Jazz vocalist Samara Joy achieves a three-peat at the 68th Grammy Awards

Jazz vocalist Samara Joy just achieved an artistic trifecta. At the 68th Grammy Awards, announced Feb. 1, Joy received her third Grammy in the best jazz vocal album category, this time for her disc “Portrait” (2025).

After her self-titled debut disc came out in 2021, she was subsequently named best new artist by JazzTimes magazine. Her second album, “Linger Awhile” (2022, Verve), reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz Albums chart. In 2023, she was named best new artist again, this time by the Recording Academy. Now just 26, she has racked up six Grammys (out of seven nominations). Joy previously won best jazz vocal album honors in 2025 for her disc “A Joyful Holiday” (2024) and in 2023 for "Linger Awhile."

Of her Grammy track record, Joy recently told Essence magazine: “I am in awe, and I’m humbled, and I’m grateful because it has to do with so many things outside of just me. It’s timing, it’s support, it’s what my parents prayed over me and my siblings — being in the right place at the right time.”

Joy made her Symphony Center debut in 2023 in a sold-out concert as part of the SCP Jazz series. When she returns to Orchestra Hall this spring, for a one-night-only concert May 12, she will join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Steven Reineke, in tracks from her studio discs, along with selections from the Great American Songbook.