What Grammy Best New Artist winner has aged the worst?
These are some Best New Artist Grammy picks who, in retrospect, were bad or at least questionable choices for the win. Some were obvious even when it happened, others took time to show.
1963 - Robert Goulet over The Four Seasons and Peter, Paul & Mary
1968 - Bobbie Gentry over Jefferson Airplane and The 5th Dimension
1969 - José Feliciano over Cream
1970 - Crosby, Stills & Nash over Led Zeppelin and Chicago
(Given CSN are legendary in their own right, and are easily justifiable over Chicago...but them over Led Zeppelin is egregious)
- 1971 - The Carpenters over Elton John
(Once again, no disrespect to the winner, but this did not age well at all)
1973 - America over The Eagles
1977 - Starland Vocal Band over Boston
1978 - Debby Boone over Foreigner and Andy Gibb
1979 - A Taste of Honey over The Cars, Elvis Costello, and Toto
1980 - Rickie Lee Jones over Dire Straits
1981 - Christopher Cross over The Pretenders
1982 - Sheena Easton over Luther Vandross
1984 - Culture Club over Eurythmics
1992 - Marc Cohn over Boyz II Men
1996 - Hootie & the Blowfish over Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain
1998 - Paula Cole over Fiona Apple
2001 - Shelby Lynne over Brad Paisley and Papa Roach
2011 - Esperanza Spalding over Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and The Machine, and Mumford & Sons
(I do think it's valid to award an underground artist over pop stars, but MAN...the only non-name in a stacked field)
- 2013 - Fun. over Alabama Shakes, The Lumineers, and Frank Ocean*
*(Maybe if Fun. continued their hot streak this would be okay, but all three of these other artists either went huge or became acclaimed in their genres)
- 2014 - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis over James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Kacey Musgraves, and Ed Sheeran
(No offense to Macklemore but literally all four other nominees would've been far better picks in hindsight)
2018 - Alessia Cara over SZA
2024 - Victoria Monét over Gracie Abrams, Noah Kahan, Ice Spice, and Jelly Roll
(I could easily be wrong on this one but I don't think Victoria has achieved more relevance and recognition than any of those four juuust yet. It's on track to age poorly but there's ample time.)