Though favorites like Olivia Rodrigo and Harry Styles will likely receive nods, pop’s new guard, including Olivia Dean, Slayyyter, and Sombr, is looking to dominate

Olivia Rodrigo, Slayyyter, and Olivia Dean are likely nominees for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2027 Grammys.

Leading up to the Grammy nominations on Nov. 16, “Rolling Stone” is breaking down 11 different categories. For each, we’re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night.

The Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance was introduced 14 years ago, merging Best Female, Male, and Instrumental Pop Vocal Performance into one category. Among its biggest winners are vocal powerhouses Adele and Olivia Rodrigo, though the category is not without its surprises. Lola Young won for her quietly powerful performance of “Messy” in 2026, beating out nominees Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter, while 2025 saw Miley Cyrus’ ubiquitous “Flowers” win the accolade. Best Pop Solo Performance can be a space where the Recording Academy recognizes — and perhaps awards — artists with songs that truly connect with the world, regardless of vocal chops.

Brooke Reese, the host of Apple Music’s Global Chart Show, says that beyond radio play and chart domination, audiences appreciate an evocative and vulnerable performance, which doesn’t always require jaw-dropping vocals. Music fans want pop music that makes them feel something, whether it’s to get up and dance, quietly weep, or scream along. When it comes to this year’s nominees, “People need authenticity,” Reese says. “I think we’re all just craving that.”

Olivia Dean, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)”Olivia Rodrigo, “Drop Dead”Slayyyter, “Brand New Chanel$”Sombr, “Homewrecker”Harry Styles, “American Girls”

Olivia Dean, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)”The British pop singer had a major breakthrough last year after winning Best New Artist, and is already shaping up to be a Grammy favorite. Her sophomore effort The Art of Loving was released last September, after the eligibility period ended for the 2026 ceremony, so all those songs are fair play, including the bossa nova swooner “So Easy (To Fall in Love).” “Olivia Dean is an artist I love and adore, [I] just knew there was something special about her,” Reese says. “The minute that The Art of Loving came out, I felt like there was nothing like it at the time.” Dean’s vocals are syrupy sweet and evocative, fitting the idea of what many would consider a true “performance,” and the track has been everywhere in the year since it was released. Grammy voters will have a hard time not falling in love with Dean’s charm.

Olivia Rodrigo, “Drop Dead”Rodrigo had already been writing Grammy-winning love songs since her debut in 2021; “Driver’s License” won this award in 2022 and she’s poised to take it home again with “Drop Dead.” Rodrigo’s third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love displayed a marked maturity in her artistry and its lead single, “Drop Dead,” melds her greatest sensibilities into an infectious lovesick ditty. Her voice on the starry-eyed chorus helps check off the capital-P performance criteria, and she gets kudos for letting her inner theater kid come out on the quirky second verse. Her tangible growth, too, should resonate with the Recording Academy (the Livies certainly notice it). “[Rodrigo is] one of those young female artists who knows exactly who she is and exactly the stories she wants to tell,” Reese says. “She’s grown through her last few projects, especially into this one.”

This year’s nominees are a series of battles: Olivia versus Olivia, America versus England, the old versus the new guard. Dean and Sombr were among last year’s nominees for Best New Artist, though their recorded work fell outside of the eligibility period, so we may end up seeing pop’s newest voices usurping seats in the category from the genre’s biggest voices (Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, etc.). “We’re gonna see a big wave of [Best New Artists nominees] because they were just on the cusp of huge moments with their music,” Reese says. “I feel like we’ll see more of them at the 2027 Grammy Awards. “

More than ever, Reese says, people are connecting with authenticity. “With social media, there’s nowhere to hide. You can’t not be who you are … The more authenticity we’re getting from artists and their performances, the more people are going to connect with it.” That’s why she believes soft-rock sad boy Sombr may receive a nomination in this category and beyond. “He is one of my favorite artists right now,” she says. “There’s something so brilliant in his vulnerability.” She also recognizes he’s taken naysayers’ opinions as a challenge to improve on his craft. “Instead of letting it break him, he took it and said, ‘OK, let me prove to you why I’m doing what I do.’”

