LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leon Thomas and Olivia Dean brought soul, global girl group Katseye and Addison Rae performed electric pop and Lola Young made a triumphant return to the stage.
Those acts, alongside The Marías, sombr and Alex Warren, make up the 2026 Grammys' best new artist nominees and were the headliners of Spotify’s annual pre-Grammy party Thursday night in Los Angeles.
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Jesse Perlman, from left, María Zardoya, Josh Conway, and Edward James of The Marías arrive at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
PinkPantheress arrives at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
This combination of photos show Grammy nominees for best new artist, top row from left, Olivia Dean; Addison Rae; sombr, ottom row from left, Leon Thomas; Alex Warren; and Lola Young. (AP Photo)
From left, Rei Ami, EJAE, and Audrey Nuna of HUNTR/X arrive at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
Megan Skiendiel, from left, Daniela Avanzini, Manon Bannerman, and Lara Raj of KATSEYE arrive at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
The event at the Lot at Formosa in West Hollywood spotlighted up-and-coming talent across genres and backgrounds. Each act ran through three to four songs, introducing themselves to an audience of new listeners and dedicated fans in seemingly equal measure.
To hasten the transitions, the stage rotated to reveal another backline, leaving the audience to guess who would emerge next.
First up was Thomas. It was sensuality and swagger from the jump as he worked through three of his hits, ending with the ubiquitous “Mutt.” Consider it an amuse-bouche of tracks from an artist Ty Dolla $ign previously described to The Associated Press as the future of R&B.
“I love y'all so much,” Thomas told the crowd as he began to leave. And then, a reminder: “My name is Leon Thomas.”
When the stage turned a few minutes after, a trepidatious Lola Young was standing in front of a set of chintzy, fringe lamps like those found in a vintage living room. It gave her four-song set a feeling of intimacy, which was amplified by the performance being her first since Sept. 27, when she fainted on stage at the All Things Go Festival in New York.
“I'm back and feeling better," she told the crowd. “Thank you to everybody here.”
Her vocal delivery was fierce and full-throated, though she opted not to perform “Messy,” the single that launched her career into the mainstream.
“Take care of yourselves,” she said as she exited the stage, a simple message with layered meaning.
The rest of the performances arrived fast and furious. The Marías brought their Mazzy Star-indebted, bilingual dream pop. They were followed by “Ordinary" singer Alex Warren's anthemic radio pop.
Everything became “gnarly" from there as Katseye commanded the room as if it were their own stadium. Where other acts opted for complex sets, they stripped the stage bare. Instead, their hyperactive pop and athletic choreography filled space.
Sombr's pop-rock pulled from a mélange of nostalgic genres for the TikTok generation.
“I couldn't get into this party last year,” he joked from the stage.
Spotify did not host the annual event in 2025 following the devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires that shaped a very different kind of Grammy Awards.
In the end, there were two: Addison Rae and Olivia Dean. Rae brought her sensual, hypnotic pop in a medley of “In the Rain,” “High Fashion” and “Diet Pepsi." She described the latter song as starting “so much for me.”
Dean, an old soul with a timeless voice, was a fitting closer.
The pair further confirmed what was already evident in this year's best new artist class: an inventive vision and a diversity of sound can take you far.
The 68th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage of this year’s Grammy Awards visit: www.apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards
Jesse Perlman, from left, María Zardoya, Josh Conway, and Edward James of The Marías arrive at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
PinkPantheress arrives at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
This combination of photos show Grammy nominees for best new artist, top row from left, Olivia Dean; Addison Rae; sombr, ottom row from left, Leon Thomas; Alex Warren; and Lola Young. (AP Photo)
From left, Rei Ami, EJAE, and Audrey Nuna of HUNTR/X arrive at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
Megan Skiendiel, from left, Daniela Avanzini, Manon Bannerman, and Lara Raj of KATSEYE arrive at the Spotify Best New Artist Party on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's Péter Magyar took his oath of office on Saturday to become the country's new prime minister, ending Viktor Orbán's 16 years of autocratic rule.
Magyar’s center-right Tisza party defeated Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz in a stunning blow last month, gaining more votes and seats in Parliament than any other party in Hungary’s post-Communist history.
The win, which gave Tisza a two-thirds parliamentary majority, will allow it to roll back many of the policies that gave Orbán a reputation among his critics as a far-right authoritarian.
In a speech to lawmakers in Hungary's Parliament after being sworn in, Magyar said he would not use his office to “rule” Hungary, “but to serve my homeland.”
