Congratulations to Verve recording artist Samara Joy, who attended her first GRAMMY Awards® last night and took home awards for Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album. The 23-year-old “once in a generation” vocalist, who accepted the auspicious Best New Artist award from last year’s winner Olivia Rodrigo, was glowing with pride and humility as she thanked her family during an emotional acceptance speech. Earlier in the evening, Samara earned a standing ovation for her Premiere Ceremony performance of “Can’t Get Out Of This Mood,” just before becoming the youngest person to take home the Best Jazz Vocal Album award for Linger Awhile, out now on Verve. Hits Magazine pointed out “The Best New Artist is currently the biggest new artist on the sales charts.” Joy’s Linger Awhile (Verve) is currently #1 at iTunes and Amazon’s digital-music and CD-sales charts,with Bonnie Raitt, Harry Styles and Beyoncé behind her in the Grammy push.
“I’ve been singing all my life… Thank you so much for this honor, thank you to everyone who has listened to me and supported me,” Samara told a packed crowd at Crypto.comArena during the final moments of the 65th Annual GRAMMY Awards® broadcast. “To be here because of who I am…to be here by just being myself, by just being who I was born as, I’m so thankful.”
Listen to Samara Joy’s GRAMMY-winning album Linger Awhile, out now on Verve, here.
At just 23 years old, Samara possesses a unique ability to reinvigorate beloved songs and standards for a fresh audience, as evidenced by her proliferating TikTok following. Music has always been central to the Bronx native’s family – her grandparents led the acclaimed Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes, and her father toured with the Andrae Crouch – yet it wasn’t until Samara was asked to sit in with her high school jazz band that she discovered her passion for the genre. In 2019, Samara took home the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition prize while earning her degree from SUNY Purchase’s jazz studies program, and eventually graduated as the Ella Fitzgerald Scholar.
2022 found Samara Joy dazzling crowds at jazz clubs, festivals, and cultural institutions across the globe, including her “glowing, auspicious debut” (NPR) at the Newport Jazz Festival, and performing on NBC’s Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The New York Times praised the “silky-voiced rising star” for “helping jazz take a youthful turn” while NPR All Things Considered named her a “classic jazz singer from a new generation.” Her Verve Records debut album Linger Awhile was spotlighted on “Best of The Year” lists by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Ebony, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Slate, JazzTimes and more. So far in 2023, Samara has appeared and/or performed on CBS Mornings, the Jennifer Hudson Show, the Drew Barrymore Show, among others.
Recorded at Sear Sound in New York City by Chris Allen and produced by Matt Pierson, Linger Awhile features exemplary musicianship by Pasquale Grasso
(guitar), Ben Paterson (piano), David Wong (double bass), and Kenny Washington (drums). The tracklist is comprised of treasured songs by George Gershwin (“Someone To Watch Over Me”) and Thelonious Monk (“Round Midnight”), and also includes Samara’s original lyrics on Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia (The Day I knew).” While paying homage to those who came before her, Samara is introducing a new audience to standards several times older than she is through her timeless, irresistible sound.
Samara Joy will perform Valentine’s Day shows at the historic Greenwich Village Blue Note before a string of international tour dates in late February and March. Later this spring, she will return to her hometown NYC for her Village Vanguard debut.
