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Anne Wilson Found Faith In Music After Her Brother’s Death. Now She’s One Of Country’s Young Stars: "His Tragedy Wasn’t Wasted"

The Kentucky-based musician first arrived on the scene as a Christian artist in 2022. On her new album 'Rebel,' the singer/songwriter star melds the sounds of her "true north" with a mainstream country sensibility.

After breaking out in the world of contemporary Christian music, Anne Wilson wants to take the country world by storm. 

Out April 19, Wilson's sophomore album embraces the many aspects of her self. Rebel sees the Kentuckian lean into her country and horse farm roots just as she leans into her faith — a subject already deeply intertwined in country music — more than ever before. 

"I’ve never viewed it as switching over to country or leaving Christian music," Wilson tells GRAMMY.com. "With this new record I wanted to write something that was faith-based but also broad enough to positively impact people who don’t have a strong faith as well."

Rebel is just the latest chapter in a journey of triumph and glory first set into motion by tragedy. Wilson started playing piano when she was six but didn’t begin taking it more seriously until the sudden death of her older brother, Jacob Wilson, in 2017. Despite the weight of the moment, Wilson, then 15, returned to the piano to channel her grief — a move that culminated in her first live singing performance when she belted out Hillsong Worship’s "What A Beautiful Name" at his funeral.

"My life forever changed in that moment," admits Wilson. "I already knew that life was very short on this side and that we only have a small window of time here so I wanted to make mine count. It was a special, but really hard moment that has gone on to spawn my entire career. Hearing just how much my songs have impacted fans makes me feel like his tragedy wasn’t wasted and that it was used for good."

Soon after she posted a cover of "What A Beautiful Name" to YouTube that netted over 800,000 views and caught the attention of the brass at Capitol Christian Music Group, who promptly signed her to a deal. Her first release with them, My Jesus , earned a GRAMMY nomination in 2023 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album in addition to its title track hitting the top spot on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart. 

Similar to My Jesus , Rebel sees Wilson doubling down on her religious roots while continuing to preserve the memory of her beloved brother. Although she grew up in a devout Christian household in Lexington, Kentucky, Wilson says that she didn’t fully connect with her faith until Jacob’s passing. 

Nowadays she couldn’t see herself living without it.

"When it came to dealing with the loss and tragedy of my brother I knew I couldn’t have survived that without [faith]," she says. "As I started writing songs and moved to Nashville my faith quickly became everything to me."

The 16-song project hits the bullseye between contemporary Christian and country twang, with an assist from special guests including Chris Tomlin ("The Cross"), Jordan Davis ("Country Gold") and Lainey Wilson ("Praying Woman"). Of the Lainey feature, Wilson says the two wrote "Praying Woman" upon their first day of meeting, with the elder Wilson growing into big sister and mentor of sorts for Anne. The song was inspired by the power of prayer Wilson and Lainey each experienced from their mothers growing up.

"We’d been talking about memories from growing up and remembering our mother’s coming into our rooms, getting on their knees and praying for us," recalls Wilson. "There was a conviction in how they prayed and expected them to be answered that was so powerful and special that we wanted to capture the feeling of it in song."

Rebel 's strong motherly influence continues on "Red Flag," a rockin' number that Anne Wilson wrote as guidance to her younger fan base about what to look for in lasting love. While she largely had to ad lib the concept, having no bad breakup or relationship experiences to pull from, many of the "green flags" she notes were the result of years of advice. Things like going to church, being down to Earth, hunting, fishing, and respecting the American flag were traits and hobbies Wilson's mother had been passing down to her for years.

"Growing up she was always teaching me about relationship red and green flags, what to expect and to never settle," explains Wilson. "I have a song on my last record called ‘Hey Girl’ that ['Red Flag' is] almost a continuation of. It started out as a fun joke and turned out to be an actual serious song about red flags that’s one of my favorites on the whole record."

Another tune that began lighthearted before adopting a more serious tone is "Songs About Whiskey." Playing into country music and her home state's obsession with songs about brown liquor, the upbeat banger is intended to instead illustrate how Wilson gets her high from G-O-D rather than A-B-V or C-B-D through lines like, "I guess I’m just kind of fixed on/ The only thing that’s ever fixed me/ That’s why I sing songs about Jesus/ Instead of singing songs about whiskey."

"It’s supposed to be fun, make you laugh and fill you with joy," describes Wilson. "But it’s also meant to show how my faith is my true north, not those other things that are going to try to fill you up, but never do."

Through all of Rebel Wilson not only proves how her faith is her true north, but also shows others yearning to get there a path toward. This feeling culminates on the record’s title track, which frames her open love of Jesus as an act of rebellion in today’s world. A lesson in "what it means to have faith, not backing down from it and clinging to what we know is true," Wilson says the song was also inspired by previously having a song turned away at Christian radio for sounding "too country."

"I’m not going to try to please Christian music and I’m not going to try to please country music, I’m just going to be who I’ve always been and let the songs fall where they want to," asserts Wilson. "That was fuel not just for the song, but going against the grain on this entire album to be my most authentic self yet."

At the end of the day, genre labels, accolades and being included in the Grand Ole Opry’s NextStage Class of 2024 are secondary to Wilson’s adoration for the man above and her brother who, albeit tragically, set her on the journey she’s on now.

"I want to make sure I’m honoring him in everything that I do," reflects Wilson, "because he’s the reason I started doing music in the first place." 

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Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images

After Viral Fame, Oliver Anthony Bares His Soul With 'Hymnal Of A Troubled Man's Mind': "I Want To Truly Make A Difference"

On the heels of releasing his debut album, Oliver Anthony details how the project parallels his unexpected breakthrough hit, "Rich Men of North Richmond": music that's "as raw, from the heart and sincere as it can be."

Last August, Oliver Anthony became the quintessential definition of overnight success. His working class anthem "Rich Men North of Richmond" went from viral sensation to history-making hit, helping the singer become the first to top the Billboard Hot 100 without any prior chart history.

But while "Richmond" showcases Anthony's brutally honest songwriting and raw delivery, its message and success are far from what define him. And he's proving just that with his debut album, 'Hymnal Of A Troubled Man's Mind.'

Helmed by Nashville superproducer Dave Cobb, the 18-track collection is rife with stories of addiction, depression, faith, and fury as Anthony documents the decade leading up to his unexpected rise to stardom (it also features eight Bible verses as interludes). A stark departure from "Richmond" in some ways and others not, the album is proof that his viral moment wasn't a fluke. 

One element that remains is Anthony's defiance of adhering to any cookie-cutter artist blueprint, which was further evidenced by the Easter Sunday arrival of Hymnal Of A Troubled Man's Mind . It's one of the many ways Anthony is showing that he's still fiercely independent, and that his unprecedented ascent hasn't changed the man he is or the music he makes.

"My day-to-day life hasn't changed a whole lot other than just not having to wake up for my job every morning," Anthony — who was born Christopher Anthony Lunsford, but pays tribute to his late grandfather with his stage name — admits. "I have this new career, but at the same time I don't know how long I'll be doing this either. At the end of the day I want to truly make a difference, not just play a bunch of shows to make a handful of executives a bunch of money only to get a pat on the back."

On the heels of releasing Hymnal Of A Troubled Man's Mind — and playing a sold-out hometown show — Lunsford spoke with GRAMMY.com about how he's navigating the balance between fame and privacy, and staying true to himself through it all.

Your stage name is your grandfather's name, so he clearly means a lot to you. Can you tell me a bit about the man Oliver Anthony was, and why he inspired you to pay tribute to him in such a way?  

Originally I was using his name as an alias because a lot of the songs I was writing talked about things my employer wouldn't approve of, like smoking pot. It was a way of hiding my identity so they couldn't Google my name and find everything. 

Another reason I did it is because we looked a lot alike. I'm the only redhead in the family other than him, and we're both 6'6" and left-handed. 

He was also just a very down-to-Earth guy. He never was one to talk much and never took the bait on politics and other stuff, he was always very down the middle. He was a hard worker too, taking a job later in life at a chemical plant where he moved up in the ranks despite being mostly self-taught. 

He was a role model of mine in many ways. During his final years, he experienced cognitive decline that made his death more of a slow goodbye. When I started writing all of these songs I was still really grieving his loss.

The full listing of your stage name, at least in the beginning, was Oliver Anthony Music. What was your intention with adding the "Music" part onto it?

The "music" is supposed to capture the timeless era from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to into the late 60's and 70's. I'm not trying to paint it as an ideal time in American history by any means, but it was just a very real time. People weren't just living then, they were surviving. I wanted to capture that era of America before we became reliant on ordering everything from Amazon, going to the grocery store for all our food and depending on people on TV to tell us how to think, where to go or what to do.

That's what Oliver Anthony Music is supposed to encapsulate — that precious time in our history that, in certain parts of the country, still exists. When you go into rural Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and the Carolinas, it almost feels like time is slowed down a bit, almost like they're 20 or 30 years in the past. 

That's why we recorded this album on 1940's microphones inside an old church. We didn't even hire a photographer for the album cover. Instead we used a Polaroid camera that Dave Cobb had sitting in his drawer. This was never intended to have all the flash of modern production. It's supposed to just be as raw, from the heart and sincere as it can be.

Is "Rich Man's Gold" a song about your grandfather and how the circumstances of his upbringing shaped him into the man you remember?  

It also focuses on the contrast between the lifestyle we live now compared to the one we lived not long ago. The main verse in the song talks about how we weren't born to just pay bills and die. The point behind that is so many people today have encapsulated their lives in student loans, credit card debt, financing new vehicles they don't need, and buying big houses as a way of filling a void they'll never be able to fill. 

I think true fulfillment in life comes from basic things we overthink, like love and connection with our family, neighbors and friends, and just living a more purposeful life. A lot of us go to work at a job we don't really like because it pays the bills, even though it falls well outside our passion, leaving us only a couple hours a week to spend doing what we truly love. Then before you know it, you're old and die and that's it, you don't get another shot at it. 

