Cyndi Lauper, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, joins the short list of former Grammy winners for best new artist who made the Rock Hall. She’s the sixth artist to take both of these honors.
The Grammys and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame once seemed to be operating in different worlds, with the Grammys, in their early years, favoring traditional pop and jazz, and the Rock Hall long favoring guitar-based rock. But both organizations have moved to the middle in recent years.
For many years, just three artists had achieved both of these feats — a Grammy win for best new artist and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — but in the last four years, three more artists have joined the list.
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With the Rock Hall becoming more open to a wider range of sounds, it’s not hard to picture several more past best new artist Grammy winners one day being inducted. Mariah Carey has been passed over for induction the last two years running, but it seems likely that she’ll make it one day. Bette Midler, Natalie Cole, Lauryn Hill and Christina Aguilera would also seem to have at least a reasonable chance of making the Rock Hall.
Artists first become eligible for the Rock Hall 25 years after releasing their first record. So over time the artists who won best new artist after 2001 will also become eligible for the Rock Hall. Over the next 10 years that could bring in Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, John Legend, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse, among others.
While we wait to see which of them make it, here are the six artists who both won a Grammy for best new artist and are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Grammy years shown are the years of the ceremonies at which the awards were presented.
