The Grammy Win Nobody Expected: Nicole Zuraitis' Unlikely Story

🔥 Grammy-Winning Vocalist Nicole Zuraitis on the dopeYEAH Podcast! 🎤🏆

What does it take to go from a childhood dream of being Whitney Houston to a Grammy Award, with a detour through opera, football, and self-taught piano along the way? 🎸🔥 In this episode, Rob Cass sits down with Nicole Zuraitis, the American jazz vocalist, pianist, composer, and arranger who won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album for How Love Begins, one of the most compelling artist journeys in music today.

Nicole traces her story from Waterbury, Connecticut, where she started singing at 11 and trained classically at NYU before a brief run in opera convinced her jazz was where her voice actually belonged. She talks candidly about teaching herself piano, coining her own term (Jazzlore, not folklore), and the sheer disbelief of a night in New York City when she found herself saying, out loud, "Oh my God, we are playing jazz in New York City!" It's one of the great stories behind songs in recent jazz history, and a window into how inspiring artists actually find their sound. 🎶

The road from a 2019 Grammy nomination for her arrangement of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" with drummer Dan Pugach, now her husband, has led to back to back nominations in 2025 and 2026 for Live at Vic's Las Vegas and Little Fears. Nicole also gets real about being a woman in jazz, choosing between music and motherhood, what's genuinely terrifying about AI in the music industry, and why the best musicians she's ever met play weddings and bars, not arenas. 🎤

Funny, honest, and unfiltered, this is one of those musician interviews that goes past the usual industry interviews and into the real stories of musicians building a life in jazz music, capped off with a live improvised song, an acoustic reworking of "I Dare You (Call My Name)," and a surprise duet with Rob on "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay." A must-watch for anyone who follows music history, iconic musicians, or viral music success stories. 🎥✨

If you like musician interviews from Rick Beato and Rick Rubin, you would love this one as well.

👉 CLEARAUDIO

This episode also features a special collaboration with clearaudio — the Celebrity “Al Di Meola” Edition turntable, inspired by his iconic Gibson Les Paul. Limited to 1,000 pieces, it blends high-end German engineering with artistic design and comes with a numbered special release album by Al Di Meola and a guitar pick — a true collector’s item. 🎸

👉 Learn more via the link: https://bit.ly/4tGGudp