Music treasure Natalie Cole set a career milestone for Best New Artist at the 18th Annual Grammy Awards in 1976.
Cole, the daughter of the towering jazz and pop figure Nat King Cole, became the first R&B artist to win the prestigious award. She is also the first Black artist to win the coveted award.
Similar to the gold trophy for Album of the Year, Best New Artist isn’t an honor the Recording Academy just presents to any artist. Under the award’s initial eligibility rules, the Best New Artist is a breakout performer who releases, during the eligibility year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. Above all, any previous Grammy nomination for the artist as performer precludes eligibility in the Best New Artist category.
However, after Lady Gaga was excluded from the category in 2010 for being nominated prior to the ceremony, the rules were changed and have allowed previous Grammy nominees to be eligible, as long as the artist hasn’t released an entire album and doesn’t win.
Following the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, the Recording Academy decided to increase the number of nominees in the big four fields (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist) from five to eight. The shift in nominees first made an impact at the 2019 ceremony.
Since the new ruling, no R&B artist has won the Best New Artist respected award. John Legend is the last true R&B artist to take home the award, and he won the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in 2006.
