Lady Gaga inspires change in Grammy rules for Best New Artist, finally making it even more arbitrary

By Sean O'Neal | July 7, 2010 | 5:38pm

Aux Features Music

Last year’s unconscionable snub of Lady Gaga for a Best New Artist Grammy left the nation reeling, wondering whether that hallowed category—and indeed, the entire Grammy system—had been exposed as a meaningless sham, irrelevant to all but insular industry types whose evaluation of music is based solely on sales figures and inscrutable Q-rating algorithms. Fortunately, that nightmare scenario will no longer be allowed to repeat itself: Ms. Gaga was the last victim of a cruel stipulation stating that anyone previously nominated for an award—as she was in 2009 for Best Dance Recording—could not logically be considered a “new artist,” and therefore undeserving of an award that’s always delivered about nine months after a performer's moment in the zeitgeist anyway.

But through Gaga’s suffering, the award has been reborn, and now the rules state that musicians are eligible “if an artist/group is nominated (but does not win) for the release of a single or as a featured artist or collaborator on a compilation or other artist’s album before the artist/group has released an entire album (and becomes eligible in this category for the first time).” That means that fresh-faced newcomers like Drake—who received two nominations last year while also performing at the ceremony—is now considered a front-runner, having only recently released his full-length debut despite being all over the radio for what feels like several years now. So keep your eye on that kid; he might be going places.