Samara Joy ’21 is the Grammy’s Best New Artist!
The jazz sensation also won Best New Jazz Vocal Album.
Congratulations to Samara Joy ’21—who’s been taking the Jazz world by storm—now has two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best New Jazz Vocal Album for her second album, Linger Awhile.
“Every so often a new vocalist blows everyone on the jazz scene away with their distinctive style, charm, and dexterity. Samara Joy is that new voice that’s giving new purpose to the music.” —Jazz Times
Ceremonious
Watch Joy perform “Can’t Get Out Of This Mood” at the 2023 GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony.
“Samara Joy is a self-possessed, deeply emotive vocalist, with power that usually takes a lot of living to master. But the Purchase College graduate has got it in spades.” —Downbeat
Social Cues
Joy is a TIkTok sensation with more than 216k followers. She’s introducing Gen Z to Jazz standards. Read more from a recent New York Times feature, Samara Joy’s Voice (and Social Media) Is Helping Jazz Find Fresh Ears.
The video of her celebrating in Penn Station, filmed by her sister when she first learned of her Grammy nominations, got 3.9M views on TikTok.
Her social media virality began with a performance of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Take Love Easy” during the pandemic, accompanied by Professor Pete Malinverni.
Visiting Affiliate Artist and virtuoso guitarist Pasquale Grasso and legendary Jazz drummer and lecturer of music Kenny Washington accompany Joy on Linger Awhile.
See her interview on MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber.
While a student at Purchase (using her last name McLendon) she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, the prestigious award known as “The Sassy.”