NOMINEE

The Grammy Awards are tomorrow. 

Strangely, if my loved ones weren’t constantly wishing me well for tomorrow, I would almost have forgotten about the ceremony. While it is surreal enough to be nominated for a Grammy Award, it is even more dreamlike in the context of covid, with everything taking place online. 

I am unbelievably honored to be nominated for the second time in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category. I happened to be watching when the nominations were announced this year, and as they were listing the nominees in the classical categories, I wondered if I was jinxing our album’s chances by watching live. When the violinist Nicola Benedetti said “Clairières”, I cried. In the context of this unbelievably horrible year in which so many of us musicians were watching our worst nightmares come to life, it was overwhelmingly joyous to hear such incredible news and actually see a dream come true. 

Shortly after the nominations were announced, it was pointed out to me that I am the first and only singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the history of the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category – a barrier I apparently broke in 2017 when Myra and I were nominated for our album Gods & Monsters. The award has been given since 1959. To be completely honest, I don’t even know what to make of that fact. In some ways, it feels like it is reflective of so many of my observations about the perception of Asian singers, which I wrote about on this blog last summer. But above all, it is an honor, and I hope there are many more singers of Asian descent who are nominated, and even win the award in the future.

Heading into tomorrow, even being nominated is an incredible thing. No matter what happens tomorrow, I will be celebrating. 

If you would like to tune in live tomorrow, the Classical Grammy Awards are given out at the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony, which you can watch at Grammy.com tomorrow starting at 12pm Pacific. Click HERE for more information.