Esperanza Spalding: Grammy Award 2011 Winner For Best New Artist

Esperanza Spalding may have won the Grammy for Best New Artist, but some have reveled in her talent for years.

A 26-year old, classically trained jazz/chamber music fusion musician and singer, Spalding has been making headlines in the jazz world since before her 2006 debut solo album, “Junjo.” Having attended the Berklee Academy of Music, where she immediately became a professor after graduating at 20 years old, she began to travel with well known jazz musicians — and then, the President.

Showing prescient hipness, President Obama selected Spalding to perform at the Oslo City Hallwhen he accepted his 2009 Nobel Prize, as well as at a White House poetry jam.

“Chamber Music Society” is actually her eighth overall album, including her teenage band and collaborations with famous jazz musicians. But she’s still excited to be considered Best New Artist.

“I feel really lucky that I got to be acknowledged on this stage in front of so many people who hopefully will get to experience my music, and I got there by doing what’s really dear to my heart,” she told the AP after her win.

To earn the Grammy, she beat out an impressive field, including teen idol Justin Bieber, rapper Drake and band Florence + The Machine. Beliebers, as Bieber’s are known, hacked into her Wikipedia page after the upset win, making changes such as saying she won, “even though no one has heard of her.”

Clearly, that’s not the case.

Source: Huffington Post