PEABODY — After seven years and 11 nominations, Peabody native Justin Clancy won his first Boston Music Award for Song of the Year with his raw, melodic track “Holy.”
“It felt really good that (what won) was one of my most vulnerable songs that I’ve done,” he said. “People think Song of the Year, and they think: ‘What was a smash hit? What was the danceability to it? Did it go viral on TikTok? Is it a party anthem?’ Whereas ‘Holy’ is not necessarily any of those things. It’s just a very personal, very deep, very vulnerable song.”
Clancy admitted that he was going into the BMAs “with low expectations but also a little glimmer of hope.” He said the win was a reassurance that “I’m on the right path and doing the right thing.”
He added that what’s most important, though, is “making something with impact that’s long lasting… an impact with your art where people feel it in their soul rather than hear it for 3 minutes.”
Clancy described his process as “spiritual.”
“A lot of people break their brains and try and write the best song or try and do the best thing or whatever, whereas my art and my words come from a different place,” he said. “I don’t want to sound corny or pretentious and say it comes from above because I don’t even necessarily know that, but all I know is that it just comes to me. I go off a lot of instinct.”
When considering the people who helped him along the way, Clancy had many to thank, including his producers Nox Beatz and Leo Son, Eric Doody, Alex Kibilko, Jonny Francis, and of course, his mother and “the community that raised me,” the North Shore.
As far as next steps for Clancy, we’ll all have to wait and see.
“I used to always… try to have these plans and goals set in place, but really what I’m doing is focusing on the art right now and letting the art take me to where I need to go,” he said. “These days, I’m more of a lightning rod than the lightning… I’m just letting what comes to me come to me.”
