Hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. You can’t always tell who will or won’t have the biggest career based on that first year they hit it big. So while some winners of the award become superstars (The Beatles, Mariah Carey), others flame out (Milli Vanilli). Still others become superstars without winning breakthrough honors from the recording academy. Click through our photo gallery to scratch the surface of legendary stars who didn’t win.
-
Bob Dylan
Image Credit: Dezo Hoffmann/REX Consider that Bob Dylan, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, wasn’t even nominated for Best New Artist. The folk legend released his self-titled debut album in 1962. That year, Best New Artist went to Robert Goulet.
-
Stevie Wonder
Image Credit: ITV/REX Stevie Wonder shares the record for most Album of the Year victories for an artist (three) with Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon, but when he released his first album in 1962 at age 12, he wasn’t recognized in the New Artist contest.
-
Beach Boys
Image Credit: News Ltd/Newspix/REX The Beach Boys released their debut album “Surfin’ Safari” in 1962, but despite recording iconic songs like “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls” and “God Only Knows,” they never won any competitive Grammy until “Smile Sessions” won Best Historical Album in 2012. They also won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.
-
Barbra Streisand
Image Credit: Graham Attwood/REX Barbra Streisand actually won Album of the Year for her debut, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” in 1963, but she wasn’t nominated for Best New Artist. Instead, that prize went to the Swingle Sisters.
-
Rolling Stones
Image Credit: Trevor Clark/REX The Rolling Stones couldn’t get no satisfaction when the released their debut album in the US in 1964. In fact, they didn’t win a single Grammy until their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985. They finally won a pair of competitive Grammys in 1994 for their album “Voodoo Lounge” and music video “Love is Strong.”
-
Fleetwood Mac
Image Credit: Renee Nowytarger/Newspix/REX Fleetwood Mac only won a single competitive Grammy, but it was a big one: Album of the Year for their iconic “Rumours” in 1977. They weren’t nominated for Best New Artist when they released their debut album in 1968.
-
Elton John
Image Credit: REX Elton John actually was nominated for Best New Artist in 1970, but he lost to The Carpenters. It took him 16 years to finally win his first Grammy: Pop Duo/Group for “That’s What Friends Are For.” To date he has won just five awards in all.
-
Bruce Springsteen
Image Credit: AGF s.r.l./REX Bruce Springsteen didn’t make the cut for Best New Artist when he debuted with the album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” in 1973. It took more than a decade for him to win his first award, Male Rock Vocal for “Dancing in the Dark” in 1984, but since then he has won a whopping 20 times.
-
U2
Image Credit: Bleddyn Butcher/REX Irish rockers U2 have won 22 Grammys, more than any other band, including a pair of Album of the Year prizes for “The Joshua Tree” (1987) and “How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb” (2005), but they weren’t nominated for Best New Artist when their debut album, “Boy,” was released in 1980.
-
Madonna
Image Credit: Araldo di Crollalanza/REX Madonna‘s self-titled debut album was released in 1983, but she didn’t receive a Best New Artist nomination. She didn’t win her first of seven Grammys until 1991, when she claimed Best Long-Form Music Video for “Blond Ambition World Tour Live.
-
Whitney Houston
Image Credit: John Grainger/Newspix/REX Whitney Houston was one of the biggest movie superstars of all time, but she was never nominated for Best New Artist. Nevertheless, she eventually won Album of the Year for “The Bodyguard” soundtrack, and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
-
Shania Twain
Image Credit: ERIK C PENDZICH/REX One of the best-selling country stars of all-time, Shania Twain was nominated for Best New Artist in 1995, when her breakthrough album, “The Woman in Me” went 12-times platinum. She lost that award to Hootie and the Blowfish, who never matched the success of their debut “Cracked Rear View.” Meanwhile, Twain released a follow-up album (“Come on Over”) that went 20-times platinum, and another (“Up”) that went 11-times platinum.
-
Eminem
Image Credit: Giovanni Canitano/REX Eminem is one of the biggest stars in rap music, but Grammy voters aren’t usually fond of rap artists in the general field. His debut album “Infinite” flew under the radar in 1996, but his breakthrough follow-up “The Slim Shady LP” (1999) also failed to secure him a Grammy nom for Best New Artist. Nevertheless, he has won 15 Grammys to date.
-
Beyonce
Image Credit: David Fisher/REX Superstar Beyonce wasn’t nominated for Best New Artist, either with her group Destiny’s Child, which released their debut album in 1998, or subsequently as a solo artist. That didn’t slow her down, though. She’s one of the biggest winners in Grammy history.
-
Kanye West
Image Credit: Brian J. Ritchie/Hotsauce/REX Rapper Kanye West was an immediate critical and commercial success when he released his debut album, “The College Dropout,” in 2004. He was indeed nominated for Best New Artist, but he yet another artist struck down by the recording academy’s bias against hip-hop. He lost to Maroon 5, but to date he has won 21 Grammys.
-
Taylor Swift
Image Credit: REX Shutterstock Taylor Swift was nominated for Best New Artist in 2007 when she was a teenage country princess. That award went to Amy Winehouse, who tragically succombed to her addictions in 2011. Since then, Swift became the youngest ever winner of Album of the Year, for “Fearless” (2009) when she was only 20, and she’s now a crossover pop music queen.
-
Lady Gaga
Image Credit: John Grainger/Newspix/REX Lady Gaga was nominated for Best Dance Recording for “Just Dance” in 2008, but she wasn’t nominated for Best New Artist. The following year, her debut album “The Fame” earned her the first of three straight bids for Album of the Year, and the iconic star has won many Grammys since then — and an Oscar to boot.
-
Kendrick Lamar
Image Credit: Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock Kendrick Lamar lost Best New Artist to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, but Lamar has gotten the last laugh. He has won more than a dozen Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize, and he earned an Oscar nomination for “All the Stars” from “Black Panther” (2018).
