Justin Vernon and his indie band Bon Iver won Best New Artist honors last night at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.
The soft-spoken rock frontman gave a shout out to his homies in Eau Claire, Wisconsin during his acceptance speech after beating out Nicki Minaj.
The band did a supporting vocals collaboration with Kanye West for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. They also released a self-titled album in June that received positive reviews from Washington Post music critic Chris Richards.
He described it as, “amorphous and triumphant– a haze of acoustic guitars, airy synthesizers and tumbling drums floating beneath Vernon’s hallucinogenic yowl, like two stratus clouds overlapping in a dream.”
Vernon said humbly, “It’s hard to accept because when I started to make songs, I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here. I want to say thank you to all of the nominees, to all of the non-nominees that have never been here and never will be here, all the bands I toured with, all of the bands that inspire me.”
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Photo: WENN