With all the eligible music finally on sale (or streaming) and ballots about to hit the mail, America’s other campaign season starts now for the 59th annual Grammy Awards (Feb. 12, CBS, in Los Angeles), as women dominate (Adele, Beyoncé), hip-hop royalty likely reigns (Kanye, Drake) and the potential best new artist nominees — CHANCE THE RAPPER, MAREN MORRIS and ALESSIA CARA — have never looked so revolutionary
FOR SOMEONE WHO’S 48 hours away from mounting a one-day music festival that will draw 47,000 fans, Chance the Rapper looks remarkably chill. On a soundstage at Essanay Studios in his native Chicago, the 23-year-old splays his arms and knees in imitation of Michael Jackson’s Scarecrow as “Ease On Down the Road” from The Wiz plays on a boom box. (He later says the movie helped inspire his new live show.) He’s smiling and wearing Super Mario-esque burgundy overalls and one of his trademark baseball caps — this one red and embroidered with the number 3, a reference to his latest album, Coloring Book — as a photographer snaps away.
The two artists who join Chance on set exude a similar calm, despite the logistical Tetris required to get them all in the same room.
“We’re all pretty laid back,” explains country artist Maren Morris, 26. She has “own in from Nashville, where she lives, and, shortly after the shoot is over, will hop on another plane to Tampa, Fla., to rendezvous with her boyfriend, the singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd, who is opening for Chase Rice that night.
The youngest of the three, 20-year-old Ontario, Canada, pop phenom Alessia Cara, took a morning “flight from Toronto, where she played a show the previous night and will return after the shoot to play another.
Chance, meanwhile, will board his tour bus and make the half-hour trip to U.S. Cellular Field to prep for his Magnificent Coloring Day festival, which will light up Twitter thanks to Kanye West’s surprise appearance and Chance’s creative set.
This story is from the October 15, 2016 edition of Billboard.
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This story is from the October 15, 2016 edition of Billboard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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