Houston artists are no stranger to GRAMMYs – and that’s to put it lightly. Houston-native Beyoncé, for example, is the most GRAMMY-award-winning artist of all time as well as the most GRAMMY-nominated artist of all time, surpassing husband, Jay-Z, this past year with her 11 nominations – a one-year record for female artist nominations – ahead of the 2025 GRAMMY awards.
Other more high-profile Houston artists have also secured their fair share of GRAMMYs, including Lizzo and Meghan Thee Stallion.
While we’re certainly rooting for Beyoncé continue her GRAMMY reign at the award ceremony held this Sunday, February 2, Knowles isn’t the only Houston GRAMMY-nominated artist this year. Nominated for the 2025 GRAMMY Best New Artist category is the Houston band, Khruangbin.
Formed in Houston back in 2009, Khruangbin is made up of Mark Speer on guitar, Laura Lee Ochoa on bass, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums.
Inspired by obscure international music such as Thai funk – in part the basis of their name “Khruangbin” translating to “airplane” in Thai – Khruangbin composes music that blends global music, psychedelia, folk, and soul.
In 2015, the band released their debut album The Universe Smiles Upon You. Their sophomore album Con Todo El Mundo would garner them an even greater global following with groovy, hypnotic hits like Evan Find the Third Room and Maria También.
The band would achieve its largest mainstream success until then in 2020 with the release of their Texas Sun EP with fellow Texas artist, Leon Bridges. The four-track EP’s featured the band’s biggest hit, the eponymous road trip number, Texas Sun.
Khruangbin released their latest record A La Sala in April 2024 ahead of their nomination for the GRAMMY Best New Artist in November 2024.
It’s not uncommon for the GRAMMY nominations of Best New Artist to have been around for a long time. For instance, Sabrina Carpenter is also in contention for Best New Artist, despite recording sixth albums since her debut in 2015.
Here is the full list of Best New Artist nominations:
- Khruangbin
- Shaboozey
- Chappell Roan
- Raye
- Doechii
- Teddy Swims
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Benson Boone
Whether or not Khruangbin will win Best New Artist, is hard to say. Other nominated artists such as Sabrina Carpenter and Chappelle Roan have both experienced skyrocketing success this year – the latter forcing ACL officials to reorganize their festival due to Roan’s 2024 meteoric rise. But it’s not impossible.
Back in 2011, indie-rock group Arcade Fire beat out the likes of mainstream mainstays Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Katy Perry for GRAMMY Album of the Year, The Suburbs – an album that was interestingly inspired by frontman, Win Butler’s, experience growing up in The Woodlands.
This April, Khraungbin will perform in Houston with a concert featuring supporting artist, Helado Negro, on April 12 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.
The 2025 GRAMMY Awards will be held on Sunday, February 2, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Best of luck to both Beyoncé and Khraungbin!