Why Megan Moroney’s Reported 2027 Best New Artist Grammy Rejection Feels Deeply Unfair

Both Megan Moroney and Dominic Fike have reportedly been rejected from Best New Artist consideration at the 2027 GRAMMYs, according to The Grammy Guru.

Based on a new report by the outlet, Moroney and Fike have been dismissed by the screening committee, with no concrete reason being given. The news is yet to be officially confirmed, but The Grammy Guru has a strong track record of inside information.

If this is indeed true, then it's incredibly disappointing, to say the least. You have to assume that Moroney's rejection is due to the Georgia native not being seen as a ‘new’ enough artist, due to her breakout single, ‘Tennessee Orange’, being released back in 2022, and Moroney already having three studio albums under her belt.

This is definitely a valid point, and if we were talking about the CMA or ACM Best New Artist categories, then the notion of Moroney being considered would be ridiculous. Moroney is now a contender for Female Artist of the Year and in the conversation for Entertainer of the Year. But there's undoubtedly a compelling argument that Moroney's Cloud 9 rollout throughout the tail-end of 2025 and 2026 was the first time she truly broke into the mainstream music consciousness. And this, after all, is the Recording Academy's core stipulation for Best New Artist: “Eligible artists must have achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and impacted the musical landscape during the year's eligibility period”.

The Recording Academy’s Screening Committee rejected Dominic Fike and Megan Moroney’s submissions for Best New Artist at the 2027 #GRAMMYs, according to HITSDD. This continues Best New Artist’s infamous history of subjective, ever-changing and inconsistent eligibility rules. https://t.co/mtqZBbIXgj

— The Grammy Guru (@TheGrammyGuru) October 7, 2026

What's more, it's no secret that Best New Artist has been one of the Recording Academy's most controversial categories for years, with the GRAMMYs repeatedly adjusting the eligibility criteria. In 2020, the Academy removed the rule that an artist couldn't be eligible if they'd already released a certain number of albums. Artists are still not allowed to have applied more than three times previously.

The removal of this maximum releases rule was a crucial shift in an already-perplexing category. It essentially changed the award from one recognising a ‘debut artist’, to one crowning a ‘breakout artist’. In theory, you could have released ten albums, but if your eleventh album was the one that became your first big hit, then you could feasibly be considered for the GRAMMYs’ Best New Artist accolade.

When Sabrina Carpenter was nominated for Best New Artist in 2025, it caused a widespread stir and backlash online, due to Carpenter having already released six albums before that point, and had been charting on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2021.

But the Academy's justification was that it didn't matter how many projects Carpenter had released. Carpenter arguably had her breakout moment around 2023 and 2024, following the release of the ultra-viral ‘Espresso’, making her Best New Artist-appropriate.

On this basis, though, the Academy can't then reject Moroney simply because she's released three studio albums and had her first country hit, ‘Tennessee Orange’, in 2022.

It's worth highlighting that the frontrunner for 2027 Best New Artist is Ella Langley. Although 2026 has been a huge year for Langley, the ‘Be Her’ crooner has been releasing music since 2018, whereas Moroney released her first single - ‘Wonder’ - in 2021.

There's no question - at least in our mind - that Langley deserves the 2027 GRAMMY for Best New Artist. ‘Choosin’ Texas’ is the biggest song of the year by far, and has now become the longest-running Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 of all time. Over the course of a year or so, Langley has grown from country prodigy to global phenom.

So we're not arguing that Moroney should be winning Best New Artist over Langley. It's purely that it feels unfair for Moroney to reportedly be dismissed from consideration by the screening committee, seemingly because of her not being deemed eligible.

If it's not because of the ‘newness’ argument, then there's no reason that Moroney shouldn't be nominated. Cloud 9 moved 147,000 first-week sales, a few thousand shy of Langley's Dandelion and Don Toliver's OCTANE, but well beyond the numbers posted by recent releases from other Best New Artist candidates like Sienna Spiro, Role Model, Slayyyter, Malcolm Todd, Geese and Audrey Hobert. Role Model's new album, Chuck Timely, reportedly moved roughly 40,000 units.

What compounds this frustration is the way in which Moroney also seems to be out-of-favour in the country music awards circuit. The ‘Hair Salon’ singer-songwriter only received two 2026 CMA Awards nominations, with Cloud 9 being inexplicably snubbed for Album of the Year, despite it hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Many fans also felt Moroney should've been in contention for Entertainer of the Year.

After going 0 for 6 at the 2025 CMA Awards and receiving zero awards at the subsequent 2026 ACM Awards - despite leading the way with 9 nominations - Moroney must be scratching her head and wondering why she keeps on getting overlooked.

Moroney continues to solidify her status as one of the biggest artists in modern country music, combining an old-school sensibility with bold, pop-infused textures, while maintaining a dedication to crafting visceral and deeply powerful narratives.

With many of today's most influential artists such as Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, Drake, The Weeknd, BTS and Stray Kids refusing to submit their music to the GRAMMYs, it feels like all the confusion around the Best New Artist rules and eligibility is harming the Recording Academy a lot more than the likes of Moroney and Fike.

Even so, in a country landscape that is refreshingly now being dominated by trailblazing women like Langley, Moroney, Lainey Wilson and so many others, surely Moroney deserves her flowers from at least one awards show. Just one. That's all we ask.