“I’m not standing here because I’m different from anyone else in the country,” Magyar said. “I stand here because millions of Hungarians decided that they want change. And this trust that we have received is both a weight of honor and a moral obligation, but also a wonderful feeling.”
Magyar has vowed to restore democratic institutions and governmental checks and balances that were heavily eroded during Orbán's rule, and to clamp down on alleged corruption.
His government is expected to transform political dynamics within the European Union, where the former prime minister had upended the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions, most recently concerning support for neighboring Ukraine.
On Saturday, Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider in Orbán’s party, entered the sprawling neo-Gothic parliament building alongside 140 of his party representatives.
Tisza now controls 141 seats in Hungary's 199-seat parliament. Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition controls 52 seats, down from 135, while the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party holds six seats.
The 199 representatives took their oaths of office at around 11 a.m. local time. Orbán was not among them for the first time since Hungary’s first post-Communist Parliament was formed in 1990.
Magyar earlier called on Hungarians to attend an all-day “regime-change” celebration on Kossuth Square outside Parliament to mark his inauguration and the end of the Orbán era. Thousands had already gathered in the square as the new representatives were sworn in, many waving Hungarian and EU flags and wearing Tisza T-shirts.
As the crowd watched the proceedings inside Parliament on large screens, cheers erupted whenever Magyar appeared. The new prime minister was set to address the crowd outside after the completion of Parliament's inaugural session.
Hungary's new national assembly has 54 women lawmakers, most from the Tisza party — more than a quarter of the total and the most in Hungary’s history.
One attendee, Andrea Szepesi, an economist from Budapest, said it was “about time” that more female lawmakers held seats in Parliament. Under Orbán's rule, there were fewer women in government than in nearly all of the EU's other 26 nations.
“Finally, women are able to participate in this new, beautiful democratic system and the flourishing of the country,” she told The Associated Press.
Magyar has promised to repair his country’s ties with the EU, which Orbán had pushed to a breaking point, and to restore Hungary’s place among Western democracies, whose standing had been called into question as Orbán drifted ever closer to Russia.
The EU flag was raised on the Parliament building’s facade Saturday afternoon for the first time since Orbán’s government removed it in 2014.
Unlocking about 17 billion euros ($20 billion) of EU funds for Hungary frozen during Orbán’s time in office over rule-of-law and corruption concerns is among the incoming prime minister’s top priorities. The money is sorely needed to help jump-start Hungary’s struggling economy, which has stagnated for the past four years.
Another attendee of the celebration, 27-year-old web designer Áron Farsang, said he expects the new Tisza government to restore Hungary's democratic institutions and to “lead us back toward the European Union.”
“I would also really like it if we could get rid of the Russian influence as soon as possible,” he said. “I’m thinking about energy dependency and their general political style.”
Many of the nearly 3.4 million Hungarians that voted for Tisza expect Magyar to hold Fidesz officials and their business allies accountable for the perceived misconduct of the outgoing administration.
Magyar plans to form a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating and seeking to recover public funds misused during Orbán’s tenure. He’s also vowed to suspend the news services of Hungary’s public broadcaster — widely seen as a mouthpiece of Orbán’s party — until objectivity can be restored.
In his speech to lawmakers Saturday, Magyar referenced his intentions to hold former officials accountable for past abuses, saying voters had “given us a mandate to open a new chapter in Hungary’s history.
“We must understand, however, that there can be no new beginning without reconciliation. There can be no reconciliation without justice. And there can be no justice without confronting the past,” he said.
Hungary's new Prime Minister Peter Magyar leaves the Hungarian Parliament after ceremony in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Peter Magyar takes the oath as Hungary's prime minister during a ceremony in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Peter Magyar takes the oath as Hungary's prime minister during a ceremony in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Peter Magyar takes the oath as Hungary's prime minister during a ceremony in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Peter Magyar takes the oath as Hungary's prime minister during a ceremony in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
General view of the Hungarian Parliament's main hall during the inauguration ceremony of Prime Minister Peter Magyar in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar smiles before the inauguration ceremony at the Parliament in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar gestures before the inauguration ceremony at the Parliament in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar, center, arrives with fellow lawmakers at the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
A member of the Hungarian parliament guard wait in the morning before the inauguration ceremony of Prime Minister Peter Magyar in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Members of the Hungarian parliament guard wait in the morning before the inauguration ceremony of Prime Minister Peter Magyar in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar, center, arrives with fellow lawmakers at the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar, center, arrives with fellow lawmakers at the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
