Jacob Collier Is the Grammys' Dark Horse

Jacob Collier Is the Grammys' Dark Horse

Jan 31, 2025

Jacob Collier has long been the Grammys’ dark horse, and this year is no different. The UK-born musical phenom and Quincy Jones protégé is once again up for Album of the Year — his second consecutive nomination for the most prestigious prize in music.

“It’s so everlastingly surreal as a predicament,” Collier tells PAPER. “I still can’t really believe it.” His latest project, Djesse Vol. 4, is a joyously bonkers, genre-hopping grand finale to a seven-year odyssey, standing tall alongside albums from the biggest pop stars of the generation.

With six Grammy wins and fifteen nominations to his name, Collier has cemented himself as one of music’s greatest bridge-builders, a mastermind of collaboration who effortlessly connects chart-topping artists, jazz legends and arena-sized audiences. His latest Grammy-nominated album is a testament to this, featuring a dazzling lineup that includes aespa, Brandi Carlile, Chris Martin, John Mayer, John Legend, Kirk Franklin, Shawn Mendes, Stormzy, Tori Kelly and 150,000 fans singing in harmony — literally.

Known for transforming his live audiences into sprawling, three-part choirs, Collier harnesses the power of communal music-making like no other artist today. Yet for all his Grammy accolades, Collier has never fit neatly into a single category. “I’ve never really been particularly one style of music, you know? I don’t think anyone can ever really plan out a journey that’s deliberately designed to get you to the Grammys.”

Still, here Collier stands, humble and seemingly chill for someone who’s been handpicked to be up there for the biggest award in music alongside Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. “Life is full of different kinds of things,” he says.

A self-described “peaceful non-conformist,” Collier is not just a musical architect but an educator, freely sharing his knowledge and creative process across social media where fans have fallen deep into the rabbit hole of his mind-bending harmonizations and color-coded musical theories. "Colorful seems to be my aesthetic," he says.

The artist’s Djesse series may have concluded, but Collier’s boundless curiosity suggests his next chapter will be just as thrilling. With the 67th Annual Grammy Awards approaching this Sunday, the world is watching to see if Collier — dubbed the “colorful Mozart of Gen Z” — will pull off more well-deserved wins.

We caught up with Collier to discuss this year’s nominations and how he stays grounded amidst the chaos.

How are you doing? It’s a hectic time, I’m assuming, with the Grammys this weekend.

It's a little hectic. It's nice. I'm currently in the tallest building in LA just overlooking stuff.

Your album of the year nomination is such a big deal. How does it all feel?

Well, thanks. Yeah, it’s so everlastingly surreal as a predicament. I still can’t really believe it. It’s so exciting to be counted as one of the nominees. There are so many other luminary musicians who are nominated this year. A lot of them are my friends, and it’s just amazing to see this particular combination of albums represented. I never in my wildest dreams would’ve imagined that Djesse Vol. 4 would be up for such a prize, but it’s really amazing that it is. I’m very, very grateful.

You’ve been described as the sort of “Gen Z Mozart.” And you really do everything from arranging, producing, performing, and more. You’ve casually directed an audience as a choir before. Thinking back to your childhood, where do you think this energy stems from?

It's an interesting question. It's not always easy to tell where your fascinations begin. But some of my earliest memories as a kid were of listening to music that was being performed by my mother, who's an amazing conductor of violinists. She would conduct the orchestra and the whole room would kind of spring to life. There's something very special about seeing someone use their body to command music. All of us as musicians do that in different ways. But I think that I always had a real fascination with the human voice and with that kind of leadership. My mother is an incredibly empathetic person with very powerful energy. I think I watched her in that space and I was very inspired by it. But as far as the other things, I think I've always been quite a curious, interested person in how things work and how things fit together. I'm always interested in trying new things and finding sounds that I've never heard before. A lot of the sounds I've discovered over the course of the last few years, making this album and other albums before, have been me questing for yet undiscovered musical nuggets, if that makes sense.

You’ve won multiple Grammy awards before, but how does this time feel different if at all?

Well, the Grammys is such an interesting state of affairs because there are certain kinds of music that the Grammys is kind of designed to honor. I've never really been particularly one style of music, you know? So I've never really fitted into one particular category, other than the category that's for arranging. When we talk about arranging, we think about the building blocks of how to put music together and just making colorful stuff. So in the past, I've been nominated and won in that category, which has been really amazing and cool. But I don't think anyone can ever really plan out a journey that's deliberately designed to get you to the Grammys. It's never something I really thought about as a kid too much, but I'm very excited that this album is being put up for Album of the Year. It's certainly a surreal week, but it's exciting.

How do you stay grounded and sane throughout all the craziness that is the music industry, touring and performing?

Life is full of different kinds of things, you know? So touring is one particular side of things, writing music is another side of things, recording music or mixing music, and then just life in general. I'm not too different from everybody else, really. I think everyone in the world strives to find that balance of things that they're working on and things that they're interested in and people that they care about. In some ways, my life is like a very exaggerated version of those forces. But all of us on Earth, whether you're the greatest superstar of all time or you're just an ordinary person, we all have the same kind of stuff to figure out. In my situation, I think it's important to get enough sleep. I think that's maybe the one thing I always try to do. But yes, my life is definitely fast moving. I end up in all sorts of different corners of the world and doing different kinds of things. It's a real privilege to get to have a life that's full of traveling and adventuring and really learning.

Do you have any other personal favorite nominees this year? I saw you’ve done a lot with Tori Kelly, who is one of my favorites.

Well, that's a big question. Yeah, there are lots of people who are up for Grammys this year who I really admire and respect. I would agree that Tori is one of the greatest voices of this entire generation who's alive right now. We did an arrangement of a song called “Bridge Over Troubled Water” together, and it’s nominated for a Grammy, which is really exciting. So I'm excited to hang out with her. Lots of other amazing, amazing people are nominated too.

What are you gonna wear on Grammys night?

That I have not decided yet. I’m not sure. Something colorful.

Colorful definitely seems to be your aesthetic.

It seems to be my aesthetic. Yeah, yeah.

What else are you most excited about this year?

Well, I'm touring a lot this year, which I love to do. I love to tour. The idea is to go to Australia later in the year, New Zealand, and also go to South America. And hopefully go to Asia, as well as traveling around Europe in the summer. It’s very exciting to take an album into a place that you've never taken that album before, and I love touring in some of those parts of the world. So I'm excited for that, for sure.

Photos courtesy of Jacob Collier