By Yaya Diamond
When people hear the words, "Grammy campaign," they picture billboards on Sunset Boulevard, an expensive publicist on retainer, and a war room full of consultants. Let me tell you what it actually looks like:
Me, at my table in Southwest Florida, a laptop, a phone, and three songs I believe in with my whole heart. Why?
Because I'm an independent singer and songwriter. And I have big, big dreams.
I'm the daughter of disco legend Evelyn Thomas — the "Queen of High Energy." I'm a Florida Music Hall of Fame nominee, a Recording Academy voting member, and I've hosted my own show, Dream Chasers Radio, since 2008. This fall I'm running a For Your Consideration campaign for the 69th Grammys, with first-round voting October 12 through 22, for three songs: "Another Level," "Good Thing," and "Blues Song."
No label. No publicist. No big backer. Here's what that actually means.
The Budget is Mine.
Every dollar behind this campaign comes out of my own pocket, and every dollar in my pocket comes from work. I teach voice lessons every week — students lined up from morning to evening, kids and adults who trust me with their voices. I sing the national anthem at community events; not long ago I stood at the Vietnam Wall in Punta Gorda and sang it for the riders and veterans gathered there.
And I do paid interviews through my podcast — more than a thousand of them, a five-star service with over a thousand reviews and two thousand orders completed — where authors, artists, and entrepreneurs pay me for a real, thoughtful conversation about their work.
That is the campaign fund. Voice lessons. Anthem gigs. Interviews. There's nothing glamorous about it, and I'd have it no other way, because every dollar is honest work — and honest work is the only thing I've ever been able to count on.
Suggestion: What can you do?
Look at the work you're already doing and let it carry the campaign. I teach, I sing, I interview — that's my budget and my stage. You don't need a windfall. You need a plan that runs on the money your real life already makes. Fund it from your own work, and wear that like a badge, not an apology.
+Read more: "Artists: If You Can't Define Success, You Won't Find It"
Campaigning in Both Directions.
Most FYC campaigns are a one-way broadcast: listen to me, vote for me. I do ask that, and I'll own it — I made graphics that say "Please listen!" and I mean it. But I'm also doing something I haven't seen many artists do: I'm asking other artists to send me their FYC music for a personal listen. I put it right on my graphic: "I am listening! DM me your FYC."
Why? Because I know exactly what it feels like to pour your heart into a song and then shout it into the void. Voting members get flooded with links every fall. Most of them get skimmed, skipped, or never opened. The indie artist without a machine behind them is the one whose link dies in the pile.
So I decided my campaign would be a two-way street. I'll fight for my three songs, and I'll press play on yours too. A listen is a small thing, but when you're independent, being heard at all can feel like everything.
Suggestion: What can you do?
Pick one other independent artist and press play on their music this week — and tell them you did. Put up your own version of "I am listening." When you give attention, you get attention, and a two-way campaign builds the kind of community a billboard never could.
"That's all we've ever had: the song, standing on its own, in front of people willing to give it three minutes."
1,000 Interviews Taught Me How to Get People to Press Play
I've done more than a thousand paid interviews on Dream Chasers Radio. Authors, musicians, founders, everyday people with extraordinary stories. And here is the single biggest lesson those conversations taught me about promotion: nobody presses play because you told them to. People press play because you made them feel something in the first ten seconds.
In an interview, if the first question is boring, the listener is gone — it doesn't matter how great the guest is. Same thing with a song pitch. "For your consideration" is the least interesting sentence in the English language. So I don't lead with the ask. I lead with the story: why this song exists, what it cost me to make it, who I was when I wrote it.
I show up as a person first and a candidate second. That's not a marketing tactic. That's eighteen years of hosting talking — people can tell when you actually care, and they can tell when you're reading a script.
It also taught me about the follow-through nobody wants to do. I answer my own messages. When someone sends me their FYC, I actually listen, and I reply like a human being, not a brand. The unglamorous part of a campaign isn't just the funding — it's the hundreds of small, invisible moments of showing up. Post every day. Answer every message. Thank every person who shares your song. Nobody sees most of it. Do it anyway.
Suggestion: What can you do?
Three habits, and all of them are free. Lead with the story behind your music instead of the ask — make people feel something in the first ten seconds. Show up every single day — post, reply, thank, repeat. And ask like a person, not a brand — no blast links, no form letters. Consistency is the whole strategy when you don't have a machine.
+Read more: "We Stopped Waiting to Be Chosen and Mailed 100,000 CDs Instead"
How to Promote Your FYC.
When it all comes down to it, promoting your FYC means one thing: getting your music in front of voting members and making it easy for them to press play. Here's how I do it:
- Make it one click. My songs live where anybody can reach them in one tap. If a voter has to hunt for your music, you've already lost them. No hurdles, no homework.
- Be loudest during the window. First-round voting runs October 12 through 22 — those are the days that count. I post about my campaign every day, and I turn it all the way up while voting is open. Don't spend your energy in September and go quiet in October.
- Ask personally. A message that says "I'd love for you to hear this" beats a hundred generic posts. I answer my own DMs because the personal touch is the whole advantage of being independent. Nobody with a big machine can do what you can do: talk to one person like they matter.
- Team up with other independents. I ask other artists to send me their FYC, and they send people my way too. We lift each other because nobody else is going to do it for us. Your network is your label.
- Then let the music do the talking. You've done the work to earn the listen — now trust the song. That's all any of us have ever had: the work, standing on its own.
Here's the Real Ask...
So here's the ask — and it isn't just mine. It belongs to every independent artist running a campaign this fall, whether they have the words for it or not: please, actually listen. Not skim. Not save-for-later. Listen.
Don't vote for the name, the legacy, or the résumé. Press play on an independent artist's music (any of us) and let the work make its own case. That's all we've ever had: the song, standing on its own, in front of people willing to give it three minutes.
And if you're an artist running your own FYC campaign with no label, no publicist, and no big backer — you can reach me with your music through my FYC listening form. I'm listening. Somebody should be.
I'm running this race just like you — so please, take a moment to listen to my FYC here: Yaya Diamond FYC.
Yaya Diamond is an independent singer/songwriter in Southwest Florida, daughter of disco legend Evelyn Thomas, Florida Music Hall of Fame nominee, and host of Dream Chasers Radio. She holds a 2024 honorary doctorate in music business/entrepreneurship, is a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and a Recording Academy voting member, and has opened for Tower of Power, George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, The Commodores, and the Village People.
