Who is Addison Rae? Meet the beguiling Grammy best new artist nominee
Who is Addison Rae? Meet the beguiling Grammy best new artist nominee
Patrick Ryan, USA TODAYWed, January 28, 2026 at 1:05 AM UTC
3
Is it really a gay guy music video night without Addison Rae?
The rising pop singer has steadily built a devoted following of queer folks and young women over the last several years: first as a TikTok personality, then as an actress ("He's All That"), and now as a Grammy nominee for best new artist. A gold-star student of the pop scriptures penned by Britney Spears, Madonna and Björk, Rae released a modern pop Bible of her own in last year’s “Addison,” a hypnotic soundscape of breathy vocals and woozy, synth-laden trip-hop.
“Addison,” which featured an all-female producing team, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was followed by a sold-out U.S. tour last fall, which continues this spring with stops at Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California.
Here’s what you about pop’s most arresting new star:
Addison Rae gave up dentistry to chase her TikTok dreams
Addison Rae attends Variety's Hitmakers Brunch in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 2025.
Rae, 25, hails from Lafayette, Louisiana. She started dance classes at age 6, and after graduating high school in 2019, she enrolled at Louisiana State University in hopes of joining the college dance team.
“My family sacrificed a lot to get me in dance classes and to put me in a nice school,” Rae told Elle magazine. “It was never easy, and I thank my parents a lot for that.”
But when she didn't make the team, she struggled to reconcile with her desire to perform and to have a financially comfortable job. Rae toyed with majoring in broadcast journalism and dentistry, but eventually decided to drop out to pursue her career on TikTok, where she was already amassing fans with her dance videos.
Within a year, Rae had become one of TikTok's most followed content creators, posting as many as eight videos a day. She moved to Los Angeles and signed with an agent, and released her debut single "Obsessed" in 2021. The song was poorly received by critics, and Rae felt "beaten down" by the response, she told the New York Times.
But ultimately, “I actually think one day, ‘Obsessed’ will get its ‘Stars Are Blind’ moment, you know?" Rae said, referring to Hilton's 2006 earworm. "People will be like, ‘Oh, we actually love it.'”
Advertisement
Fans drank up 'Diet Pepsi,' the first single from album 'Addison'
Negative reactions to "Obsessed" fueled Rae to be more deliberate with her next music. She recruited "Brat" hitmaker Charli XCX for the song "2 Die 4," taken from her EP "AR," and teamed up with Swedish producers Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser to create her debut album "Addison."
As an extremely visual person, she pulled from a binder of images and colors for sonic inspiration. They started making lead single "Diet Pepsi" on their first day in the studio together, which seems "really crazy and almost seems so unrealistic," Rae told W magazine.
“We were three girls in a room,” Rae said. “It was a very fun and free-flowing environment. There was no pressure to force ourselves to make an album or a certain number of songs. It just happened gradually over time.”
"Diet Pepsi" was beloved by critics and music lovers alike, peaking at No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and 621 million streams on Spotify to date. She has since performed the sensuous anthem with Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, and Ben Platt memorably covered the track during last year's 2025 Las Culturistas Awards.
Addison Rae has continued to explore house and electropop influences
Rae has continued to color outside genre lines on her viral follow-up singles "Headphones On," "Aquamarine" and "Fame is a Gun," whose music videos showcase her dreamy aesthetics and mesmerizing choreography. Her ultra-saturated album cover, too, paid tribute to Y2K-era classics from Spears and Hilary Duff.
The singer, who has dipped her toe into acting with "Thanksgiving" and "Monster: The Ed Gein Story," has adopted a playful public persona that earned her the title of the "Gen Z Marilyn Monroe." She coyly deflects questions about her love life in interviews, and cheekily indulged in rumors that she does cocaine in her “High Fashion” video, which features ample amounts of white powder. (For the record, she flat-out denied the latter reports to Rolling Stone, saying that she simply has ADHD.)
Addison Rae attends the Academy Museum Gala on Oct. 19, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Like many of her pop peers, Rae tries to maintain a sense of mystery and keep people guessing what she'll do next.
“It’s not my job to persuade anybody how to feel about me, or if they think I’m cool or not,” Rae told Elle magazine. “As long as every day I feel like I’m putting out things I’m proud of and inspiring people, then I have no complaints. I’m succeeding at what I want to do."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet Addison Rae, the alluring Grammy best new artist nominee
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
