How old is Samara Joy McLendon? All about the Grammy Awards Best New Artist 2023 

Samara Joy McLendon, a jazz singer from Bronx, New York City, won the Grammy award for Best New Artist at this year's 65th Annual Grammy Awards.

Professionally known as Samara Joy, she beat nominees in the category including Anitta, Omar Apollo, DOMi & JD Beck, Muni Long, Latto, Maneskin, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle, and Wet Leg. The award was presented to the artist by the former winner of the same title, Olivia Rodrigo.

The singer expressed her heartfelt surprise and gratitude for winning the award in her acceptance speech at the 2023 Grammys.

She said:

"I’ve been watching y’all on TV for so long..... Thank you so much for this honor, thank you to everyone who has listened to me and supported me...To be here because of who I am … to be here by just being myself, by just being who I was born as, I’m so thankful."

Apart from bagging the award for Best New Artist, Samara also won in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category for her latest hit, Linger Awhile.

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Samara Joy McLendon is a 23-year-old musician

Samara Joy McLendon was born and raised in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City. She was born on November 11, 1999, and raised in a family with a love for music. Her grandparents Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon were performers for the Philadelphia-based gospel group The Savettes.

In an interview with NPR, she explained how her immediate family was also musically inclined.

She said:

"My dad - he's a bass player, so it was a lot of, like, funk and, like, soul and R&B. But also, he was the one who mainly grew up in church and grew up playing in church."

Inspired by her musical lineage, McLendon pursued music for her higher studies, eventually leading to her enrolling in the State University of New York's jazz studies program. There, she was mentored by her professor and trumpet player Jon Faddis.

Samara first saw success in high school while studying at Fordham High School for the Arts. She performed with the school jazz band and won the "Essentially Ellington" competition conducted by Fordham University in New York City.

Building on her success, the singer won the International Jazz Vocalist Award in 2019 under the name of Samara McLendon. In 2021, she graduated magna cum laude and published her first studio album, Samara Joy, in collaboration with Matt Pierson, who went on to become her manager.

During this period, she also released a number of performances on TikTok, which went viral and gained over one million views. In 2022, she released her second album Linger Awhile, which led to her Grammy win.