Time is the most precious thing we have, and at any moment we don't really know how much left of it we have. The song really hones in on all that to show how a lot of people are alive, but they're not really living.

How has the overnight success you've experienced changed, or not changed, who you are as a person?  

I've kept a lot of my same friends and would say that my personal life hasn't changed a whole lot. I've still got the same s—ty Suburban with a salvage title and 330,000 miles on it, and the same s—ty clothes — although I have been able to put money into a few investments to set my family up with some financial security. But I've been really careful not to change my life a lot. 

I never, ever want to get to a point in my life where I feel like I'm better than everyone else. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it. That's one thing that's been a problem from the beginning because I never wanted to get on Facebook and say "Hey, look at me!" When "Richmond" blew up, I didn't want to post a lot, and instead opted to let things run their course. But due to the monetization of social and online media, people were incentivized to make posts about me since I was a trending topic, with much of it being completely fabricated. 

So it's been a weird balance of figuring out how I can, with good conscience, keep my voice out there without being an attention seeker. It's a weird balance because if I'm not posting and speaking my mind, then somebody else pretending to be me is going to do it instead.

I really just want to use what little discernment I have to make decisions that I'll look back on in 20 or 30 years and feel proud of, and not like somebody strong-armed or pressured me into something that my heart wasn't into.

One of the ways you showed that after going viral was by promoting other amazing Appalachian artists that RadioWV has featured. Who are some Appalachian artists you've been listening to or think deserve a bigger platform for their music?

To be honest, what I listen to is pretty limited and is mostly made up of people who are dead. I mainly discover new music through YouTube videos — I don't have Spotify, Pandora or anything like that. I've had the chance to meet and talk with folks like Logan Halstead, and am a big fan of his work, though. 

It drives my wife absolutely crazy, but anytime we're in the truck together and I've got control of the dial I'm putting on Hank Jr. , Waylon Jennings , Jerry Lee Lewis , Lightnin' Hopkins and random stuff like Cuban dance music. I like listening to a lot of old material and folk music from other countries. It just feels more real, and nobody is trying to shove it down my throat. 

At least when I'm listening to somebody who's dead, I know that they didn't manipulate me to somehow stumble across it like how so much is today with algorithms and pay-to-play. That's also what was so cool about "Richmond," because it blew up in such an organic way with no record label or management pushing it. 

Getting back to your original question about Appalachian artists, there's so many people from the region that would blow the doors off anyone on country radio right now, that most people may never actually get to enjoy because they simply aren't getting the exposure. I'd love to see things go back to the days of good music being played and bad music doesn't rather than it all being about how much money you've got behind the song.

You previously hinted at getting into ministry in the future, and this new album of yours is littered with Bible verses. With that in mind, what does your foundation in faith mean not only to your music, but who you are as a person?  

Leading up to everything that's happened, it's obvious from listening to my music that I was severely depressed and dealing with regular suicidal thoughts and anxiety attacks. Every part of my life, from my career to my marriage, my family and my future seemed very grim. I was in a bad place leaning on alcohol, like a lot of adult men do, because they have a tough time opening up about their struggles. 

At some point I got in touch with Draven Riffe from RadioWV and made plans to record a few songs on my property the following weekend. We got to talking about the personal issues going on in both our lives and how we'd both just decided to give our lives to God. I felt like I didn't have anything left in me, so I just told God that I've done things this long by myself and haven't been able to figure anything out, so please guide me where to go and show me what to do. 

I ended up recording seven songs with Draven that weekend, but the most special moment definitely came on "Richmond." As soon as we finished recording, I looked up at him, and we locked eyes. After a moment he said, "I know we just met and I don't want you to think I'm crazy, but I swear I could feel the presence of God with us when we recorded that." 

The song ended up doing what it did, but the icing on the cake came months later during my first show after going viral at the farmer's market where over 12,000, including Jamey Johnson , showed up. I talked with him afterward and he told me he had been off songwriting but that God spoke to him and told him he needed to meet me that day. To have one of my favorite artists of all-time show up at my first gig because God told him to after everything I'd been through, it became so clear to me that I was doing what I was meant to. 

A lot of people joke that they sell their souls to the devil, but in my case I truly feel like I've signed my soul to God. He put me here to give me purpose because my life had been without it up until then. 

I don't know that I'd even call myself a Christian, but I definitely believe in Jesus Christ and find a lot of wisdom in the timeless knowledge of The Bible. There's parts of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Matthew — all of which have excerpts on the record — that are full of practical advice on living, whether it's with marriage or finances, lust or alcoholism, or even how to interact with your neighbor. That advice written many years ago is still so relevant in today's society even though most things are totally different. 

My first time in a church in 10 years was for our Easter show the other day, so I'm definitely not the church-going devout religious kind of person. I just got to a point in my life where I didn't have any other choice than to let God take control of things. You can see just how much change has happened since then — it's undeniable.

Aside from ministry, is there anything else you want to pursue with your newfound platform?

Our family just bought this old farm that was operational until a couple years ago. We're in the process now of getting it going again. Once it's operational we want to start educating the public and maybe bringing people out for workshops on gardening and other homesteading basics. 

I also want to partner with other people in that space, like Joel Salatin, or some of these YouTubers that are getting people excited about gardening on only a quarter-acre in their backyards. It tastes better than anything you can buy — even at a high-end grocery store — and can be done for little to nothing. It's so rewarding to do and something I hope to repopularize as part of this whole thing.

It sounds like you're really trying to practice what you preach in terms of what you sing about and how you embody that spirit in everything you do.

Music and my whole life in general is just trying to hold on to that beautiful, raw, less glorified and flashy way of living that's still readily available in this country. There's so much noise and everything moves so quick now that it's hard to slow your brain down enough to get excited about gardening, being outdoors and clearing the land or raising livestock. There is no instant gratification to that, it's a process. 

If you get on YouTube and scroll through 100 Shorts your mind will start going a million miles per hour, which makes it hard to want to slow down to clean up after some stupid cow afterward. It makes it very hard to integrate the two things together into how we live today. 

What has making this music taught you about yourself?  

One thing I've learned is that if I want to try to have good mental health and be a normal functioning member of society, I've got to create music. In the same way that some people use a journal to write out their thoughts, songwriting is how I'm able to get my feelings and perceptions out of my own head. When life is going really well, it's harder for me to write songs because usually my motivation stems from things going wrong. I could probably write some catchy lyrics, but they wouldn't mean anything to me. 

Everything I write about I feel deep down inside, which can also be said about some of my favorite songs. That's the beauty of music — writing it as a way to clear your head and listening to it to remind you that you're not alone.

8 Artists Bringing Traditional Country Music Back: Zach Top, Randall King, Emily Nenni & More On Why "What's Old Becomes Beloved Again"

Photos (clockwise, from top left): Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella, Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Lufre, MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY, Paras Griffin/Getty Images, JOHN SHEARER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY, Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Listen: GRAMMY.com's Women's History Month 2024 Playlist: Female Empowerment Anthems From Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennie & More

This March, the Recording Academy celebrates Women's History Month with pride and joy. Press play on this official playlist that highlights uplifting songs from Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, Anitta and more.

From commanding stages to blasting through stereos, countless women have globally graced the music industry with their creativity. And though they've long been underrepresented , tides are changing: in just the last few years, female musicians have been smashing records left and right, conquering top song and album charts and selling sold-out massive tours .

This year, Women's History Month follows a particularly historic 66th GRAMMY Awards , which reflected the upward swing of female musicians dominating music across the board. Along with spearheading the majority of the ceremony's performances, women scored bigtime in the General Field awards — with wins including Best New Artist , Record Of The Year , Song Of The Year , and Album Of The Year .

Female empowerment anthems, in particular, took home major GRAMMY gold. Miley Cyrus ' "Flowers" took home two awards , while Victoria Monét was crowned Best New Artist thanks to the success of her album Jaguar II and its hit single "On My Mama." As those two songs alone indicate, female empowerment takes many different shapes in music — whether it's moving on from a relationship by celebrating self-love or rediscovering identity through motherhood.

The recent successes of women in music is a testament to the trailblazing artists who have made space for themselves in a male-dominated industry — from the liberating female jazz revolution of the '20s to the riot grrl movement of the '90s. Across genres and decades, the classic female empowerment anthem has strikingly metamorphosed into diverse forms of defiance, confidence and resilience.

No matter how Women's History Month is celebrated, it's about women expressing themselves, wholeheartedly and artistically, and having the arena to do so . And in the month of March and beyond, women in the music industry deserve to be recognized not only for their talent, but ambition and perseverance — whether they're working behind the stage or front-and-center behind the mic.

From Aretha Franklin 's "RESPECT" to Beyoncé 's "Run the World (Girls)," there's no shortage of female empowerment anthems to celebrate women's accomplishments in the music industry. Listen to GRAMMY.com's 2024 Women's History Month playlist on streaming services below.

9 Ways Women Dominated The 2024 GRAMMYs

Photo: Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Remembering Toby Keith: 5 Essential Songs From The Patriotic Cowboy And Country Music Icon

After a two-year battle with stomach cancer, country star Toby Keith passed away on Feb. 5 at the age of 62. Revisit his influence with five of his seminal tracks, including his debut hit "Should've Been a Cowboy."

We may have known about Toby Keith 's stomach cancer diagnosis for nearly two years, but that didn't keep the news of his Feb. 5 death from hitting hard. The oftentimes outspoken country music star enjoyed a three-decade career as one of the genre's beloved hitmakers, courtesy of unabashed hits like "Who's Your Daddy?," "Made In America" and "I Wanna Talk About Me."

Occasionally his in-your-face persona clashed with folks, particularly when it came to his political views in recent years. But for the most part, it was Keith's blue-collar upbringing and work ethic that shined through and resonated with his legion of listeners. 

