What 7 Of This Year's Grammy Winners Were Doing Before The Glow Up
Your favorite artists have back stories, a whole other life before the fame and fortune.
The phrase "overnight success" is too often thrown around in conversations concerning the greats—music giants, especially. We look at someone like R&B singer Maxwell, for example, and assume his current glory is the stuff of serendipity—and perhaps so. But the truth is, overnight success is but a myth. No one really emerges a legend through osmosis. Your favorite artists have back stories, a whole other life before the fame and fortune.
The 59th Grammy Awards were hosted on Sunday night (Feb. 12), live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. With 84 categories in all, the Grammys are not always just about the biggest names. Sometimes, when the Recording Academy gets it right, they're about the music. And while some of our favorites accepted their respective coveted Gramophones in all their glitz and glamour, many of them are a far cry from who they used to be. See above what seven Grammy winners were doing before the glow-up… you might be surprised.
Adele
Adele – who dominated the 2017 Grammys, sweeping song, record and album of the year – was raised an only child in a single parent household. She attended BRIT school for performing arts, where Kate Nash, Leona Lewis and the late Amy Winehouse are boasted alumni. Adele, who was "obsessed with voices" from the age of three, began to study the likes of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald after discovering their records in a local junk shop. She dropped out of school at 14, and that same year was given a recording contract by XL Recordings after a friend published her demo on Myspace the same year. The rest, as they say, is history.
Chance the Rapper
Chance the Rapper, né Chancellor Johnathan Bennett from Southside Chicago, was encouraged to pursue a career in politics, considering his parental units both worked for the government, his father having been under former POTUS Barack Obama when he was the city senator. But throughout his youth, Chance gravitated toward performing arts, participating in a slew of talent shows and plays. He was even diagnosed with ADD. After recording his first song at the age of 14, Chance landed an internship working for Barack Obama campaigning to become president. Chance went on to attend Jones College Prep, a prestigious institution selective of their students. Here he would put together his Good Enough and Back to School Pack extended plays. Fun fact: A 10-day suspension for smoking weed in his senior year of high school gave Chance the time and space to craft his debut mixtape, garnering the attention of Forbes and Childish Gambino. On Sunday night (Feb. 12), Chano took home Grammys for Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Album and Best New Artist.
Maxwell
Award-winning singer-songwriter Maxwell, who was born to a Haitian mother and Puerto Rican father in Brooklyn, grew up a deeply religious child whose musical tethers are rooted in the Baptist church. A fan of "jheri curl soul" Maxwell – who won Best R&B Song for "Lake by the Ocean" at this year's Grammys – taught himself to play a variety of instruments. But before the crooner could even hit the club scenes of New York during the early 90s, Maxwell washed dishes at a local Pizza Hut. Talk about starting from the bottom.
Solange
Twenty One Pilots
Before they would be credited for creating their own genre called "skitzo pop," Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun were both raised in conservative and/or religious households in Columbus, Ohio. Tyler opted out of a basketball scholarship – the guy was made to practice his three-pointer day in and day out – to pursue his love of singing and piano. Josh, on the other hand, was a skateboarder who taught himself the drums at a local music store. Because he wasn't allowed to listen to music (yikes), he'd sneak off to the local music store for his fixings. Their first gig was a frat house, where the cops eventually shut down the party. The duo went on to win numerous awards, including a Grammy at this year's event, for "Stressed Out" in the category of Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. They accepted the coveted honor in their underwear.
Jesse & Joy
Born and raised in Mexico City, Jesse and Joy grew up sashaying between their mother's Wisconsin idiom and Mexican father's native tongue. Like many of today's most beloved musicians, the siblings were raised in a religious household, attending the family's Mexico City evangelical church faithfully. It was there the two were given permission to play the church's instruments when services were not being held. "Before we got to the point that we could play with real instruments we used to play with tennis rackets and hang them with belts, as if it was a guitar, or buckets, and just play back to Creedence [Clearwater Revival]," Jesse told Los Angeles Times. The duo, who spent much of their childhoods studying their mother's vinyl collection that included the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Taylor and Carole King, won their first-ever Grammy at this year's event, in the category of Best Latin Pop Album for Un Besito Más. They dedicated the win to "all Hispanics."
Drake
Before So Far Gone and Thank Me Later, Aubrey Graham, better known as Drake, had his eyes set on a career in acting—not music. Drake, who won in the categories of Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Performance for "Hotline Bling" at the 2017 Grammys, was previously most famous for playing wheelchair bound Jimmy Brooks in Degrassi. Landing the role at the tender age of 15, Drake appeared in 138 episodes between 2001-2009. What's more, Drake's acting chops can be traced back to Youtube webisodes and appearances in short films like Us And Them, which was shot in his native Toronto.
