Mt. Lebanon singer Daya gets her first Grammy nomination
Mt. Lebanon native Daya will be the rare teenager walking the red carpet on Feb. 12 at the 59th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
The 18-year-old pop star, born Grace Tandon, has earned her first Grammy nomination, for best dance recording, for her sultry vocal on “Don’t Let Me Down,” a fourtimes platinum No. 3 hit with hot New York City DJ/producer duo The Chainsmokers.
She was awakened by the news Tuesday morning in a Boston hotel room after playing a show with The Chainsmokers Monday night. “I got a bunch of texts from my manager and then my publicist, and I was like, ‘What is going on? I never have this much activity on my phone,’ ” she said in a phone interview, having just arrived back in Pittsburgh. “And I look and I see just ‘GRAMMY.’ And I just freaked the hell out. I just danced around my hotel room, just complete chaos.”
The song was previously nominated (but did not win) at the American Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards, and the accompanying video has been viewed more than 485 million times on YouTube.
Daya first hit the charts in the summer of 2015 with the single “Hide Away” (No. 23) after being discovered at the Accelerando Music Conservatory in Canonsburg by LA producer Gino Barletta. She followed that with “Sit Still, Look Pretty” (No. 28), the title track to her debut album, which was released in October.
Andrew Taggert of The Chainsmokers told The New York Times in July that they chose Daya because “Hide Away” was blowing up, and “When I heard that, I knew that she had the range. Her voice was pretty unique and didn’t sound like other people on the radio.”
“I loved it at first listen and said, ‘I need to be a part of this,’ ” she said. “That was about a year ago. It’s crazy everything that’s happened since then. It was my first collaboration ever so I was just excited and honored to be a part of it. I knew it would help us out mutually, and I knew it was a great song,
but I don’t think I ever saw it going as far as the Grammys.”
Superstars Beyonce and Adele, with nine and five nominations respectively, will square off for album of the year, song of the year and record of the year. Beyonce spread out her “Lemonade” nominations across various categories, including two video nominations and best rock performance, with Jack White, for “Don’t Hurt Yourself.”
Drake earned seven nominations, including album of the year for “Views,” while Kanye West and his “The Life of Pablo” accounted for eight nominations but none in a major category, where he has yet to win.
Adele, Beyonce and Drake will have competition in the album of the year category from an odd couple of two named artists: 38-year-old Kentucky country-soul singer Sturgill Simpson and 22-year-old pop idol Justin Bieber, who won his first Grammy last year for the dance recording “Where Are Ü Now” (with Jack Ü). Along with his album of the year nomination for “Purpose,” Biebs is up for song of the year for “Love Yourself.”
David Bowie, one of this year’s heartbreaking losses, had just one career Grammy win, not for “Ziggy Stardust” or “Let’s Dance” but for the 1984 video “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean.” The rock icon, who died in January just two days after releasing his 25th album, “Blackstar,” is nominated for alternative music album, rock performance and rock song for the title track. Also nominated for alternative album is friend and collaborator Iggy Pop for “Post Pop Depression.”
While 12-time Grammy winner Paul Simon received zero nominations for his acclaimed “Stranger to Stranger” album, metal band Disturbed has a best rock performance nod for its cover of his classic “The Sound of Silence.”
The 59th annual Grammy Awards will air live on CBS on Feb. 12 at 8 p.m., with James Corden as host.
Here are the nominees in the top categories:
Album of the Year: “25,” Adele; “Lemonade,” Beyonce; “Purpose,” Justin Bieber; “Views,” Drake; “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth,” Sturgill Simpson.
Record of the Year: “Hello,” Adele; “Formation,” Beyonce; “7 Years,” Lukas Graham; “Work,” Rihanna featuring Drake; “Stressed Out,” Twenty One Pilots.
Song of the Year: “Formation,” Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan, Beyonce Knowles & Michael L. Williams II, songwriters (Beyonce); “Hello,” Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Adele); “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” Mike Posner, songwriter (Mike Posner); “Love Yourself,” Justin Bieber, Benjamin Levin & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Justin Bieber); “7 Years,” Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Pilegaard & Morten Ristorp, songwriters (Lukas Graham).
Best New Artist: Kelsea Ballerini, The Chainsmokers, Chance The Rapper, Maren Morris, Anderson .Paak.