The Grammy Awards had a truly deserving Best New Artist awardee in Olivia Dean.

The “Man I Need” singer aced the coveted New Artist plum, besting Addison Rae, Alex Warren, Leon Thomas, Sombr (read as Somber), The Marias, and KATSEYE (with its Pinay member) with good reason: her brand of neo soul-tinged pop R&B is infectious to say the least.

Here’s Olivia Dean by the numbers: “Man I Need” has close to three-fourths of a billion listens, and she has over 58 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, and that doesn’t even include all other relevant music streaming platforms. It hasn't even been a year since Olivia Dean released this particular single that eventually became a part of her excellent “The Art of Loving” album, which was released last August 2025.

She wasn’t even a blip on my listening radar until I fully embraced her songs and wrote about her and became the subject of my first-ever article for the year 2026.

She’s that new. Or is she?

Here’s the thing about being labeled as “New Artists” by award-giving bodies like the Grammys or the Awit Awards. These “new” acts have actually been making music for a considerable time.

Let’s take Olivia Dean further as an example. The future Grammy-winner started her music journey at 15 years old when she attended a music school to hone her talents. By age 16, she was already trying her hand at writing and eventually shifted from musical theatre to songwriting in school. When she turned 17 she was already busking. By 2018, she had posted her first YouTube video doing a cover of Aretha Franklin. A year later, she had self-released her debut “Reason To Stay,” and from there, she followed it up with another DIY single and continued until she was signed to a label in 2019. Back in 2023, she was even hailed by the BBC as Artist Of The Year. Fast-forward to February 2026 at the Grammys: she’s a fresh-faced 26-year-old singer who seemingly came out of nowhere to capture the ears of listeners worldwide. But the truth is, she’s been slogging for more than a decade before reaching that point. By all accounts, Olivia Dean was a veteran performer when she won “Best New Artist.”

It’s the same with homegrown artists. Rob Deniel was an unknown 16-year-old when he recorded “Ulap” on a cellphone, which got him noticed. Fast forward to now, he’s about to do a solo concert at The Smart Araneta Center (on Feb. 27, to be exact). Janine Tenoso was only fifteen when she first came out with her first-ever self-written song titled “Fall.” A year short of a decade as a singer, she just reached the 100-million streaming milestone for her cover of “Di Na Muli.” Lastly, Cup Of Joe were virtual unknowns when I booked them for a spot at MOR 101.9’s award show at the Araneta Coliseum back in 2015. Ten years later, they are the hot-band-of-the-moment.

You do see what I’m driving at here, don’t you? There’s nothing instant about having success in the music business. Everybody has to grind. When you see someone at the top having their moment in the spotlight, dressed up by a stylist, fully made up, and doing press conferences, that’s just the glam side of it. It’s the proverbial tip of the iceberg: the real heft of work is unseen underneath.

So if you’re dreaming about being Best New Artist for pop music someday, better start grinding today.