That’s also why Reese believes electroclash star Slayyyter could nab a nomination. Slayyyter was ready to hang things up as she released her third album Wor$t Girl in America this spring, but the combination of a fiery Coachella performance, TikTok trends, and an album stuffed with good-ass pop music led to one of the year’s most notable breakthroughs, seven years after she dropped her debut mixtape. “Brand New Chanel$” will appear on her companion follow-up to WGIA$, and is one of her most accessible (and best) songs yet. “I feel like this is [Slayyyter’s] time,” Reese declares. “Slayyyter has never changed who she is or the type of music she’s made. In the likes of Charli XCX, she’s never strayed from who she is to fit in.” Reese also notes Slayyyter spent years cultivating her sound and fanbase without once sacrificing her true self. “Everybody finally caught on.”

Where does this leave pop prince Harry Styles, who swept at his last Grammys with Harry’s House? Like so many before him, Styles found transcendence at the techno club on his newest album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, and previously won Best Pop Solo Performance for “Watermelon Sugar.” This combo of dominance and vulnerability means he could take the category once again with “American Girls,” where he struts to the discotheque looking for love (and with tears in his eyes). Either way, the trend report of the 2027 Grammys is this: vulnerability is in.

Justin Timberlake performing in 2002, during the era of peak beatbox.

Over the past few years, Justin Timberlake has done a lot of apologizing and taking accountability. The pop star hasn’t had the smoothest mid-career run, whether he’s solemnly copping to new indiscretions, or confronting old ones. Social media, after all, has a way of resurfacing old, embarrassing incidents just when you think everyone’s forgotten. Like the content creator Hannah Young, who shed fresh light on one of the more problematic patterns from the early days of Timberlake’s career: incessant beatboxing.

On Monday, Young shared a video about Timberlake’s penchant for spitting “boots and cats,” and the audience’s questionable willingness to just go along with it. “Nobody said, ‘Justin, you know, we have drums? This is a professional recording studio. There are instruments available to you,’” Young deadpanned. “But, no. Justin Timberlake wanted to make space noises with his mouth.”

Well, it turns out Timberlake himself was listening and learning. In the comments to Young’s post, he admitted, “I often look back on that time as well. I still haven’t come up with any answers. I don’t know how to apologize enough for whatever those ambitions were. Too many boots. Too many cats.”

Timberlake even went so far as to seek forgiveness. But not without reminding everyone that humans are flawed, complicated creatures who, despite best intentions, sometimes act against their own self-interest and the well-being of others.

“I can’t promise I won’t do it again,” Timberlake solemnly wrote. “God help us all.”

Beatboxing was indeed a huge part of Timberlake’s shtick during the final days of ‘NSync and the beginning of his blockbuster solo career. (And it goes without saying this is very much part of a larger discussion about the pop star’s long, complicated relationship with, use of, and profiting off of Black culture and music.) Timberlake’s beatboxing featured on ’NSync’s 2001 single “Pop,” and he and producer Timbaland incorporated it liberally on solo songs like “Cry Me a River.”

But if you really want the full unhinged, uncut Timberlake beatboxing experience, check out the “Justin’s Beat Box” segment from ’NSync’s 2000 concert film, Live from Madison Square Garden. Harrowing stuff. And that’s before we even talk about the outfit.

While it’s great to see Timberlake reckoning with this distressing period, credit to Young for not letting everyone else off the hook so easy. “We liked it,” she pointedly notes. “That’s what I need us to sit with. We were watching that man make drum noises with his mouth. Like, ‘Oh my god, what can’t he do?’”

Montréal pop-punk veterans Simple Plan have announced a 15-date Canadian tour for early 2027, marking their first coast-to-coast Canadian run in more than a decade. The tour will run from January 25 through February 16 and will feature Bowling for Soup throughout, with Yellowcard joining the lineup across most dates and Marianas Trench appearing on the British Columbia shows.

