When Teddy Swims found out he’d earned a best new artist Grammy nomination, he didn’t need to wait until the Feb. 2 award ceremony to feel like he’d won. In the eyes of his hero – his dad – he already had.

“The best new artist (category) came along, and I clinched it right at the end. With the last name Swims, I was the last one. So I thought I wasn’t going to get it for a second,” the 32-year-old tells USA TODAY. “They said it, and we just jumped out, and I called my father first thing.”

The Georgia native-born Jaten Dimsdale was in Spain for the Los40 Music Awards when Grammy nominations came out in November, so he rented a hotel conference room to make an event out of watching the announcement.

“My dad is my hero. We talk about everything, and I share everything with him first,” he says, emotion choking his voice. “It’s going to make me cry again. Every time I talk about it, I just want to cry.

That was it for me. I already won, basically, you know what I mean?”

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Swims clarifies that doesn’t mean he’s not looking to snag a trophy: “We still want it ‒ don’t get me wrong,” he says with a laugh. “But I feel like a winner is all I’m saying.”

How did Teddy Swims get famous?

Swims’ soulful song “Lose Control” dominated the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024, hitting No. 1 and staying on the charts for more than 70 weeks to date.

Before that, the powerhouse singer built a fanbase performing covers on YouTube, which have since racked up half a billion views.

He won over the internet with his takes on Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Mario’s “Let Me Love You” but it was his soft-yet-potent voice singing Shania Twain’s “You’re Still The One” that put him on many people’s radars.

In July 2019, he independently released a single called “Night Off” and by the end of the year, he was signed to Warner Records. That’s when his songwriting really took off. In January 2020, he released his first major record label single, “Picky,” and a year later his first EP, “Unlearning,” arrived.

As Swims tells it, “It was extremely challenging” to transition from singing “some of the best songs ever written” by other artists to releasing his own music.

“There’s always some fear that everybody was going to be like, ‘Just shut up and sing Shania Twain, fat boy.’ And of course, I’d be honored to do that still. And I still do sing that song,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of amazing artists kind of get stuck in that YouTube-cover lane and not quite make it out. Again, I would have been pumped to be able to do that. But I did feel like I had something to say.”

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YouTube cover sensation Teddy Swims admits he was ‘not that good at writing songs’ at first

As he ventured into original music, Swims readily admits “I was not that good at writing songs.” He felt his only chance at breaking through into mainstream music was to have songs of the same “caliber” as those he covered on YouTube.

With his debut album “I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy (Part 1)” and a chart-topping hit under his belt, Swims believes “we’ve gotten there.”

He credits “good friends” who’ve “changed my life” with his growth as a musician, name-dropping Julian Bunetta (One Direction, Sabrina Carpenter and Thomas Rhett), John Ryan (Maroon 5, Katy Perry and John Legend), Mikky Ekko (Rihanna and Christina Aguilera), Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman (H.E.R., Jennifer Lopez, Hozier) and Rocky Block (Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Jelly Roll).

“I feel so protected and loved that we found our little corner, and we’ve been swinging a pickax at a rock for about five years,” Swims says. “And we hit some gold, I think.”

His latest work can be heard in Swims’ sophomore album, “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2),” out now. He’s “really pumped” about his collaborations with Givēon (“Are You Even Real“) and Muni Long (“Black and White”). CoCo Jones and GloRilla also get a shoutout for their vocals on Track 11, “She Got It.”

But “Northern Lights,” a song that reflects fondly but not regretfully on a past relationship, is what he’s “really into,” Swims says. He explains, “That song has just got so much closure and peace to it, you know?

“I feel like with this record in general I’m so much further along on my journey. And I’m in love and mentally, spiritually and physically just better,” Swims says. “So I think there’s not so much turmoil and heartbreak on this. I think there’s a lot more acceptance and love.”

Reclaiming ‘trauma’ through writing and performing songs ‘has been a lifesaver’

As the best music does, Swims has found a way to channel his emotions into songs in a relatable way.

“I think me and my little friends have found a way to carve a path for me to have a safe place to dump my trauma on strangers all the time,” he says. “I get to say, ‘Somebody hurt me’ and then whine and cry, and people connect to it.”

Pointing to tracks like “The Door” and “Lose Control,” Swims says they made “an upbeat song about some trauma” and, as a result, he was able to “reclaim ownership of it and turn it into a celebration with people with the same issue.”

This “has been a lifesaver for me,” Swims says.

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Teddy Swims fights ‘self-comparison’ and hides platinum records in his closet

More than a year after the release of his first studio album, Swims is releasing its sequel. For many artists, following up on the success of their past work is notoriously nerve-wracking.

Swims is seemingly not immune to this, either. Though he “always wanted those platinum records and stuff like that in my studio,” now that he’s earned platinum certifications, he doesn’t revel in them. Instead, “I put them in a closet because I don’t want to look at them while I’m trying to create,” he says.

“I do feel like now, instead of this constant comparison of myself to other people that I have covered, now I’m in this self-comparison, too, which is really tough for me,” he says.

“But I do want more of those,” he says of the industry accolades. “I definitely want to outdo that. And if I don’t, I guess I’ve got to be OK with that being the case, too. But I am going to (try), for sure.”