CHEWING ON BEST NEW ARTISTS: OLIVIA RODRIGO

We thought we'd break out our Grammy Chew consideration of top Best New Artist contenders into bite-sized servings. We kick things off with Olivia Rodrigo.

Geffen’s teenage phenom is the new-artist story of 2021, a seemingly unstoppable freight train of pop appeal. Rodrigo kicked off the year with the massive “drivers license” (now well past the 1b mark at Spotify), then followed that up with another smash, the rocking “good 4 u.” The superb performance of her album and her compelling, zeitgeisty material (she co-writes with producer Daniel Nigro) signal the advent of an artist poised for ongoing domination. If O-Rod doesn’t make the cut, nobody should.

Check out our 12 contenders (so far) right here.