▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Doechii: “Denial Is a River”
Whether or not she takes home a Grammy on Sunday, the dexterous Florida rapper Doechii is undoubtedly a star in the making, as this current single — structured like a raw but comedic conversation between Doechii and her therapist alter ego — demonstrates. I’d love to see her pull off an upset in the best rap album category, where her imaginative mixtape “Alligator Bites Never Heal” is nominated alongside efforts from veterans like Eminem, Common and J. Cole.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Khruangbin: “May Ninth”
The diffuse, groovy sound of the Texas trio Khruangbin is difficult to pin down, but I like the options that the writer Ryan Bradley offered in a New York Times Magazine profile from last year: “Is it psychedelic lounge dub? Desert surf rock? The sound you hear inside a lava lamp?” Let’s go with the last one. Like quite a few of this year’s nominees (Carpenter is on her sixth album; Shaboozey on his third), Khruangbin is only a “new artist” by the Grammys’ notoriously nebulous standards: The band formed in 2010 and its most recent album, the drifting, spacious “A La Sala,” is its fourth. But either way, Khruangbin is a fun, low-key wild-card in a category full of aspiring A-listers — and the only band nominated in a year that is heavy on solo acts.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Benson Boone: “Beautiful Things”
An “American Idol” dropout with a penchant for onstage back flips and the most intriguing Gen Z mustache this side of Timothée Chalamet, the 22-year-old Benson Boone blends pop crooner romanticism with rock star bombast on this dynamic hit, which blew up on TikTok and peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 last year.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Raye featuring 070 Shake: “Escapism.”
The London-born singer-songwriter Raye is no stranger to awards-show triumph: Last year, when she scored six Brit Awards, she broke the record for most wins in a single ceremony. That was largely thanks to her ambitious 2023 debut album, “My 21st Century Blues,” which drew inspiration from Amy Winehouse and Beyoncé and found Raye singing about contemporary hot-button issues like body image, climate change and, as she does on this harrowing hit, struggles with self-esteem and substance use.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Shaboozey: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Finally, let’s go out with a tune you’ve probably heard before — albeit from an artist you probably hadn’t heard of before last year. Though the 29-year-old, Virginia-born singer-songwriter has been releasing music as Shaboozey for about a decade now, he made the most of his memorable guest appearances on Beyoncé’s 2024 epic “Cowboy Carter” and, just two weeks later, put out this star-making single, which transforms J-Kwon’s ecstatic 2004 party anthem “Tipsy” into a hard-luck country tune. Might a big night for “Cowboy Carter” also mean an upset win for Shaboozey? We’ll see on Sunday.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