It wasn't until his thirties that the future Songwriters Hall of Famer landed his first record deal in 1993, following years grinding away as a rodeo hand, in oil fields and as a semi-professional football player to make ends meet. The Oklahoma-born crooner would go on to record 20 No.1 hits, sell over 40 million records across 26 albums, and gross nearly $400 million touring — cementing himself as one of country music's most successful artists in the process.

As we look back on Keith's life and legacy, here are five essential cuts from the seven-time GRAMMY nominee, whose memory will live on in the hearts of country music artists and fans alike.

"Should've Been A Cowboy" (1993)

Few artists strike gold with their maiden release, but Keith did just that when his song "Should've Been A Cowboy" launched in February 1993. The upbeat track received widespread acclaim, eventually reaching No. 1 on the Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart a few months later.

"Should've Been A Cowboy" takes on a distinctly traditional tone as Keith romanticizes cowboy culture by referencing classic westerns like Gunsmoke with nods to Marshall Dillon and Miss Kitty in addition to six-shooters, cattle drives and Texas Rangers abound. The tune also reinforces the notion that cowboys just have more fun, whether its "stealin' the young girls' hearts, just like Gene [Autry] and Roy [Rogers]" or "runnin' wild through the hills chasin' Jesse James." 

By the looks of Keith's career, he certainly had his fair share of fun, and it may not have come if it weren't for "Should've Been A Cowboy."

"How Do You Like Me Now?!" (1999)

After a successful '90s run (which included two more No. 1s in "Who's That Man" and "Me Too"), Keith kicked off the 2000s with his fourth No. 1 hit, "How Do You Like Me Now?!" In signature Toby Keith fashion, he confronts his haters by asking the titular, rhetorical question, posed to his high school's valedictorian — who was also his crush. "I couldn't make you love me but I always dreamed about livin' in your radio," he sings on the brazen chorus.

The song is a stern reminder to never let anyone keep you from chasing your dreams; it's also a lesson of standing strong on your convictions. Its message also proved fitting for Keith's career: After Mercury Records Nashville rejected the song (and its namesake album) in the late '90s, Keith got out of his deal with them in favor of signing with DreamWorks Records, with whom he released the project a year later. Not only did the single go on to spend five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, but it became the singer's first major crossover hit.

"Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" (2002)

Keith was never afraid to share his opinion in public or in song, especially when it came to displaying his patriotism and appreciation for those who protect the United States. While the Okie approached this from a softer side on 2003's "American Soldier," his most renowned musings on the subject without a doubt came a year earlier with "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."

On the angsty ballad — which was written in the wake of his father's March 2001 death and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — Keith channels a universal feeling of American hurt and pride. "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" inspired an equal outpouring of support and outrage that, for better or worse depending on where you stand, helped cement the song into the annals of country music lore.

"I Love This Bar" (2003)

We've all got our favorite watering hole full of its own quirks and characters, from winners to losers, chain-smokers and boozers. Keith taps into that feel-good, hometown hang feeling with "I Love This Bar," a lighthearted tale from 2003's Shock'n Y'all that makes dingy dive bars feel like the prime party destination.

The midtempo track — Keith's 12th No. 1 — further plays into country music drinking tropes as Keith proclaims, "I like my girlfriend, I like to take her out to dinner, I like a movie now and then" before making a hard pivot, adding "but I love this bar." 

All joking aside, the song, and all of the unique individuals described within it, have a harmony to them inside those hallowed walls. It's a kinship that seems more and more difficult to find in today's world, and a sentiment best captured at the song's conclusion: "come as you are."

"As Good As I Once Was" (2005)

Your best days may be behind you, but that doesn't mean you can't still live your best life and thrive in the present — even if you don't get over hangovers as quickly as you used to.

That youthful wisdom is distilled into every lyric of "As Good As I Once Was," a reminiscent story in which a then-44-year-old Keith recounts his prime as a lover, drinker and fighter humbly. That being said, his pride is still quick to take charge with convictions like "I still throw a few back, talk a little smack, when I'm feelin' bullet proof."

Lasting six weeks at No. 1, "As Good As I Once Was" was the biggest of the 15 chart-toppers Keith tallied in the 2000s. And though he scored one more in the following decade (along with several other hits, including the playful drinking song "Red Solo Cup"), "As Good As I Once Was" will live on as one of Keith's quintessential messages of fun-loving confidence: "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was."

Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Big First Wins At The 2024 GRAMMYs: Karol G, Lainey Wilson, Victoria Monét & More

The 2024 GRAMMYs were momentous in a myriad of ways, including major firsts. Here's a rundown of big first wins by Paramore, Zach Bryan, Tyla and others.

That's a wrap for Music's Biggest Night! The 2024 GRAMMYs were extraordinarily stuffed with incredible moments , from performances to historic wins to unforgettable surprises.

Several of the most memorable moments came from first-time winners. In fact, there were 126 at the 66th GRAMMY Awards, spanning a wide array of talent across genres. From Colombian songstress Karol G to indie rock supergroup boygenius and country singer Brandy Clark , take a look at some of the biggest acts that took home their very first golden gramophones.

Miley Cyrus Celebrated Her First Wins With A Pumped-Up Performance

Miley Cyrus may have taken home the coveted Record Of The Year for "Flowers," but a different Category may have been the biggest achievement. Just before her performance on the GRAMMY stage , Cyrus won her first-ever golden gramophone for Best Pop Solo Performance.

"This award is amazing, but I really hope it doesn't change anything, because my life was beautiful yesterday," Cyrus said while accepting her first award.

"Flowers" is featured on Cyrus' 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation . "Flowers" was also nominated for GRAMMYs for Song Of The Year.

Karol G's First GRAMMYs Resulted In Her First GRAMMY

Karol G has had a meteoric rise over the past several years, and that continued unabated at Music's Biggest Night.

At the 2024 GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony, Karol G won the GRAMMY for Best Música Urbana Album, for her 2023 LP Mañana Será Bonito . (She'd previously been nominated at the 2022 GRAMMYs, for the same category, for KG0516 .

"Hello everybody, my name is Karol G. I am from Medellín, Colombia. This is my first time at the GRAMMYs, and this is my first time holding my own GRAMMY," she said, utterly concisely.

Victoria Monét Completed A Lifelong Goal…

Victoria Monét won big at the GRAMMYs, including taking home the award for Best New Artist. The singer also took home golden gramophones for Best R&B Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Jaguar II .

Monét has been nominated for 10 GRAMMYs over her career as both a solo act and songwriter. When accepting the GRAMMY Award for Best New Artist, Monét compared herself to a plant growing from soil. 

"My roots have been growing underneath ground, unseen, for so long, and I feel like today I'm sprouting, finally above ground," she said.

…And So Did Coco Jones

Monét’s fellow R&B nominee — and one-time collaborator — Coco Jones also turned a nearly 15-year journey into GRAMMY success, winning Best R&B Performance for her song "ICU."

Tyla, Me'shell NdegeOcello & Kylie Minogue Won In First-Time Categories

At the 2024 GRAMMYs, there were three new Categories — which meant three inaugural winners. South African singer/songwriter Tyla took home her first GRAMMY with her win for Best African Music Performance for her smash hit "Water," while Me'shell NdegeOcello and Kylie Minogue notched their second wins each, in the new Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording Categories, respectively.

After 16 Years, Paramore Got GRAMMY Gold 

Myspace-era alt wizards Paramore enjoyed a stunning resurgence with their 2023 album This Is Why . They'd been nominated in past ceremonies — their first nominations coming in 2008 — but at the 2024 GRAMMYs, they nabbed the trophy for the prestigious Best Rock Album Category. And with their first win, they made GRAMMY history: Paramore is the first female-fronted rock band to win Best Rock Album.

Lainey Wilson Continued A Massive Year With A GRAMMY

Much like Tyla, country star Lainey Wilson nailed it on the first try — as far as the Recording Academy goes. She was nominated twice at the 2024 GRAMMYs, and took home a golden gramophone for Best Country Album, for Bell Bottom Country .

Clearly, the phenomenon of a first-time GRAMMY nominee taking it home transcends genres and continents.

Second Time Was A Charm For Zach Bryan

Country great Zach Bryan 's been nominated before — at the 2023 GRAMMYs, for Best Country Solo Performance, for "Something in the Orange."

This time, he brought home the golden gramophone for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, for "I Remember Everything." Bryan was also nominated for Best Country Album ( Zach Bryan ) and Best Country Song, also for "I Remember Everything."

First-Time Nominees Boygenius Won Three Times

Women dominated the 2024 GRAMMYs, which certainly applies to boygenius — who consist of three women, and cleaned up at the ceremony. And, they too were first-time nominees

Boygenius took home three GRAMMYs revolving around 2023's the record , including Best Alternative Music Album, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance — both for the stirring, gender-flipped "Not Strong Enough."

Peso Pluma Went From First-Time Nominee To First-Time Winner

Música Mexicana, stand up! Upstart Peso Pluma took home the GRAMMY for Best Música Mexicana Album (Including Tejano), for his tremendous album GÉNESIS .

As the status of Mexico on the global stage continues to swell, take Pluma's win as a sign to keep your ear to the ground.

Brandy Clark Left A Winner

Roots-heavy singer Brandy Clark's been nominated for 17 GRAMMYs over the years, but never gave up.

At the 2024 GRAMMYs, she won for Best Americana Performance for "Dear Insecurity" — and she played a corker of a version at the Premiere Ceremony with the string duo SistaStrings.

Fred again.. Proved To Be Dance Music’s Latest Hero

2022 saw Fred again.. rise as one of dance music's most promising new stars with the release of his compilation album, USB , and his third studio album, Actual Life 3 — and both helped him win his first pair of GRAMMYs in 2024. USB 's "Rumble" (a collaboration with Skrillex and Four Tet) scored Best Dance/Electronic Recording, and Actual Life 3 took home Best Dance/Electronic Music Album.

