ON THE COVER: SOMBR

The cover of our newest print mag sports the visage of Warner’s sombr, who turned 20 shortly before this issue went to press and is arguably the new-artist story of the year. His “back to friends” hit #1 on Spotify global and is hovering in the U.S. Top 5. Newer track “undressed” is also streaming superbly. There’s Grammy buzz aplenty around the willowy rookie, who could teach a master class in TikTok and other social marketing; he looks like a lock for a BNA nom at the very least. All in all, sombr has little reason to be somber—except, perhaps, his appearance on our very sad rag.