The tour opens in Victoria on January 25 before moving through Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. The band will then hit Toronto on February 5, followed by Kitchener, London, Kingston, Ottawa and Montréal on February 12. The run wraps with dates in Moncton, Sydney and Halifax.

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Simple Plan will also be celebrating the 25th anniversary of their debut album, No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls. Released in 2002, the record produced enduring hits including "I'm Just a Kid," "I'd Do Anything," "Addicted" and "Perfect."

A children's book inspired by "I'm Just a Kid" is also scheduled for publication in March 2027, with proceeds supporting the Simple Plan Foundation and its work with youth-focused organizations.

Presale tickets are available, with general public sales scheduled for October 9 at 10 a.m. local time.

Only a nor’easter could have stopped Boston hardcore band Haywire from performing the dates leading up to the release of their new album, I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye. They were booked to play a string of gigs late last month, including a high-profile slot at New York’s CBGB Festival, until they were all wiped out by that East Coast storm.

“It takes a miracle for us to cancel,” says frontman Austin Sparkman. That’s not hyperbole for Haywire, who have played more than 400 shows since forming in 2023. In fact, they played 96 gigs in 101 days across all 50 states in the summer of 2024. “I just try to do everything to the extreme,” Sparkman adds.

He’s been like that since he was a kid. He dealt with familial drug abuse before moving in with an adoptive family in the tiny village of Barnesville, Ohio, when he was a child. His new family provided for him, but he still brought his books to school in a grocery bag. Before he moved to Barnesville, Sparkman was into hip-hop, but his new brother taught him about heavy music. He went to his first show at age 13 and started playing music at 15. Eventually, he began booking shows in his adopted parents’ basement, a.k.a. the Lakeview House, and driving hours to hardcore and emo gigs in neighboring cities.

The young musician moved to Boston in 2013 with no cellphone and two duffel bags of clothes. “I was a child with a pizza shop job,” he says. “I couldn’t afford anything but T-shirts.” Once he got to South Station, he called a friend on what he thinks must be the last payphone in existence. “I was met with, like, 30 people that were awesome and kind of adopted me,” he says. “I immediately had a friend group and started going to shows, started playing in bands, and one thing led to another.”

In just three years, Haywire has played more shows than most bands ever will, including tons of DIY gigs and a tour with the Dropkick Murphys earlier this year. They dropped their debut album, Conditioned for Demolition, in 2024, before signing with Roadrunner Records for I Wanna Say Goodbye, which came out on Oct. 2. That record runs the gamut from straight-ahead, anthemic ragers to more tongue-in-cheek ruminations on life’s bumps and skips.

Take the opening track, “That’s Life,” a breakup song that kicks off with a pitch-perfect Frank Sinatra impression courtesy of Jesse Wagner of the Aggrolites (who also performed the backing music). “Anytime something severely bad would happen, my friends would just yell the words ‘That’s life!’ super loud, and it almost made a dark moment comical,” Sparkman says.

He came up with the riff for that song while playing a show under a bridge in London. That’s not so unusual: Haywire are partial to a bridge show. “It feels like you’re living outside of society’s rules, and you can do whatever you want with all the people that are the same as you,” Sparkman says. “All these missing puzzle pieces from under the couch all link up under a bridge and light shit on fire.”

The album features even more guests, including Nothing on the title track, which is about a friend-hangout you never want to end; designer Cheyenne Snider (daughter of Dee) on couple’s spat “Trouble in Paradise”; singer Mat Kerekes on the bittersweet “Sincerely Yours”; and hardcore musicians Aaron Butkus and Bruce Lepage on “Forever Alone,” about overcoming addiction. The title is a reference that works on a few levels: Lepage’s former band 100 Demons has a song about the same subject called “So Alone,” featuring Butkus. Butkus’ band Death Threat then did a song called “Still Alone,” featuring Lepage. So it’s a full-circle moment.