Taylor Swift & Kacey Musgraves Celebrated Historic Firsts

While winning a GRAMMY was nothing new to 2024 winners Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves , they both had feats that marked big firsts in GRAMMY history. Swift became the first artist to be awarded Album Of The Year four times with her win for Midnights , while Musgraves' win for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for her Zach Bryan collaboration "I Remember Everything" made her the first artist to win in all four Country Field Categories.

Keep checking GRAMMY.com for stories about the 2024 GRAMMYs — and the Recording Academy thanks you for tuning into Music's Biggest Night! If you missed it, stream it on Paramount+ for maximum musical glory.

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Winners & Nominees List

• 1 Anne Wilson Found Faith In Music After Her Brother’s Death. Now She’s One Of Country’s Young Stars: "His Tragedy Wasn’t Wasted"
• 2 After Viral Fame, Oliver Anthony Bares His Soul With 'Hymnal Of A Troubled Man's Mind': "I Want To Truly Make A Difference"
• 3 Listen: GRAMMY.com's Women's History Month 2024 Playlist: Female Empowerment Anthems From Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennie & More
• 4 Remembering Toby Keith: 5 Essential Songs From The Patriotic Cowboy And Country Music Icon
• 5 Big First Wins At The 2024 GRAMMYs: Karol G, Lainey Wilson, Victoria Monét & More

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Who Is Anne Wilson? How Tragedy Helped Her Find Her Voice

Anne Wilson says her parents still can't believe it. Their little girl went from a wannabe astronaut to a full-fledged, Grammy-nominated vocal powerhouse in the blink of an eye.

That's hardly an exaggeration. One very tragic, very sudden event forced Wilson to the "stage," and she's not left since. Her new studio album Rebel finds her merging Christian and country music genres in a way she says will stick.

"I’m not gonna fit in a box of Christian music or country music," she tells Taste of Country. "I’m just going to be who I am, and the songs will fit where they fit."

• Anne Wilson's Rebel drops on April 19.
• Her My Jesus album (2022) was nominated for a Grammy and GMA/Dove Award, while the title track earned her a Billboard Music Award nod.
• She calls Lainey Wilson a very good friend. "We've always said we were the long-lost Wilson sisters," she'll joke of her "Praying Woman" duet partner.

Related : The Best Faith-Filled Country Songs

Who Is Anne Wilson?

Anne Wilson was born in 2002 and raised in Lexington, Ky. She grew up with both parents and two older siblings, brother Jacob and sister Elizabeth. As a young girl she learned piano, but says she sang so rarely that she can't even remember a specific performance.

As a young girl, Wilson became a devout Christian, and her relationship with God has only strengthened since. She was also fiercely attracted to secular music, especially the classic country sounds of Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash.

Check Out the New Taste of Country Store

"I loved the way his songs were produced," she tells TOC Nights' Evan Paul. "You can hear the instruments. The way that they were produced is so different from how music is now."

Anne Wilson, Christian Singer:

In 2019, Wilson signed a recording contract with Capitol Christian Music Group and dropped "My Jesus" two years later. The song would become a No. 1 Christian hit, leading to continued success in the nonsecular community.

A New Artist of the Year win at the 2022 GMA/Dove Awards stands out as a career highlight. She says her new album doesn't reflect a change as much as continued growth.

"God is definitely a part of country music, always has been," Wilson says when asked for similarities between genres. "The differences would maybe be, in Christian music there’s these fine lines between writing songs about worship songs — which are really songs to God — and songs about God. I write songs about God and faith."

What Happened to Anne Wilson's Brother?

Anne Wilson found her voice at her brother Jacob's funeral. He died in a car accident in June 2017, leaving the family shattered to the point that soon after, the whole family considered suicide by driving off a bridge.

"That was a really impactful moment for our family," she shares. "It was all four of us together in a car. Yeah, it was just a moment where we were like, 'Yeah. We gotta keep going. As hard as it is, as much as we don’t want to be here anymore, we’ve got to keep going.'"

The song Wilson sang for her brother was "What a Beautiful Name," and she'll still sit down in front of a piano and play it at concerts today. Often, you'll find her parents in the crowd or side-stage, mouths ajar.

“They definitely are like, blown away," she says. "They come to my concerts all the time, and they look at me like, ‘How are you doing this? Where did this come from?'"

Did Anne Wilson Go Country?

Anne Wilson hasn't made any kind of declaration about her musical intent, but the new Rebel album is being promoted as a multi-genre project, and she was named as one of CMT's Next Women of Country. The 16 songs include tracks with Lainey Wilson and country hitmaker Jordan Davis , but also Christian singer Chris Tomlin .

Most won't hear Parton and Cash when they listen to her arrangements or vocal stylings, but some will. She says she leaned into a producer's role to make sure each instrument came through the speakers separated.

What about the people bothered that she's singing about a man who sang about so much sin?

"I think there’s always going to be something against something. For me it’s like I’m just here to do my thing. And people can judge, they can say whatever."

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Quick Facts:

Full Name – Anne Wilson Birthdate – 2/21/2002 Hometown – Lexington, Kentucky Current City – Nashville, Tennessee Musical Influences – Morgan Wallen, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash Label – Capitol Christian Music Group / UMG Nashville Current Single – “Rain in the Rearview”   (Impacting country radio) // as of date of article: 10/2/23

The Beginning:

Today’s spotlight shines on an artist that is seemingly an incredible human and artist. Anne Wilson may be best known for her Christian music; however, she is blazing her own path, adding country music to her impressive repertoire. Anyone who appreciates an artist who is unapologetically themselves no matter what genre they are slated in will fall in love with Wilson.

The singer-songwriter hails from Lexington, Kentucky.  “ I grew up going to my family’s farm on the weekends. We have 700 acres in Kentucky, it’s absolutely beautiful. I’m so grateful and blessed to have that land,” she began. “I have two siblings, my brother Jacob and my sister, Elizabeth. We grew up as a really tight-knit family, always together.”

Wilson credits her family for introducing her to a wide variety of music at an early age. “I had actually been listening to quite a bit of music growing up. My parents would always play Christian radio and my brother would always play country music in the car. I felt like I got a really big dose of both of those genres. My brother would also play classic rock, and super old country songs, so that was always something that I loved,” she shared.

Despite being a music fan and playing classical piano for her entire childhood, at her mother’s request, Wilson never dreamed of being an artist. “I took piano lessons from six years old until graduating high school, like classical piano, and that was pretty much all the music I had. I didn’t do any other instruments. I didn’t sing in the choir. I didn’t sing in the car. I didn’t sing in the church. I really didn’t sing anywhere,” Wilson said.

Instead, Wilson focused on her dream of becoming an astronaut, finding herself more attracted to science and math. However, at age fifteen, when tragedy struck her family, her life and its path flipped on its axis.

The Turning Point:

The summer before her sophomore year of high school, Wilson learned that her older brother was killed in a tragic car accident. In order to cope with the tremendous loss, the songstress found comfort in the piano.

“I was singing at the piano one day, just a couple of days after he passed away, and I was really just worshiping God and having a moment to myself. I was processing all those things that had happened with my brother and my mom overheard me singing, and she came into the room, and said, “Anne I had no clue you could sing,” she shared. Adding, “I was super embarrassed and frustrated [at the time], but she asked me to sing at the funeral for my brother, because we couldn’t find anyone to sing, and I just decided to do it. I couldn’t help but do it, I wanted to honor my brother in that way, I sang publicly for the first time ever at my brother’s funeral.”

From that point on, Wilson started to fall in love with music and singing. “This whole thing kind of came out of nowhere for me, which makes it really cool,” she shared. “It started in 2017. Six months after my brother passed away, I got a call from a manager in Nashville. […] They had heard my voice because I posted one video of me singing on Youtube, and it went viral.”

After working with her manager for four years, Wilson was ready to introduce herself to the world through music. “In 2021, I released my very first single to Christian Radio. It was called, “My Jesus.” I was not expecting a thing out of it, I thought maybe it would land on the radio somewhere, and within 24 hours, it had nine million views on Facebook, and was just a viral song over night,” she shared. Adding, “My career took off immediately. I was nineteen at a time, and just moved out to Nashville the year prior all by myself. My life just changed over night.”

God moment after God moment, doors continued to open for Wilson. At the top of 2023, Wilson got a call from the head of UMG Nashville, who pitched her a joint record deal with her current label. “She wanted to work with me and do a co-record deal with my current record label. They said, “we want to take Anne to country radio, and we don’t want to change who she is. We don’t want her to do anything different. We just want her to put a song to country radio and give Anne an opportunity to really broaden her horizon and her audience.” That led into me writing songs and really figuring out if it was something I wanted to do and what I was passionate about, and it was such an immediate yes.”

Flash forward to today, Wilson is a duel artist, creating music that appeals to her Christian and country fanbase. With a record completed and finished, and coming out sooner rather than later, the songstress is showcasing how she has evolved as an artist over the years.

“I wrote the entire record in two months. […] All of the record was really birthed out of the place of being a “rebel,” which is the title to the record,” she shared. “To me [my music is] more of an extension of who I am as an artist, and now being 21 writing this record, it’s just a different chapter of who I am as an artist.”

Wilson doubles down adding that it is important for her to remain true to herself. “I’m not going to water down my message for country radio, and I’m not going to water down my country production for Christian radio, but I’m going to be authentically who I am as an artist.”

Wilson just released three brand new songs under the title,  REBEL (The Beginning) , including, “REBEL,” “Strong,” and “Rain in the Rearview.” The latter is the first song to go to country radio, while “Strong” will head to Christian radio later next month. “Every single song was written with rebel in mind for the record,” she shared. “What does it mean to be a rebel in today’s day and age? And it means to not back down from your faith, to be a leader, to not follow the crowds, to do your own thing, and to be who you are.”

Fans can anticipate more new music coming down the pipeline from Wilson. For now, she is embarking on her first headlining tour. Find tickets here.

