themeparks"… I don't know, it just feels like a part of the journey. It doesn't feel like anything that's surreal. Sometimes you just got to do it. We felt so unprepared to put out that album, and it came out, the CD's came to our house, we was working through disc makers online and just trying to press stuff ourselves, and had the album release party at one of the biggest clubs in Nola, and we were so nervous because we didn't know if the albums were even going to come that day. We waited outside all day for UPS. We were so scared.

It makes me just tell people just to do your thing even if you don't think that it's coming out right or it's the perfect time, and you're waiting for all your ducks to be in a row. They may not ever be in a row, but you got to still swim. You got to do it. You don't want to... What's worse, doing it or regretting it? Just do it because we weren't extremely proud of that work, but it connected to people on so many levels. I'm happy that we put it out.

You mentioned your hometown, New Orleans - how has that city helped shape what Tank and the Bangas are?

It's a vibe. It's not even the music. It's the fact that... everybody knows that we don't sound like a typical what you think New Orleans is… But we come from the underground of New Orleans that had all these artists just like ourselves, but not quite like us. So, it's not a sound that we cultivated that was from New Orleans, it was a spirit and a feeling that we brought with us everywhere we went. And people connected to it. Because we don't sound like what typical New Orleans is supposed to stereotypically sound like, but we feel like what New Orleans feels like, and that's just plain old good.

One of the things I love about being around you and the band is you all feel like friends. So, outside of music, what are some things the band all like to do when you're not on stage?

Well, sometimes it can be hard to go out to eat because a lot of the Bangas have stopped eating meat lately, and you already know that I still like my meat. So, when we go out to eat, we got to pick a certain restaurant, make sure they got vegan options. We like to explore cities together sometimes. And I found most days in that car is a laugh, you know?

Everybody really has their own personality and their own thing that they like to do in every city. Me, personally, I'm either eating food, writing a song, or really sleeping, or watching "Frasier" on Netflix.

Who knew, Tank's a Frasier fan!

Oh man, that's all I watch. It's weird.

Well, this has been such a huge year and a huge step to be nominated for Best New Artist. What's next for Tank and the Bangas?

What's next for Tank and the Bangas after I win this GRAMMY? [laughs]... We're just going to have a big old party, man, with everybody at home and everybody that supports us. And after that we're going to continuously make music and hopefully, what I would like, is for the videos to get crazier, but to really give people a look into Bangaville and what this was all about. I want to create this insane movement of free music that feels really good and be amongst the greats, like my favorites, like OutKast, like Earth, Wind & Fire or Funkadelic, and just remind people, people like us can win a GRAMMY, regular people, chill people that did not come from this amazing legacy of other famous people or whatever.

It's not a gimmick. That you can do your thing, that you can make your music, and that people will, they'll get it. And I think the GRAMMY needs something like that. They need a band like us, people like us to believe in again.

CTA

"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. 

Victoria Monét has won Best New Artist at the 66th GRAMMY Awards.

Tearfully accepting the award, the rising R&B star gave an eloquent speech in which she compared herself to a plant growing out of the soil of the music industry. 

“My roots have been growing underneath ground, unseen, for so long, and I feel like today I’m sprouting, finally above ground,” she said.

Monét beat out Gracie Abrams, Fred again.., Ice Spice, Jelly Roll, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, and The War and Treaty for the award. It was given out by last year’s winner, Samara Joy.

She really puts in the work and she is being rewarded now more than ever for it," producer D'Mile, who has known Monét since the beginning of her career, recently told GRAMMY.com. "She grows more and more confident and sure about what she's aiming for as she continues her journey."

This was not Monét’s first win. Her album Jaguar II won Best Engineered Album and Best R&B Album earlier in the day during the GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony.

Keep checking this space for more updates from Music’s Biggest Night!

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Nominees List

Just last year, Samara Joy joined Esperanza Spalding and Norah Jones as the few jazz musicians to win Best New Artist in the 21st century. As pianist Geoffrey Keezer noted, Joy's win is a reminder that the genre "is still a part of [music], and it's important, and it's where it all came from."

In this episode of GRAMMY Rewind, revisit the moment Joy accepted her golden gramophone at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

"I've been singing my whole life," she said. "Thank you so much for this honor. Thank you to everyone who listened to me or supported me."

"I've been watching y'all on TV for so long," Joy tearfully cooed to the audience. "To be here because of who I am — all of you have inspired me because of who you are. You express yourself, exactly who you are, authentically."

Before exiting the stage, Joy praised her record label, Verve, management, and other members of her team. Joy was a two-time winner that night, also taking home the golden gramophone for Best Jazz Vocal Album for her second studio album, 'Linger Awhile.' She earned her third nomination at the 2024 GRAMMYs, a Best Jazz Performance nod for her self-produced track "Tight."

Watch the video above to see Samara Joy's complete acceptance speech for Best New Artist at the 2023 GRAMMYs. Check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind, and tune into this year's show on Sunday, Feb. 4, airing live on the CBS Television Network (8-11:30 p.m. LIVE ET/5-8:30 p.m. LIVE PT) and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).

Meet The First-Time Nominee: Lakecia Benjamin On 'Phoenix,' Dogged Persistence & Constant Evolution

Joaquina won the Latin GRAMMY for Best New Artist at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.

Borja, Conexión Divina, Ana Del Castillo, Natascha Falcão, Gale, Paola Guanche, Paola Guanche, Leon Leiden, Maréh, and Timø were the other nominees in the category.

Along with Paola Guanche, Joaquina is an alumnus of Julio Reyes Copello's Art House Academy; she graduated last year.

The Venezuelan singer/songwriter was taken under the wing of Reyes Copello — the Latin GRAMMYs Producer Of The Year winner from 2022.

Joaquina has since flourished with her debut EP, Los Mejores Años. Therein, she explores teen ennui with the melodic, anthemic title track and the emotionally searing "Rabia."

Check out the complete list of winners and nominees at the 2023 Latin GRAMMYs.