Samara Joy stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she performed her song “Guess Who I Saw Today.” The track appears on her Grammy-winning second album, Linger Awhile.
Earlier this month, Joy won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. The 23-year-old jazz singer was nominated alongside Anitta, DOMi & JD BECK, Latto, Måneskin, Molly Tuttle, Muni Long, Omar Apollo, Tobe Nwigwe, and Wet Leg.
After receiving the Best New Artist Grammy at the 65th Awards on Sunday, February 5, Samara Joy’s Linger Awhile rocketed up multiple Billboard charts.
Joy’s album, which was released in September of 2022 via Verve Records, is at No.1 on three charts: Top Jazz Albums, Traditional Jazz Albums, and Heatseekers Albums.
On the album, the 23-year-old jazz singer provides timeless standards for a new generation. In tandem with the album release, the singer also shared a music video for “Guess Who I Saw Today,” a take on the classic Nancy Wilson track that recounts the story of an unfaithful lover. Joy starred in the melancholy black and white visual directed by Sontenish Myers.
The album’s release was preceded by lead singles “Sweet Pumpkin,” which reimagined the 1960 tune from Ronnell Bright, and “Can’t Get Out Of This Mood,” notably performed in the past by Nina Simone and Frank Sinatra.
“There’s such an incredible and rich history of Black female singers. I see so much of myself in them and see the way they paved the way so I can do what I’m doing,” Joy told Andscape in a recent interview. “And then the way that they sing and the songs they sing, I can relate to and hopefully carry it and pass it down so that nobody forgets those Black female singers who have such an impact and influence on music as a whole.”