Fans can join our Weekly Round-Up e-newsletter  here , for the latest in country music and more news and announcements about future Anne Wilson releases.

To keep up with Anne Wilson follow her on Instagram , Facebook, TikTok , and X / Twitter .

Anne Wilson’s music is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released tunes on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.

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Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Anne wilson has always been drawn to country music..

PLATINUM-certified, GRAMMY-nominated artist and songwriter  Anne Wilson has  been making waves for a few years, launching a successful music career in Christian Music, but Country Music has always called out to her and she realized her dream at the end of last year with the release of her debut country single, “Rain In The Rearview.”

“I grew up listening to Country and Christian music as a kid,” says Anne. “My parents would turn on Christian radio and my brother would play Country radio and old Country Music, so I equally enjoyed both. As an artist starting out in Christian Music, I loved getting to add my Country influence to my first record through faith-based lyrics. But now that I am 21, and it’s been a couple of years, I really have been able to explore who I am as an artist even deeper, and just more Country Music has naturally come out of that place. I realize that it’s not even about a genre anymore, but this is just who I am – a country girl who loves Jesus. And I’m so excited for this new season and share who I am as an artist with this new audience.”

Called to her musical mission in the wake of tragedy, Anne’s “My Jesus” – an empowering anthem of personal conviction wrapped in uplifting, roots-pop energy – served as her warm introduction to fans in early 2021. After going viral upon release, the single’s music video reached 7M views in its first week and more than 25M to date. The track hit No.1 on Billboard ‘s Christian Airplay chart, making her the first debut female Christian artist in chart history to reach No.1, and was nominated for a  Billboard  Music Award for Top Christian Song. The single also went on to be named ASCAP’s 2022 Christian Music Awards Song of the Year, reaching Spotify’s Viral 50, the Shazam Top 200 and  Rolling Stone’s  Top 25 Trending charts. To date, the song has accumulated 360M streams and 180M TikTok views in addition to notching PLATINUM status.

Anne will join  Scotty McCreery’s Cab In A Solo Tour as direct support, marking her first-ever Country tour. The tour, promoted by Live Nation, will kick-off at Hobart Arena in Troy, Ohio this Friday (January 26th) and make its way across the U.S. with stops in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and more.

Audio / Anne Wilson explains how she has been drawn to Country Music.

Anne Wilson (drawn to Country Music) OC: …new audience. :42 “I grew up listening to Country and Christian music as a kid. My parents would turn on Christian radio and my brother would play Country radio and old Country Music, so I equally enjoyed both. As an artist starting out in Christian Music, I loved getting to add my Country influence to my first record through faith-based lyrics. But now that I am 21, and it’s been a couple of years, I really have been able to explore who I am as an artist even deeper, and just more Country Music has naturally come out of that place. I realize that it’s not even about a genre anymore, but this is just who I am – a country girl who loves Jesus. And I’m so excited for this new season and share who I am as an artist with this new audience.”

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ANNE WILSON - God & Country - Capitol CMG

With “Rain In The Rearview,” Anne Wilson began teasing her crossover appeal by blurring the lines of her uber successful CCM roadmap with that of her country kissed roots, impacting radio with solid rotation while dipping her toes into the waters of her next exciting chapter.

The Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter has now officially embraced those blurred lines with the announcement of her new album, REBEL , and has simultaneously gifted her fans with her next single, “God & Country.”

The song, written by Wilson, Jeff Pardo, Matthew West, and Trannie Anderson, acts as an introduction for those who are just discovering the incredibly talented songstress, while opening a shoebox full of Polaroids that tell the story of how she was raised.

Through its toe-tapping melody and her addictively intriguing vocal, Wilson shares of being brought up down the middle of Kentucky country and church pew Sunday, telling of how her mama put a Bible in her hands, her daddy put those same hands in the dirt, and how she found the truth somewhere between the lyrics of her granddad’s vinyl records and the Word that the preacher taught.

Raising a smiled nod to who she is today because of how it was back then, she confidently holds strong to both sides of her personality as she opens the biography page of her diary, singing through the anthem laced chorus:

“I’m hallelujah hands high, and friends in low places

Red, white, and blue and red-letter pages

Back row pew and front seat Ford

New King James and old king George

I’m washed in the water and mud on the tires

I’m Friday night lights and Sunday morning choir

I’m prayers up to heaven, roots down in Kentucky

Made by God & country”

But as she segues from CCM to country, she also endearingly never loses sight of what’s most important…GOD!  Adding an additional layer of depth to her own story, her beliefs in the second verse become a heartfelt reminder that it can always be well within our souls if we keep our eyes looking up and our feet on our hometown, holy ground.

With an amazing list of CCM accolades already filling her resume and fusing together with the out of the gate, country radio success of “Rain In The Rearview,” Anne Wilson is blazing a very important trail that not only bridges the gap between both sonic sounds, but also injects a positivity to a much wider audience who is clamoring for hope.    

( Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis/Photo Artwork by: Robby Klein )

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Overqualified? Princess Anne, with a lifetime of royal experience, makes a first-class deputy to the King

By Isaac Bickerstaff

Princess Anne attends the inauguration of The OWO, Whitehall in September 2023

Princess Anne has long been celebrated for her quick wit and relentless work ethic. The unique role of stepping up and supporting, standing out and standing at the sidelines has been admirably executed by the Princess Royal over the course of a lifetime. Though not destined to be queen, Anne has never shied away from royal responsibilities. The passing of Queen Elizabeth II was a great public and private loss for the British monarchy; members of the royal family had to grieve whilst assuming new titles and taking on vast responsibility. King Charles’s position was clear from birth: he was to inherit the throne. Anne’s role has always been less clear cut, but the period following the Queen’s passing has seen the Princess Royal carve out a clear, consistent and indispensable role for herself. That role was again been tested – and proven – during the period of concern around King Charles's prostate issues. Now, following his cancer diagnosis, Anne will be called on in two directions: both to support her brother personally and to help lead the royal family publicly.

By Harriet Johnston

King Charles has always relied on his sister's steadfast consistency

The Princess has spent nearly two weeks recovering

By Ollie Macnaughton

Princess Anne during the National Service of Remembrance at The Cenotaph, 2023

Former BBC Royal Correspondent Wesley Kerr told Tatler that Princess Anne has proved that ‘she can be relied on for compete discretion and unconditional love.’ According to Kerr, Anne has a unique combination of understanding - for ‘who and what has shaped Charles’ – as well as a real desire for him to succeed. This was symbolically represented during her role at her brother’s coronation, where she attended as Gold Stick in Waiting. Considered a great honour, the role is essentially as a ceremonial bodyguard to the incoming sovereign. In doing so, the Princess Royal manifested and projected her ability to protect and support Charles through choppy waters.

Now his confidence in her will feel more important than ever, as Charles endures what will surely feel like one of the greatest tests of his life. Though Buckingham Palace has put out stiff-upper-lipped messaging (the palace has said that the king remains ‘wholly positive’ and that he ‘looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible’) there can be no doubt that any kind of cancer diagnosis forces an individual to confront their mortality and focuses the mind on those nearest and those intertwined with one's legacy.

Fortunately, Anne's relationship with Charles is said very much to mirror the ceremonial role she played at his coronation. That is to say: she represents a safeguard, core ally and protector. At the time of the coronation, Wesley Kerr OBE, told Tatler , ‘She is the person The King has known longest…Anne is wise, intelligent, incredibly plugged into the modern United Kingdom. She understands completely who and what has shaped him and is eager for him to succeed: for the sake of their beloved mum and dad and for country and Commonwealth.' In other words, she has the perfect perspective and characteristics to shoulder some of the King's responsibility at this time.

Princess Anne competed at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal

An equestrian insider also added of Anne, ‘She knows how Charles ticks. She's always had a unique relationship with him, even in the younger days, when she knew all about Charles and Camilla and supported him through that. I've no doubt that she will be the same mainstay of support to Charles as she was to her mother.’

It seems clear that the vital role that Anne has played throughout Charles's life, will qualify her to continue to act as a vital pillar of strength at this very difficult moment for the royal family. This is not to say that she herself will not very much be shaken by the news – having lost both of her parents in the last three years – and no doubt she will rely on her own support structures (in particular, husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.)

The family joined in the festivities of a traditional Monégasque ceremony

Anne, Princess Royal and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, laughing during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal & Duke of Fife Memorial Park in Braemar, Scotland, September 2022

Princess Royal at Coronation of King Charles III in May 2023

Princess Anne attends the Christmas Morning Service at Sandringham Church, 2023

Famous for packing out her schedule to accommodate the pull of royal duties and appearances, Princess Anne's energy reserves are notorious. It is said that she performed over 500 engagements last year. The King’s – hopefully – temporary absence will no doubt increase the importance of her commitments – seeking to maintain a felt-presence for the royal family around the country. To give an example from the Princess's incredible schedule, the Thursday before last saw her visit Cromer Station in Norfolk in celebration of the National Coastwatch Institution's  30th anniversary, then go on to open Norfolk Schools Sailing Association's new facilities near Great Yarmouth, before finally stopping at HM Prison Norwich as part of her work as a patron of the National Association of Official Prison Visitors. All in a day’s work!

Constant beacon of support for the royals she may be, but Anne cannot be defined solely by her commitment to her family. Indeed the princess’ fond frankness and frugality are all part of the Anne-factor. Beyond that, Anne is recognised for her exceptional sporting prowess. Princess Anne was  the first member of the Royal Family to compete in the Olympic Games, riding Goodwill – late Queen Elizabeth’s horse – at the equestrian event during the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976. Her family, in particular the Tindalls, have gone on to replicate her sporting streak very impressively. Anne is also known for her exceptionally glamorous turns; a characteristic which was memorably on show at the recent Buckingham Palace banquet for South Korea.

Princess Anne is a complex, multi-faceted character; with enormous reserves of energy and considerable life experience. In this very trying time, she will become a more important player than ever for the royal family. Ever-positive, the King will surely remain chipper even as he processes this difficult news. No doubt his confidence is aided by the knowledge of having such a redoubtable younger sister at his side.