Songs like “Interstate Love Affair” capture a feeling that Sparkman cherished as a kid: hitting the road with pals. “That song is straight-up about getting into the van with your friends and driving to a show,” he says. “Sometimes the show wasn’t even worth going to, but some of the best memories I have are those car rides to different states to go to shows.”

Other tracks, like “Perfect Strangers” and that Snider duet, deal with lost love — the feeling of someone you once knew so well becoming a stranger again. “The nuances, like how they hold a fork or what their fucking coffee order is,” Sparkman says.

Closer “Sincerely Yours” delves into the harder parts of Sparkman’s life. “The song reflects the relationships that you have with your parents when they should be your parents, but as you get older, you realize that some parents are just kids,” he says. “It’s about moving forward past that, and dealing with that, and moving on with your life, and realizing that you never needed them — you can become your own person without letting that define you. I feel like I have made a lot out of nothing from where I came from.”

And Sparkman isn’t wasting a minute. Those East Coast fall tours may be toast, but they have 250 more shows planned in 2027 and miles to go before they tap out. “I always refer back to this video I saw that said: ‘How lucky I am to be tired of the dream, of the life I once dreamed to have,’” he says. “I’m living my life. I don’t want it to stop. I gotta strike while the iron’s hot. Eventually there will be another shiny toy, and I want to do as much as I can in the least amount of time I can do it.”

Hayley Williams performs on Dec. 15, 2025 in New York City.

Hayley Williams has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.

When performing her Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party track “Ice in My OJ,” the singer shouted “Fuck ICE” and “Free Palestine” during her stop in Chula Vista, California, over the weekend. The declarations have become a staple at her concerts since the launch of the Hayley Williams Show in September, which includes her pre-”True Believer” onstage statement that “the greatest threat to American democracy is Christian nationalism.”

Fox News reached out to a DHS spokesperson for comment on Williams’ ICE remarks following her show. “America is grateful all the time for our federal law enforcement officers who keep us safe,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We suggest Ms. Williams to thank them for their service, not belittle their sacrifice.”

On Monday, Williams took to her Instagram Stories, posting a screenshot of DHS’ statement alongside her own suggestion: “And may I suggest all Nazi bitches suck on my fat dick.”

A DHS rep did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

The Paramore frontwoman is among the stacked headliners slated for the 2027 edition of Primavera Sound Barcelona in Spain. It takes place at Barcelona’s Parc del Fòrum from June 3 through June 5 and includes Doechii, Phoebe Bridgers, Fontaines D.C., FKA twigs, Turnstile, Massive Attack, Robyn, and more artists on the top of the roster.

Williams released her most recent solo album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, last year. In August, six months after Williams and producer Daniel James launched their new band, Power Snatch, with EP1, the duo dropped EP2 on Bandcamp.

Drake in Toronto on Oct. 26, 2025.

Drake’s trio of albums — Iceman, Habibti, and Maid of Honour — won’t be submitted for consideration in the 2026 Grammys, according to a report from Billboard. The projects, Drake’s first solo releases in the wake of the great 2024 rap feud between him and Kendrick Lamar, held steady on the charts all summer. Iceman in particular stood out, breaking Drake’s previous record for longest run at the top of Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, surpassing Take Care’s 12-week run.

Drake himself alludes to the decision not to submit the albums on Iceman, rapping “This album, I’m never submittin’ it,” on the album’s closing track ‘Make Them Know.” The move comes amidst Drake’s return to the public eye after his beef with Lamar as well as his ongoing litigation with his record label UMG, which alleges the label promoted the diss track “Not Like Us” despite allegedly defamatory lyrics. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit last year and Drake’s team filed an appeal, with oral arguments set to start in December. “Not Like Us” was famously awarded five Grammys in 2025.

Even before any rap beef, Drake has made his ambivalence towards the Grammys well known, declining to submit More Life in 2018 and withdrawing the submission of Certified Lover Boy in 2022, and Honestly, Nevermind the following year. His joint album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, was indeed submitted for the 2024 ceremonies, though it lost Best Rap Album to Killer Mike’s Michael.