Really. Who is Esperanza Spalding...

...is something I'm sure a lot of you have either asked or heard since the Grammy's aired on Sunday. I actually wasn't going to write about this surprise, until I read the article you'll see below. Spalding won the Best New Artist award, beating out artists Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Mumford & Sons. You can click the title of this post to see it happen again. Now I'm not going to deny that I wasn't one of the few with the question...but instead of bashing and vandalizing her Wikipedia page (oh, yeah. That totally happened. Bieber's fans were so outraged that she won the award they took their anger out online, "updating" her Wiki to include things like "JUSTIN BIEBER DESERVED IT GO DIE IN A HOLE WHO THE HECK ARE YOU ANYWAY?"and "she now has the 2011 Grammy for being the Best New Artist! Even though no one has ever heard of her! Yay!". Read the entire article here) I thought it would be more appropriate to shed some light on someone who obviously should be recognized for a talent instead of  being bashed.
I won't go into her entire life story, which is pretty impressive I should point out, but some quick facts:

•  she taught herself how to play the violin when she was just five years old.
  - Even people with extensive training can find it difficult to learn this instrument
•  She began college when she was 16 and actually started teaching music at a college when she was just 20!
• She's the first jazz artist to win the Best New Artist Grammy

I definitely asked "Who?!" when I heard the winner of this award, but it just made me re-realize not to judge a music by how popular the rest of the world thinks they are, but by their talent. Listen to her live and you'll know what I'm sayin

PS. I know many of you won't take this into account, but the same thing goes for the Biebs. He may be mass-marketed, but he can also play the drums, piano, and guitar. All self taught. No voice lessons were had before he started making his now famous Youtube videos. Just remember: try not to judge anyone, including musicians, before getting to know what they're about!