Ask Ann Cannon: My only son always spends Christmas with his wife’s family. It’s not fair.

Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune The Salt Lake Tribune staff portraits. Ann Cannon

Dear Ann Cannon • So my only son and his wife have been married for almost four years. She’s a very nice young woman — I like her a lot — but as the holidays approach, I find myself resenting the fact that somehow she and my son always end up spending Christmas with her side of the family. There’s always an excuse. Someone’s going on a Mormon mission or someone’s moving away or someone’s getting married, so this will be the last time her family will all be together for the holidays. I’m not sure, but I think my daughter-in-law’s mother drives a lot of it. It seems like she’s one of those women who just naturally assume that girls go home to their mothers and their husbands be damned. And because my daughter-in-law is close to her mother, she goes along with it.

I don’t want to create a problem for my son and his wife, but hey! I’d really like them to spread the Christmas love around a little bit more equally. Any suggestions?

— Tired of Being a Holiday Afterthought

Dear Tired • As I always say, there’s nothing like Christmas to bring out the crazy in even the most functional of families! Happy holidays!

OK. Let’s get down to business here. I assume you’ve already brought this up with your son and his wife at some point? Because you really should if you haven’t already. Remember, people — most of them, anyway — can’t read minds. If you haven’t said something, they may honestly assume you don’t have a problem with the arrangement. And, frankly, it may also be convenient for them to think there isn’t a problem, especially if they’re being pressured by her mother.

Think about approaching the conversation this way. “I’d love for you to spend Christmas with us this year. Can we make that happen?” Be kind. Be inviting. Be direct. Resist the temptation to pull the Guilt Card, which may work in the short run, but could create resentment down the road.

So what happens if you have The Conversation but your kids still decide to spend Christmas with her side of the family? Well, as always, you get to choose how to respond. You can stew in the juices of your resentment. Or you can figure out a way to manage your resentment, which (admittedly) isn’t easy. The urge to keep score, after all, runs strong in human beings. Think about creating a holiday tradition of your own — like throwing a big happy messy family Christmas party that takes place NOT on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, I feel compelled to write a letter of my own right now.

Dear Mothers and Fathers of America • Let me tell you about one of the best gifts my mother ever gave me. The first year I was married, I told her my husband and I would not be spending Christmas Eve with her. I was worried about her reaction because Christmas Eve was sacrosanct at Chez Edwards. I was the oldest and the first to marry, so I was breaking with a pattern that was familiar and comfortable to us all.

Her initial response was pretty much what I’d expected it to be. She was at the kitchen sink, washing dishes. When I told her, she carefully put down her dish and even gripped the edge of the counter. “Wait. You won’t be with us for Christmas Eve? I cannot believe this.”

I gulped and nodded.

Then she took a deep, deep breath and said, “Sweetheart, that’s OK. That is absolutely OK.”

The moral of this story? Parents, be willing to share your children. Encourage them to be fair. Fair to you. Fair to the other families in their lives, too.

— Ann Cannon

Got a question for Ann? Email her at [email protected] or visit the Ask Ann Cannon page on Facebook.

Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible

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Ann Brown is Constantly Country

Member of Hopewell Hayride Show Broadcast Live the 2nd & 4th Saturday of The Month 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. on coaradio.com Hopewell, N.J.

Renowned for her crystal clear vocal quality and her clean, crisp delivery, Ann Brown is a true country music performer in every sense of the word…….one who puts her heart and soul into every song and performance, and is an absolute pleasure to watch and hear. Ann began her career at the age of seven, singing and learning to play the guitar…..her early performances were at school and church events. She formed her first band at age 13, and entertained at local fairs, carnivals, banquets and fund-raisers, and has appeared on various television shows on WCAU and WPVI in Philadelphia, and on Easton, PA public TV. She and her band performed at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000.

Ann Brown was a regular performer on WNAR’s Sunday morning Country Music Showdown in Norristown, PA. As if her distinctive voice weren’t enough, Ann is an accomplished musician, who plays guitar, bass, accordion, steel guitar and keyboard. Always willing to lend her talents to a worthy cause, Ann has been a part of many telethons for Multiple Sclerosis, March of Dimes and flood victims. Unpretentious and fun-loving, Ann Brown is a consistent top-notch performer, a true delight to her audience, and is indeed “Constantly Country”.

In the world of " Palm Royale ," there's one person who has access to every mansion, social club and secret in Palm Beach: Ann Holiday, the new society editor for Palm Beach Daily News.

Behind this character with cat's eye glasses, a camera at the ready and a commanding bob hairstyle is actor Mindy Cohn, a beloved comedy mainstay who rose to fame starting in 1979 as Natalie on "The Facts on Life."

Cohn was in Palm Beach recently, arriving April 23 to be the featured guest at a "Palm Royale"-themed cocktail party to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Greater Palm Beach County on April 24 at the Marion Sims Wyeth-designed Casa de Los Angeles, owned by Greg and Kim Dryer.

Palm Royale: 5 Palm Beach locations locals will recognize in new Apple TV+ series

She sat down with the real Shiny Sheet to talk about "Palm Royale," Palm Beach, Ann Holiday and the joy of hitting her stride and supporting a cause she loves.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

As a character, Cohn's portrayal of Ann is enterprising, diligent and a little mysterious. She knows a good news story when she hears it, and she isn't afraid to ask difficult questions.

It's Ann who finds the truth about the past of lead character Maxine Dellacorte (Kristen Wiig), whose desperate attempts to crack Palm Beach society drive the series' action.

In the sun-drenched, lies-filled Palm Beach of "Palm Royale," Ann comes across as a breath of fresh air with a tinge of humor and great haircut.

Cohn's input was central to key parts of Ann's character, from her wedding ring, to her glasses, to, yes, that haircut.

It's a haircut that Cohn didn't expect at first, as she has her own gray hair cropped at her chin. But when she first sat with the hair department for "Palm Royale" and found out she was getting a wig, she had a suggestion: "I said, Edith Head, and Edna from 'The Incredibles.'"

Edith Head was a famous costume designer with "a very thick fringe," Cohn said. And Edna Mode is the petite force behind the superheroes' costumes in "The Incredibles" films from Pixar.

As soon as she said it, the influence from both women is clear in the final product. Key to the wig are two bits of hair that jut out from the front of the bob.

"It was a very firm commitment of, this bob will go this way," Cohn said, moving her hands forward from each side of her face, pointing forward. "Not only was my suggestion taken, they were so open to that."

It was similar with Ann's costumes, which become increasingly more colorful throughout the season, perhaps as Ann settles into her role on the island.

Cohn's vision for Ann's costumes was built on her memories of her grandmother Rose, and her longtime mentor, actor Betty White.

"I wanted Ann to wear pants when she worked," Cohn said. "Which, it's not that pants were verboten, but most women did not wear pants."

All of the blouses Cohn wears throughout the series are newly made from vintage fabrics that were hand-selected by "Palm Royale" costume designer Alix Friedberg, Cohn said.

"There was this sense of color and pattern, and that Ann would not be afraid," Cohn said. While other women in the show are dressed mostly in solid colors, only a handful don patterns.

"She wanted Ann to literally be in print," Cohn said of Friedberg. "Which I thought was very cheeky. 'Cause Ann is in print. And that should carry to her clothing."

The boldness of the colors and patterns signal to viewers that Ann isn't afraid, she said.

"She's not skulking in the background. She's very much in front, in her mind," Cohn said.

The details of Ann's character extend to the car she drives: a classic Jaguar sports car.

"It's like, 'OK, who is this woman?'" Cohn said of Ann, whose past remains a bit of a mystery throughout "Palm Royale." "She has means. Even today, that kind of Jaguar is not something you just pull the trigger and make a decision to buy."

It's unclear if the car belongs to Ann, her husband or someone else, Cohn said. "For an actor to get that kind of juicy tidbit is fascinating," she noted. "And again, especially on an island where everything is very intentional."

Cohn modeled Ann after famed gossip and society columnist Hedda Hopper, whose column "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" was a must-read in newspapers across the country for decades.

"She was covering at a time when celebrity was covered in a certain way, but society really wasn't," Cohn said. "This was the time in the '60s and '70s when society started to burgeon into an area where people's curiosities were peaked. They wanted the inside scoop."

Hedda Hopper was a gatekeeper of what got told: "People decided what relationships they would have with her, to either protect themselves or to make friends with her," Cohn said.

Ann Holiday's character is similar. As some characters pull the society editor toward them, into their inner circle and confidence, others keep her at arm's length.

"I knew there was a Shiny Sheet that was still up and running, which I love," Cohn said. "I think that one of the beautiful things about Palm Beach is that it has stayed timeless."

"Timeless" is a word Cohn returns to when talking about Palm Beach.

"There's this sense of tradition and small town-ness that other places just don't have," she said. "Palm Beach is very niche in that way. And I love the part of Palm Beach that really revels in their history of society. It is not dated. It is not some past thing that you reminisce about. It's very much still on the pages."

There is a timelessness to Cohn herself. Her pop culture staying power is a testament to her ability to capture audiences with her characters.

As Natalie on "The Facts of Life," Cohn became an icon and was seen as a positive role model and force for good for teen girls of that generation.

She also, coincidentally, once again portrayed a journalist, as Natalie wrote for the school newspaper and later, in the series' reunion in 2001, worked for CNN.

"Journalistic prowess seems to follow me wherever I go in my acting career," Cohn said, laughing.

Now, journalism has followed Cohn to Florida, which she visits with more frequency in recent years as some of her closest friends and family have moved to the Sunshine State, and to Palm Beach in particular.

She made her first visit to the island within the past year, she said. She hopes to return more, to spend time with her cousins, who live on the South End; and friends including designer and artist Jonathan Adler and his husband, author and fashion commentator Simon Doonan, who have a 1930s Maurice Fatio-designed home on the North End; and fashion designer Liz Lange, whose home is on the Lake Trail.

