Coco Jones Was ‘Gaslighting’ Herself About 2026 Grammy Nominations (Exclusive)

Coco Jones is no stranger to the Grammy Awards.

After winning her first gramophone trophy for Best R&B Performance with her hit “ICU” in 2024, Jones is currently up for her eighth career nomination at the 2026 Grammys in the Best R&B Album category for her debut full-length project, Why Not More?

Released in April, the album features the previously Grammy-nominated single “Here We Go (Uh Oh),” as well as collaborations with YG Marley and Future, plus Alicia Keys, Leon Thomas and Lady London on the deluxe version.

For Jones, who’s been making music since before fans first met her on Disney Channel as a child star, getting recognized for a full album rather than a single is especially significant. “I feel like it’s the biggest compliment to keep people’s attention,” she tells PEOPLE. “I mean, I don’t know many things that do.”

The “Taste” singer sat down with PEOPLE to discuss her latest Grammy nomination, touring the world in promotion of Why Not More?, collaborating with Keys and opening for a few dates of Brandy and Monica’s monumental The Boy Is Mine Tour.

PEOPLE: You’re up for your eighth career Grammy nomination, this time in the Best R&B album category for Why Not More? How did you learn about the nomination, and what did that feel like?

COCO JONES: It’s so weird. I’ve been on planes the last two times that I got nominated for Grammys, and so I’m just not thinking about it because I’m doing something. I mean, of course I know [the Grammy nominations are coming out], but I’m gaslighting myself. I’m like, “You don’t think about this.” And I’m like, “True.” Then, of course, as soon as I get that Wi-Fi connect on that Delta flight, my phone just goes off. I’m like, “Oh, God.”

PEOPLE: You won Best R&B Performance in 2024 for “ICU.” This year marks the third in a row that you’ve gotten a nomination. At this point, you still didn’t expect it at all?

JONES: No, I don’t expect them. I honestly don’t. I can’t do that to myself. I feel like I can work towards the greatest outcomes, which is charts, awards, accolades, momentum, virality. And then I just leave it up to God.

PEOPLE: Does it get any less exciting to see your name on the Grammys ballot?

JONES: Absolutely not. You know when you had a really big essay or something, an education-defining moment, you put everything that you can into studying for it, and then you see that you got the results? It never stops, that feeling. I don’t know if there will ever be a time where I’m like, “Let’s see if I’m on the Grammy ballot this time.” It’s just not giving that.

PEOPLE: After Why Not More? came out in April, you toured the world with your biggest headline shows yet. How did those performances feel different from what you’d done in the past?

JONES: Creatively, this time a lot of the yeses and nos were up to me. With my first tour, I wasn’t as confident in if I knew anything about anything, so I didn’t want to decide. Now I’m a completely different version of myself, and hopefully I continue to get more and more confident and decisive.

PEOPLE: What did you learn from seeing fans connect with this music face-to-face?

JONES: To give myself some grace. I’m just so tough on myself, and it’s like, “Girl, look at the receipts. I don’t think you have to do this. I think you can breathe a little.” Unless they start telling you they don’t like something, calm it down, and just be along for the ride.

PEOPLE: I saw the show in Brooklyn. No one in that theater was bored, Coco.

JONES: Facts. But you only see it from your point of view, and that just leaves so much room for self-doubt. I remember my first show, I was like, “I feel like we went on tour too soon because they haven’t even had time to learn the songs, and why are people going to go to the show if they don’t even know how the songs go?” And then I just stepped on stage, like, “Whatever happens, I’m going.” And that’s why I was so emotional in that video with my mom afterwards because that’s what was going through my head before I walked on that dang stage.

PEOPLE: You put out a deluxe version of Why Not More? in August with Alicia Keys on the “Other Side of Love” remix. What was it like to work with her and get her stamp of approval?

JONES: You never know if your heroes are going to give a rat’s ass about you or be nice or have anything to say towards you. That’s another thing where I just don’t expect anything. If something happens, great, and if nothing, okay, that’s fine. But she was so gracious with her time, with her wisdom, with her experience, that I was just like, “Girl, you don’t even know the blessing that you are,” because I’m just learning as I go, and how much easier would it be for my peace of mind if somebody could tell me how this works? And so I’m always so grateful. To me, that’s more meaningful to me than even a feature. Just give me some wisdom, some advice — just help me out up in here because these streets are crazy. It was a dream come true to work with her, to even just be in the studio with her singing. I’m seeing how she records, and she’s playing the piano, and I’m like, “What’s going on, man? What are we doing? This is crazy.”

PEOPLE: More recently, you supported some of Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine Tour shows, which is another major R&B co-sign for you to get from two superstars who started off really young, just like yourself. How was the experience of connecting with that audience on that monumental tour?

JONES: I definitely had to go back into my dressing room and do a couple thug tears after that. I think specifically with Brandy, I didn’t know how much she impacted me until I’m on that stage singing every song like, “Wow, I really studied all of this. This is crazy.” She had her show [Moesha], and then she also has the albums, and I do acting and music, and so I’m like, “If she can do this, if this is what happened in history, it can happen again.” So just to talk to them, and for them to recognize my talent, for them to want me to open — they have to approve these things. It’s not like anyone can go over their head for me to do a couple shows with them. So just to know that they approved me was crazy. I mean, Brandy was like, “Girl, your tone.” And I was like, “Okay, I’m going to have to throw up. I just can’t be right here.” It’s her tone, and I’m like, “Do you know?” She knows, but it was just too much. It was too much.

PEOPLE: I hear so much Brandy influence in your runs alone.

JONES: Thank you. I can’t act like I don’t know where I get it from. I really studied Brandy. The Full Moon album. I think at that time I had just moved to L.A., and I was rediscovering what music really is to me because a lot of my knowledge of music came from my mom. She was my first teacher, first everything. I just remember that album having such a huge impact on me. Every creative choice just really hit for me, and so when she said that, I was like, “Okay, I really need to go back to my room and cry. I got to get out of here. I got to go.”

PEOPLE: Where do you keep your first Grammy?

JONES: My mom’s house. I keep all my stuff nowhere that I live just because, I don’t know, looking at awards of mine makes me feel weird. I’m like, “What?” I don’t know. I just feel like I have so much more to go that I don’t like to see them. But my fiancé [NBA player Donovan Mitchell] is like, “I want to keep some of them,” so he has some of them now. He wants to put them up so he can see them.

PEOPLE: What would it feel like to win this Grammy Award in February?

JONES: Man, I don’t know until I get there. I can’t think about that too much. I can’t do that to myself. I’ll tell you if I get there.

The 2026 Grammy Awards will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 1.