Bridgers, who released her acclaimed second album, Punisher, on Dead Oceans in June, earned four nominations: best new artist, best alternative album, and best rock song and best rock performance for the melodic and impassioned single “Kyoto.”
While she asserts “there’s not enough nominations for the amount of very incredible music in the world,” she’s excited to see artists she loves, like Chika and Megan Thee Stallion, also in this year’s best new artist class. “I feel like [Megan] turned positivity into being punk rock, you know?” she says of the latter. “If the intersection of nihilism and optimism is ‘f— everything,’ she’s the optimism side.”
Bridgers also recalls how Conor Oberst’s former tour manager used to say: “Bright Eyes, best new artist 15 years running” (the band was, in fact, never nominated in the category). “I love that so much,” she says with a laugh. “I’m reading [stuff] about myself and it’s like… I’m always rising.”
As for her best rock performance nod — a field entirely dominated by women for the first time ever — Bridgers reveals she went to the same high school as fellow nominee Haim. “We haven’t even discussed it yet, I need to call them, but it’s hilarious,” she says. “I was a freshman when Alana was a senior. I saw Haim when their parents were still in the band.”
With just over two months to go until the ceremony, Bridgers — who typically watches the show from the couch with her mom eating a “Costco bag of Ruffles” and a mayonnaise-based dip — already has her ideal outfit in mind for the occasion. For an artist who’s managed to make a skeleton bodysuit cool, she would love to “level up” the look, citing a 2018 Thom Browne dress that she’s “been trying to pay someone off to get for me.”
“I’ve been looking for it for years,” she says of the Reverse Opening Cardigan Jacket embroidered with a crystal skeleton. “Someone lend me their fucking dress.”
