GRAMMY CHEW: SUMMER'S TIME TO SHINE

With songs like “I’ll Kill You” and the triple-platinum “Girls Need Love,” Summer Walker has a clear knack for penning emotive R&B ballads centered on heartbreak and subsequent revenge. Since her 2019 ascension to the mainstream, the LVRN/Interscope breakout has positioned herself in the upper echelon of modern R&B chanteuses and should thus be due some Grammy love this year.

Walker’s sophomore album, Still Over It, arrived in November 2021 with an array of star guests and became her biggest-selling project to date. Scoring 166k+ in activity its inaugural week, it afforded the artist her first #1. Still Over It also broke the Apple Music record for the most album streams in a single day by a female artist.

Often unabashed in her delivery—the casual-sex anthem “No Love” f/ SZA comes to mind—Walker nonetheless manages to retain a gentleness that allows for plenty of vulnerability. Will her vibrant material earn her some long-overdue Grammy recognition? Stay tuned.