When Samara Joy beat Anitta, Omar Apollo, DOMi & JD Beck, Muni Long, Latto, Måneskin, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle and Wet Leg for the Grammy New Artist of the Year and Cécile McLorin Salvant, The Manhattan Transfer, Carmen Lundy and The Baylor Project for the Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy, people starting asking ‘Who is Samara Joy’.
American Jazz singer Samara Joy McLendon is 23 years old. She released her first album in 2021 and then the two-time Grammy Award winning album ‘Linger Awhile’ in September 2022, just four months before these Grammy Awards.
Samara was born in the Bronx, New York in 1999. In 2019 she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition which led her to producer and now her manager Matt Pierson.
The ‘Samara Joy’ album was released in July 2021. She new how to work the socials. Her videos gained her 200,000 views on Tik Tok which led to a tour of Europe and an appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival. And the Newport Jazz festival and an appearance on the Today Show.
Samara earned herself a spot on Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2022. The second album was then released last 2022.
Samara Joy is only the second jazz singer to win the Grammy Best new Artist Award. The first was Esperanza Spalding in 2011.
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