{"id":99887,"date":"2025-10-25T04:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/99887\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T04:49:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T04:49:15","slug":"samara-joy-reflects-on-her-grammy-wins-and-the-creative-journey-behind-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/99887\/","title":{"rendered":"Samara Joy reflects on her Grammy wins and the creative journey behind ‘Portrait’"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Samara Joy\u2019s voice<\/a> has the ability to transform listeners to the early jazz clubs, filling them with warm nostalgia for legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.<\/p>\n

At 25, Joy is a five-time Grammy winning recording artist, whose album, \u201cLinger Awhile\u201d won her best new artist and best jazz vocal album in 2023. She\u2019s been praised by artists like Chaka Khan, Regina King and Quincy Jones and has amassed a large following of her Gen-Z peers on TikTok, introducing a new generation to jazz.<\/p>\n

Last year, Joy released \u201cPortrait,\u201d her third and most personal studio album allowing listeners into the tension between excitement and feeling overwhelmed that often follows a whirlwind of accolades and success. Her first original song \u201cPeace of Mind\u201d fully captures this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote it in a time where I was really questioning whether I could continue or not because I was so exhausted,\u201d said Joy. \u201cI reminded myself through that Sun Ra composition that I have experienced something wonderful, and it doesn\u2019t have to be the end all be all. This is just the beginning \u2026 this is just a springboard for all of the other creative ideas that I have and what I feel like I have to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Samara<\/p>\n

Samara Joy poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n

Samara Joy poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

For Joy, releasing \u201cPortrait\u201d was a creative challenge and a turning point toward trusting her creative instincts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taught me a lot about what I can do and to stand firm in the creative vision and the direction that I see for myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Joy sat down with The Associated Press to talk about life post-Grammy wins, how diving into \u201cPortrait\u201d helped her grow as an artist and what it means to make her mark on the classic genre. <\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Samara<\/p>\n

Samara Joy poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n

Samara Joy poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

AP: How does it feel to look back on \u201cPortrait\u201d and how have you grown from that moment into the new projects that you\u2019re working on?<\/p>\n

JOY: This album was a turning point. Because I feel like it was the first time I really had to make a decision about what my path was going to be. With the first two albums, it was just songs that I loved and felt like I could interpret as my own. And this album, \u201cPortrait,\u201d was the first time I felt like I took the reins of creative direction and band mates and songs. And honestly kind of opened up even more to my band mates and said, arrange. I want you guys to orchestrate this next era.<\/p>\n

So, it was definitely a big leap, I think, from maybe what people thought I should do after the second album after the best new artist. And I think this album taught me the importance of patience and not rushing to stay relevant or spark up a moment or just stay in that moment. It taught me to just take my time and really wait until you have something you feel like you have to say.<\/p>\n

AP: I want to go back to that moment of winning best new artist. Talk to me about that moment and kind of having this surreal moment of \u201cOh wow, I\u2019m being celebrated by my idols and by people that I\u2019ve looked up to for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

JOY: I never expected to be nominated. I never thought that that was a possibility, at least so early on in my career.<\/p>\n

Even thinking about it now, I can see everybody still and still feel the way that I felt that night. It\u2019s a night that I will never ever forget. And I\u2019m thankful. I\u2019m really thankful to everybody who believed in me enough to allow me to have that moment, who voted, who listened to my music, who support me then and still support me now. Which is why I never want to lose sight of what I do this for.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Samara<\/p>\n

Samara Joy poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n

Samara Joy poses for a portrait in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

AP: You\u2019ve been praised by Chaka Khan, by Regina King. Was there any one specific person that once you connected with them, they shared something about your music that influenced the way that you looked at yourself and your own approach?<\/p>\n

JOY: A couple years ago I did the Hollywood Bowl and it was a birthday celebration for Quincy Jones \u2014 Patti Austin, I got the chance to sing alongside of her. And backstage, you know, she was funny and sharp and quick, but she was just very supportive and very honest. And that meant a lot to me from somebody who has been in the industry for as long as she has and collaborated with Quincy Jones and George Benson and James Ingram and all these people to be so encouraging on this new journey as I kind of embark on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP: Does it feel like an act of reclamation and resistance being a Black woman in jazz who is at the top who is making it in the mainstream and bringing the genre back to a new generation?<\/p>\n

JOY: I guess I never thought about it that way. There are so many wonderful artists that I draw inspiration from \u2014 Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington through the course of their lives contributed to the changing to the evolution of the music that we call jazz. I know that there\u2019s always gonna be a certain sense of nostalgia and a certain artist or song that people can connect to or relate to easily because jazz is not mainstream, at least to me, I don\u2019t think unless it is really, really, really, really watered down, I don\u2019t think it will be.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s an opportunity for me to once again be authentic and show people like, \u201cHave you ever heard of this Abby Lincoln song?\u201d Or maybe this Thelonious Monk song doesn\u2019t have lyrics, but I can put lyrics to them and share a different, you know, a different compositional style. And a different voice in jazz. And so I guess that\u2019s my way of reclaiming it and educating in a way and just introducing people to the sound that they may not recognize at first, but good music is good music.<\/p>\n

AP: You get compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. What does that mean to you?<\/p>\n

JOY: I feel very honored and sometimes undeserving because of how new my relationship to their music was initially. I hadn\u2019t really listened to their music or their voices at all growing up and getting introduced to them in college, it just felt like another world had opened up and I felt like I wanna sing, I wanna be able to move people the way that they move me with their voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Samara Joy\u2019s voice has the ability to transform listeners to the early jazz clubs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[73086,73084,13626,11637,73085,156,26626,33340,157,111,139,69,73087,48356,73083],"class_list":{"0":"post-99887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-abby-lincoln","9":"tag-billy-strayhorn","10":"tag-celebrity-interviews","11":"tag-chaka-khan","12":"tag-duke-ellington","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-grammy-awards","15":"tag-jazz","16":"tag-music","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-patti-austin","21":"tag-quincy-jones","22":"tag-sarah-vaughan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}