Spotify’s annual Best New Artist celebration has become one of Grammy week’s hottest events. We asked Global Head of Artist Partnerships & Audience Joe Hadley to give us a little background.

Tell me about the genesis of Spotify’s Best New Artist event and why it’s so important to the company.
The first one was in 2017 at the Belasco Theater in L.A. It’s grown each year, especially as the number of nominees has expanded. The campaign is so much more than just the event, though; we give additional visibility to each nominee through our platform, billboards and marketing. The fact that it's become one of the key events leading up to Music's Biggest Night is something we’re really proud of.

How is Spotify helping familiarize audiences with the nominees?
Over the past six years, we’ve supported the BNA nominees by programming their music on playlists across the platform and increased that visibility via video and socials, among other avenues, connecting them to our 400m+ listeners worldwide. We were early champions of Anitta, Omar Apollo, Muni Long, Latto, Måneskin, Molly Tuttle and Wet Leg, to name a few.

In the three weeks leading up to the BNA event, we deepen the connection between nominees and listeners by giving the artists space to share their career journeys. The 2023 iteration of our "Best New Artist" playlist features new video clips from each of the nominees. There are also exclusive Spotify Singles, and we’ve created other content around the 10 artists like surprise appearances from some of the creatives who've been important to their work.

What can you tell us about the roles the various members of your team play putting all this together? Also, what can you tell us about Jeremy’s current facial-hair situation?
An astonishing number of people on Spotify teams work together to make this event and campaign happen. The experiential team starts scouting venues and coming up with concepts months in advance; the content and production teams work on the back end; and our music team works with managers and labels to ensure that every artist feels celebrated the whole week. We try really hard to make this moment a special one.

As for Jeremy, who knows? Maybe he’ll be hairless at the event. You’ll have to come to find out.

Hadley is seen above with HITS Worst Old Hack nominee Simon Glickman. The Jeremy Erlich photomontage is brought to you by Dollar Shave Club.