Grammy curse?
PAST WINNERS REFLECT
Winning the best new artist Grammy is a goal for most breakthrough performers, but for some of its recipients, it can create pressure to match previous success or surpass it. That’s why some feel that winning the award is a slight curse. We take a look at a few acts who won best new artist and what life was like afterward.
MILLI VANILLI
Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli said even before the Grammys asked the duo to return its best new artist award, the group planned to give it back.
“We didn’t sing on the record. That is 100 per cent, so we wanted to give it back. It was the right thing to do,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “And to this day it got twisted (and people thought) the Grammys wanted it back, when in fact we were the first to say, ‘We want to give it back.’”
Milli Vanilli, who won the honour at the 1990 Grammys, had to famously return the award after the public learned Morvan and Rob Pilatus didn’t sing on the duo’s 1989 U.S. debut, “Girl You Know It’s True.”
Morvan said despite that, it was still an honour to be nominated and that he and Pilatus, who died in 1998, still put in a lot of work.
“People might say, ‘Well, you know, they didn’t sing on the record.’ But look at the rest. We were the heart and soul of Milli Vanilli. We did those 107 cities (on tour) ... in eight months,” he said. “We worked hard. We worked our butts off. We entertained people.”
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
Arrested Development marked history when they won best new artist in 1993, becoming the first rap act to do so. It opened doors for hip-hop performers like Lauryn Hill, Chance the Rapper and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to win.
“People who had never explored (hip-hop) and didn’t totally get it really got what we were bringing out,” said Speech, the lead vocalist and cofounder of the progressive rap group. “It made me proud that we were sort of like introducing hip-hop to a large audience.”
Arrested Development’s 1992 debut, “3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of...,” was a departure from the gangster rap that had dominated radio at the time. The album had three Top 10 pop hits, including “Mr. Wendal,” ‘’People Everyday” and “Tennessee,” which won the group another Grammy.
But following their debut album wasn’t an easy task, Speech said.
“For our second album, the label was more in a business model thinking about quarters and when can they make the biggest impact from a first to fourth quarter standpoint, and things that have less to do with the heart (of making music),” Speech said. “So if I had a chance to do it over again, I just would have just taken more time on the second album, regardless of how it sells.”
DEBBY BOONE
Being named best new artist in 1978 was an “out of body experience” for Debby Boone, who had a huge hit with the song, “You Light Up My Life.”
But following up the win had some challenges. “It did create pressure. And I think it added to the discouragement when that was not what happened, you know, if people believed in me and now I’m letting them down, a little bit of that,” she said.
Though Boone didn’t match the achievements of her debut album and single, she still released music that charted successfully and won more Grammy Awards.
But she admits she has “mixed feelings about” how things took off after her best new artist win.
“I thought everybody knew more than me. So even when I didn’t particularly like the choices that were being made on my behalf, I would tell myself, ‘These are the experts.’”