Do you think that it grinds Victoria Justice's gears that Leon Thomas and Ariana Grande both won Grammys this year, and Victoria Justice never even won a Kid's Choice Award?
I don't think it does. And it shouldn't. She's doing her thing and making solid pop music in her own right.
This single from 2024, cowritten by the artist, Toby Gad and Will Jay, is an example of that solid pop music she is making. She's got a bigger voice than I think she gets credit for, and I suspect that the accolades are going to come soon.
This post keeps getting shuffled around, and today, I decided I was done doing that.
Blondshell had a breakout 2025 with her album.... correction, albumS. If You Asked For A Picture was absolutely one of the best albums of 2025. On my Wicked25, it was literally the LAST cut and I don't think I would have cut it if I made that list today.
This song, one of the singles from the album, is a large reason why I thought so highly of the album. Cowritten by Sabrina Teitelbaum (AKA Blondshell) and Sam Stewart, it's a upbeat album about being judged for having a kid too soon.
I mentioned two albums. She also released Another Picture, which contained a lot of reimagined versions of the same songs.... including this one, reimagined as a duet with Samia.
Live in Boston in 2025, Blondshell opened her show with a rousing performance of this song.
The crowd loved it.
Also, stick around for the whole thing. The whole show is great and there's a reason you're going to see the same show posted on Totally Covered today.
The acoustics were a little better in the KEXP studios.
Also, I'm pretty sure those are prescription sunglasses.
Brad Arnold - lead vocalist and drummer - passed away yesterday at age 47 after a relatively short battle with cancer. The entire music community paid their respects, so I left it was time for us to do the same.
This 2008 single, from their self-titled fourth album, made it to the top 20 on the US Pop Charts - their last visit to those heights in this country on pop radio (although they continued to garner rock radio airplay consistently), was originally written for the remake of the movie The Poseiden Adventure, but the filmmakers ended up not wanting it.
The band kept it. And it ended up being a hit. This song about resilience, written by the band, ended up resonating with people.
The band never stopped touring even after their hitmaking days were behind them. Here they are performing this song on a cruise in 2024. They still bring the same energy.
Brad Arnold will be missed. Our best wishes go out to him, the band, and his family.
I wanted to end this week with another Best New Artist nominee from the Grammys - and I had three choices, really.
I went with the most glittery one.
I struggle with liking sombr a little bit - but it may just be because his music doesn't fit into a nice genre-box like I want it to - kinda falling into the same box for me as Tame Impala. But his album I Barely Know Her (Sombr? But I barely know her!) is excellent. His voice is huge, and his music is fun and disco-tingled.
Since I could not find a suitable Grammys performance, I went with his SNL performance of this song.... which, really, had him bringing just as much energy.
I am personally impressed by his ability to go seamlessly between deep growl and significant falsetto.... live!
Leon Thomas was nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy and was part of the medley.
So yeah. Of course I am going to.
Because he is making excellent R&B music.
And also, because he was nominated for six Grammys and WON two of them..... and one of the nominations he didn't win was Best New Artist, but since he WON a Grammy in the Best R&B Song category in 2024, his was possibly the most baffling nomination in the category.
His two wins were for Best R&B Album - which was for the album for which this was the title song - and Best Traditional R&B Performance. He absolutely deserved them for Mutt.
As an aside, he was one of two Victorious alumni to win Grammys this year - Ariana Grande being the other. Which is kind of a weird statistic. No other TV show to my knowledge can claim that this year.
And "Mutt" is a great song. Thomas wrote the song (there are other cowriters for the music) while microdosing on psychedelics and watching his dog and cat fight. True story.
Thomas has released several versions of his hit, including a couple of official remixes. Here is one of them.
One of these versions was the one he recorded he recorded for the NPR Tiny Desk Concert series.
This VERSION was specifically nominated for a Grammy (that it did not win - but it's pretty great).
But you're here for the Grammy performance, right?
Well, goody. But we can't. It was an R&B/rock fusion, for sure - and starmaking. And we can't show it to you.
We CAN show you the equally good BET Awards performance, though.
So, seems like we're talking about Best New Artist nominees this week. I guess.
I actually didn't like this song until Sunday.
That's when I heard his Grammy performance as part of the Best New Artist medley. And, despite his earpiece issues (which are preventing me from finding a suitable video of the performance just yet but I still have a couple of days), he killed it.
So, I gave the song another chance.
And, you know what? I get the criticism of his vocals being bored and/or bland.... but also, I don't think they are. He CLEARLY enjoys performing this song. And, being a social media guy - one of the founders of the same Hype House that spawned Addison Rae - he's occupying an interesting spot in music right now.
By the way, this song has been a top 5 hit for almost a year. As of this writing, it still sits at #5 on the US charts. (Edit: as of publishing, still #7)
And the song is actually pretty sweet lyrically.
So, OK, I'm a fan now.
I know I didn't get his Grammy performance in here, but I *did* find a kind of similar one, from The Tonight Show.
But I had this free day, and I was watching the Grammys..... and this song won Best Pop Solo Performance. Lola Young was so charming in her speech, I couldn't skip it.
She had no speech prepared.
I'm very happy for her.
From her second album This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway, Lola wrote the song just before her ADHD diagnosis..... which makes sense, because this song is, no joke, an anthem to ADHD. It is a thing of beauty. It is, indeed, just as messy as its title.
Lola won a Grammy, but she was nominated for two - the other being Best.... New Artist. For her second album. And, by the way, her third album (I'm Only F**king Myself) was released in September.
But, as a nominee, she was part of the fabulous BNA medley. And she took full advantage of her two minutes!
Unfortunately, the Grammys won't let us use that video. But we found a way.
This is Lola Young's only US hit song to date - something that I expect to change. She's still really young - and this Tonight Show performance is a lot of the reason why it was a hit.