Visiting The Colony Hotel, she could see how it inspired "Palm Royale" production designer Jon Carlos, who also worked on "Westworld" and "Hacks."

Touring Palm Beach and getting a feel for its layout was fascinating, Cohn said, as she observed the transition between the massive homes and properties in the historic Estate Section to the south and the single-family, smaller homes to the north.

There's "this understated sense of place, physically here, that you don't find in any other city," she said.

As more of her friends take up part- and full-time residence in Palm Beach, Cohn said she found it funny that as Ann in "Palm Royale" seeks to cover society, Cohn herself has become friends with members of the real high society in town.

"It's a riot," she said, laughing with the realization. "Because, I mean, to know me is to know I am not of that, but I feel very comfortable in it. Always have."

When it comes to friendships, Cohn said the chemistry on the set of "Palm Royale" was incredible, with cast members and crew making connections as old friends and fostering new ones.

Because of the writers' and actors' strike in Hollywood last year, the show did not have its premiere until about a year after filming was finished.

"We just really like each other," Cohn said of her fellow cast members, who include Wiig, Ricky Martin, Allison Janney, Carol Burnett, Josh Lucas, Laura Dern, Leslie Bibb and Amber Chardae Robinson. "We had a ball. I think the caliber of acting and actor goes hand-in-hand. I think you just are better when you're with people like Carol Burnett and Kristen Wiig."

The cast was "an embarrassment of riches," she said.

Some of the people on the set were ones with whom Cohn had hoped to work with for years.

That includes Janney, who plays Evelyn Rollins, a queen bee of Palm Beach high society.

"She had been on my top five list of actors I've wanted to work with for the past 15 years," Cohn said. "She's incredible, to say the least."

As Wiig and Cohn walked together to set for Cohn's first scene with Janney, Cohn said she turned to Wiig and said, "I might start crying. It's Allison Janney."

Cohn said Wiig grabbed her and said, "I did that with Carol."

Their friendships have continued through press junkets, going to dinner together after daylong interviews. They rallied through long weeks of filming that were delayed because of COVID-19, and supported each other as they faced challenging scenes.

For one scene in the season finale, Cohn said cast members sat rapt as Wiig went through take after take of a physically and emotionally demanding moment.

Cohn said that as an actor, witnessing Wiig's performance was a masterclass.

"It makes me emotional thinking about it. We were all in tears," Cohn said. "She was breathtaking in take after take, nuance, changing it, laughing, crying, forgetting a line and improv-ing. And we sat, rapt, by this incredible woman."

A photo captured by Martin shows Cohn on her feet, applauding Wiig, as other cast members cheer.

It's a photo Cohn is eager to share, but can't until the finale premieres May 8.

Cohn's visit to Palm Beach for the Habitat fundraiser seemed to her to be a bit of a full circle moment, as philanthropic events play such a central role on "Palm Royale."

"I find it no accident and quite charming that of all the charities and philanthropic efforts, that there is a serious chapter here of Habitat for Humanity, based on what they do nationally and now internationally," she said.

The cause of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Palm Beach County is one that is dear to Cohn's heart. She first began supporting them — and participated in building a home with them — about three decades ago, after admiring founder and former President Jimmy Carter's efforts.

Many of those who attended the cocktail party have donated and volunteered for the organization for years, she said. "I do find that very redeemable," Cohn said. "Unlike the 'Palm Royale' ladies. I find the real-life philanthropy here much more impressive, obviously, than the fictionalized."

Habitat for Humanity is especially impressive, she said.

"Home is everything to me," Cohn said. Giving people a home base with safety, security and stability is life-changing, she said.

"The feeling that home evokes for people can't be talked about enough," she said.

As Cohn waits to hear if "Palm Royale" will return for a second season, she said she finds herself in the prime of her life.

She recalled advice given to her by her many incredible mentors over the years, including White, Geraldine Page, Elaine Stritch, Eileen Heckart, Cloris Leachman and Bea Arthur.

"They all, in various stages of my life, had told me, 'God, your 50s and 60s are gonna be the best times of your life,'" Cohn said. "And at 20, you don't really want to hear that, right?"

Now, as she approaches her 58th birthday on May 20, Cohn has found herself in the midst of a resurgence.

"While I've worked the last 45 years consistently, it's been nothing of this kind of note and magnitude with these kind of actors," she said. "For an actor, it's what you dream about."

Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at  [email protected] .  Subscribe today  to support our journalism.

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Whales Have an Alphabet

Until the 1960s, it was uncertain whether whales made any sounds at all..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

Today, ever since the discovery that whales produce songs, scientists have been trying to find a way to decipher their lyrics. After 60 years, they may have finally done it. My colleague, Carl Zimmer, explains.

It’s Friday, May 24.

I have to say, after many years of working with you on everything from the pandemic to —

— CRISPR DNA technology, that it turns out your interests are even more varied than I had thought, and they include whales.

They do indeed.

And why? What is it about the whale that captures your imagination?

I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who is not fascinated by whales. I mean, these are mammals like us, and they’re swimming around in the water. They have brains that are much bigger than ours. They can live maybe 200 years. These are incredible animals, and animals that we still don’t really understand.

Right. Well, it is this majestic creature that brings us together today, Carl, because you have been reporting on a big breakthrough in our understanding of how it is that whales communicate. But I think in order for that breakthrough to make sense, I think we’re going to have to start with what we have known up until now about how whales interact. So tell us about that.

Well, people knew that whales and dolphins traveled together in groups, but up until the 1960s, we didn’t really know that whales actually made any sounds at all. It was actually sort of an accident that we came across it. The American military was developing sophisticated microphones to put underwater. They wanted to listen for Russian submarines.

As one does. But there was an engineer in Bermuda, and he started hearing some weird stuff.

[WHALE SOUNDS]

And he wondered maybe if he was actually listening to whales.

What made him wonder if it was whales, of all things?

Well, this sound did not sound like something geological.

It didn’t sound like some underwater landslide or something like that. This sounded like a living animal making some kind of call. It has these incredible deep tones that rise up into these strange, almost falsetto type notes.

It was incredibly loud. And so it would have to be some really big animal. And so with humpback whales swimming around Bermuda, this engineer thought, well, maybe these are humpback whales.

And so he gets in touch with a husband and wife team of whale biologists, Roger and Katy Payne, and plays these recordings to them. And they’re pretty convinced that they’re hearing whales, too. And then they go on to go out and confirm that by putting microphones in the water, chasing after groups of whales and confirming, yes, indeed, that these sounds are coming from these humpback whales.

So once these scientists confirm in their minds that these are the sounds of a whale, what happens with this discovery?

Well, Roger and Katy Payne and their colleagues are astonished that this species of whale is swimming around singing all the time for hours on end. And it’s so inspirational to them that they actually help to produce a record that they release “The Song of the Humpback Whale” in 1970.

And so this is being sold in record stores, you know, along with Jimi Hendrix and Rolling Stones. And it is a huge hit.

Yeah, it sells like two million copies.

Well, at the time, it was a huge cultural event. This record, this became almost like an anthem of the environmental movement. And it led, for whales in particular, to a lot of protections for them because now people could appreciate that whales were a lot more marvelous and mysterious than they maybe had appreciated before.

And so you have legislation, like the Marine Mammal Act. The United States just agrees just to stop killing whales. It stops its whaling industry. And so you could argue that the discovery of these whale songs in Bermuda led to at least some species of whales escaping extinction.

Well, beyond the cultural impact of this discovery, which is quite meaningful, I wonder whether scientists and marine biologists are figuring out what these whale songs are actually communicating.

So the Paynes create a whole branch of science, the study of whale songs. It turns out that pretty much every species of whale that we know of sings in some way or another. And it turns out that within a species, different groups of whales in different parts of the world may sing with a different dialect. But the big question of what these whales are singing, what do these songs mean, that remains elusive into the 21st century. And things don’t really change until scientists decide to take a new look at the problem in a new way.

And what is that new way?

So in 2020, a group of whale biologists, including Roger Payne, come together with computer scientists from MIT. Instead of humpback whales, which were the whales where whale songs are first discovered, these scientists decide to study sperm whales in the Caribbean. And humpback whales and sperm whales have very, very different songs. So if you’re used to humpback whales with their crazy high and low singing voices —

Right, those best-selling sounds.

— those are rockin’ tunes of the humpback whales, that’s not what sperm whales do. Sperm whales have a totally different way of communicating with each other. And I actually have some recordings that were provided by the scientists who have been doing this research. And so we can take a listen to some of them.

Wow, It’s like a rhythmic clicking.

These are a group of sperm whales swimming together, communicating.

So whale biologists knew already that there was some structure to this sound. Those clicks that you hear, they come in little pulses. And each of those pulses is known as a coda. And whale biologists had given names to these different codas. So, for example, they call one coda, one plus one plus three —

— which is basically click, click, click, click, click, or four plus three, where you have four clicks in a row and a pause and then three clicks in a row.

Right. And the question would seem to be, is this decipherable communication, or is this just whale gibberish?

Well, this is where the computer scientists were able to come in and to help out. The whale biologists who were listening to the codas from the sperm whales in the Caribbean, they had identified about 21 types. And then that would seem to be about it.

But then, an MIT computer science graduate student named Prajusha Sharma was given the job of listening to them again.

And what does she hear?

In a way, it’s not so much what she heard, but what she saw.

Because when scientists record whale songs, you can look at it kind of like if you’re looking at an audio of a recording of your podcast, you will see the little squiggles of your voice.

And so whale biologists would just look at that ticker of whale songs going across the screen and try to compare them. And Sharma said, I don’t like this. I just — this is not how I look at data. And so what she decided to do is she decided to kind of just visualize the data differently. And essentially, she just kind of flipped these images on their side and saw something totally new.

And what she saw was that sperm whales were singing a whole bunch of things that nobody had actually been hearing.

One thing that she discovered was that you could have a whale that was producing a coda over and over and over again, but it was actually playing with it. It was actually stretching out the coda,

[CLICKING] So to get a little bit longer and a little bit longer, a little bit longer.

And then get shorter and shorter and shorter again. They could play with their codas in a way that nobody knew before. And she also started to see that a whale might throw in an extra click at the end of a coda. So it would be repeating a coda over and over again and then boom, add an extra one right at the end. What they would call an ornamentation. So now, you have yet another signal that these whales are using.

And if we just look at what the sperm whales are capable of producing in terms of different codas, we go from just 21 types that they had found in the Caribbean before to 156. So what the scientists are saying is that what we might be looking at is what they call a sperm whale phonetic alphabet.

Yeah, that’s a pretty big deal because the only species that we know of for sure that has a phonetic alphabet —

— is us, exactly. So the reason that we can use language is because we can make a huge range of sounds by just doing little things with our mouths. A little change in our lips can change a bah to a dah. And so we are able to produce a set of phonetic sounds. And we put those sounds together to make words.

So now, we have sperm whales, which have at least 150 of these different versions of sounds that they make just by making little adjustments to the existing way that they make sounds. And so you can make a chart of their phonetic alphabet, just like you make a chart of the human phonetic alphabet.

So then, that raises the question, do they combine their phonetic alphabet into words? Do they combine their words into sentences? In other words, do sperm whales have a language of their own?

Right. Are they talking to each other, really talking to each other?

If we could really show that whales had language on par with humans, that would be like finding intelligent life on another planet.

We’ll be right back.

So, Carl, how should we think about this phonetic alphabet and whether sperm whales are actually using it to talk to each other?

The scientists on this project are really careful to say that these results do not definitively prove what these sperm whale sounds are. There are a handful of possibilities here in terms of what this study could mean. And one of them is that the whales really are using full-blown language.

What they might be talking about, we don’t know. I mean, perhaps they like to talk about their travels over hundreds and thousands of miles. Maybe they’re talking about, you know, the giant squid that they caught last night. Maybe they’re gossiping about each other.

And you have to remember, sperm whales are incredibly social animals. They have relationships that last for decades. And they live in groups that are in clans of thousands of whales. I mean, imagine the opportunities for gossip.

These are all at least imaginable now. But it’s also possible that they are communicating with each other, but in a way that isn’t language as we know it. You know, maybe these sounds that they’re producing don’t add up to sentences. There’s no verb there. There’s no noun. There’s no structure to it in terms of how we think of language.

But maybe they’re still conveying information to each other. Maybe they’re somehow giving out who they are and what group they belong to. But it’s not in the form of language that we think of.

Right. Maybe it’s more kind of caveman like as in whale to whale, look, there, food.

It’s possible. But, you know, other species have evolved in other directions. And so you have to put yourself in the place of a sperm whale. You know, so think about this. They are communicating in the water. And actually, like sending sounds through water is a completely different experience than through the air like we do.

So a sperm whale might be communicating to the whale right next to it a few yards away, but it might be communicating with whales miles away, hundreds of miles away. They’re in the dark a lot of the time, so they don’t even see the whales right next to them. So it’s just this constant sound that they’re making because they’re in this dark water.

So we might want to imagine that such a species would talk the way we do, but there are just so many reasons to expect that whatever they’re communicating might be just profoundly different, so different that it’s actually hard for us to imagine. And so we need to really, you know, let ourselves be open to lots of possibilities.

And one possibility that some scientists have raised is that maybe language is just the wrong model to think about. Maybe we need to think about music. You know, maybe this strange typewriter, clickety clack is actually not like a Morse code message, but is actually a real song. It’s a kind of music that doesn’t necessarily convey information the way conversation does, but it brings the whales together.

In humans, like, when we humans sing together in choruses, it can be a very emotional experience. It’s a socially bonding experience, but it’s not really like the specific words that we’re singing that bring us together when we’re singing. It’s sharing the music together.

But at a certain point, we stop singing in the chorus, and we start asking each other questions like, hey, what are you doing for dinner? How are you going to get home? There’s a lot of traffic on the BQE. So we are really drawn to the possibility that whales are communicating in that same kind of a mode.

We’re exchanging information. We’re seeking out each other’s well-being and emotional state. And we’re building something together.

And I think that happens because, I mean, language is so fundamental to us as human beings. I mean, it’s like every moment of our waking life depends on language. We are talking to ourselves if we’re not talking to other people.

In our sleep, we dream, and there are words in our dreams. And we’re just stewing in language. And so it’s really, really hard for us to understand how other species might have a really complex communication system with hundreds of different little units of sound that they can use and they can deploy. And to think anything other than, well, they must be talking about traffic on the BQE. Like —

— we’re very human-centric. And we have to resist that.

So what we end up having here is a genuine breakthrough in our understanding of how whales interact. And that seems worth celebrating in and of itself. But it really kind of doubles as a lesson in humility for us humans when it comes to appreciating the idea that there are lots of non-human ways in which language can exist.

That’s right. Humility is always a good idea when we’re thinking about other animals.

So what now happens in this realm of research? And how is it that these scientists, these marine biologists and these computer scientists are going to try to figure out what exactly this alphabet amounts to and how it’s being used?

So what’s going to happen now is a real sea change in gathering data from whales.

So to speak.

So these scientists are now deploying a new generation of undersea microphones. They’re using drones to follow these whales. And what they want to do is they want to be recording sounds from the ocean where these whales live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so the hope is that instead of getting, say, a few 100 codas each year on recording, these scientists want to get several hundred million every year, maybe billions of codas every year.

And once you get that much data from whales, then you can start to do some really amazing stuff with artificial intelligence. So these scientists hope that they can use the same kind of artificial intelligence that is behind things like ChatGPT or these artificial intelligence systems that are able to take recordings of people talking and transcribing them into text. They want to use that on the whale communication.

They want to just grind through vast amounts of data, and maybe they will discover more phonetic letters in this alphabet. Who knows? Maybe they will actually find bigger structures, structures that could correspond to language.

If you go really far down this route of possibilities, the hope is that you would understand what sperm whales are saying to each other so well that you could actually create artificial sperm whale communication, and you could play it underwater. You could talk to the sperm whales. And they would talk back. They would react somehow in a way that you had predicted. If that happens, then maybe, indeed, sperm whales have something like language as we understand it.

And the only way we’re going to figure that out is if we figure out not just how they talk to themselves, but how we can perhaps talk to them, which, given everything we’ve been talking about here, Carl, is a little bit ironic because it’s pretty human-centric.

That’s right. This experiment could fail. It’s possible that sperm whales don’t do anything like language as we know it. Maybe they’re doing something that we can’t even imagine yet. But if sperm whales really are using codas in something like language, we are going to have to enter the conversation to really understand it.

Well, Carl, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Sorry. Can I say that again? My voice got really high all of a sudden.

A little bit like a whale’s. Ooh.

Yeah, exactly. Woot. Woot.

Thank yoooo. No. Thank you.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

We allege that Live Nation has illegally monopolized markets across the live concert industry in the United States for far too long. It is time to break it up.

On Thursday, the Justice Department sued the concert giant Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster, for violating federal antitrust laws and sought to break up the $23 billion conglomerate. During a news conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said that Live Nation’s monopolistic tactics had hurt the entire industry of live events.

The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices.

In a statement, Live Nation called the lawsuit baseless and vowed to fight it in court.

A reminder — tomorrow, we’ll be sharing the latest episode of our colleagues’ new show, “The Interview.” This week on “The Interview,” Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, about his plans to make the world’s largest streaming service even bigger.

I don’t agree with the premise that quantity and quality are somehow in conflict with each other. I think our content and our movie programming has been great, but it’s just not all for you.

Today’s episode was produced by Alex Stern, Stella Tan, Sydney Harper, and Nina Feldman. It was edited by MJ Davis, contains original music by Pat McCusker, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, and Sophia Lanman, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

Special thanks to Project SETI for sharing their whale recordings.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you on Tuesday after the holiday.

• May 29, 2024   •   29:46 The Closing Arguments in the Trump Trial
• May 28, 2024   •   25:56 The Alitos and Their Flags
• May 24, 2024   •   25:18 Whales Have an Alphabet
• May 23, 2024   •   34:24 I.C.C. Prosecutor Requests Warrants for Israeli and Hamas Leaders
• May 22, 2024   •   23:20 Biden’s Open War on Hidden Fees
• May 21, 2024   •   24:14 The Crypto Comeback
• May 20, 2024   •   31:51 Was the 401(k) a Mistake?
• May 19, 2024   •   33:23 The Sunday Read: ‘Why Did This Guy Put a Song About Me on Spotify?’
• May 17, 2024   •   51:10 The Campus Protesters Explain Themselves
• May 16, 2024   •   30:47 The Make-or-Break Testimony of Michael Cohen
• May 15, 2024   •   27:03 The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System
• May 14, 2024   •   35:20 Voters Want Change. In Our Poll, They See It in Trump.

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Carl Zimmer

Produced by Alex Stern ,  Stella Tan ,  Sydney Harper and Nina Feldman

Edited by MJ Davis Lin

Original music by Elisheba Ittoop ,  Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano ,  Sophia Lanman and Pat McCusker

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Ever since the discovery of whale songs almost 60 years ago, scientists have been trying to decipher the lyrics.

But sperm whales don’t produce the eerie melodies sung by humpback whales, sounds that became a sensation in the 1960s. Instead, sperm whales rattle off clicks that sound like a cross between Morse code and a creaking door. Carl Zimmer, a science reporter, explains why it’s possible that the whales are communicating in a complex language.

On today’s episode

Carl Zimmer , a science reporter for The New York Times who also writes the Origins column .

Background reading

Scientists find an “alphabet” in whale songs.

These whales still use their vocal cords. But how?

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column . More about Carl Zimmer

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