Alissia on Historic Grammy Producer of the Year Nod and Her Sacred Encounters With Quincy Jones and Prince

Alissia’s DMs are lit. Prince slid into them to connect with the producer and bass player about loving her music. Bootsy Collins reached out over social media and as a result, she worked on one-third of his 15-track 2017 album, World Wide Funk. And Quincy Jones even connected with the songwriter and DJ about her music, a chance encounter with her “biggest inspiration” that changed her life.

The greats have known about Alissia for years, and she’s been working persistently behind-the-scenes to make a name for herself. She’s produced and written for Anderson .Paak, Calvin Harris and Mary J. Blige, earning a 2023 Grammy nomination for album of the year for the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’s Good Morning Gorgeous.

Now, Alissia is nominated for non-classical producer of the year at the 2025 Grammys, making her just the ninth woman in the show’s 67-year history to compete for the prize. A woman has never won the award, and this year she’s in good company: Nominees include Dan Nigro (Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo), Mustard (Kendrick Lamar), D’Mile (Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars) and Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves).

“I got out of my seat and started jumping around and screaming. I couldn’t believe it,” Alissia tells The Hollywood Reporter about hearing her name called as a nominee. “I had to check a few times that it was my name, and then my phone started blowing up. It was insane. It took me a while to really process it. I feel like I’m still processing. I’m so, so honored and, wow, still in shock.”

She adds: “It wasn’t really an overnight thing. Oftentimes people don’t really talk about the hard work that everyone puts in their craft, but it’s been years and years of work.”

Projects that Alissia contributed to that are also nominated include Kaytranda’s Timeless (best dance/electronic album) and Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge’s sophomore release as the duo NxWorries, Why Lawd? (best progressive R&B album). More credits from Alissia this Grammy cycle included production work for Coco Jones, Chlöe, BJ The Chicago Kid and Lion Babe.

In an interview, the musician — who was born in Switzerland, grew up in Italy and has lived in America for 15 years — discusses her historic nomination, the state of female producers, her chance encounters with Jones and Prince as well as possibly appearing on Mars’ upcoming album.

Could you take me through your journey and talk about those years before you worked with well-known artists?

I really started on bass. I started as a musician for years and years, and then I shifted more into producing. I found myself organically more in-studio, just creating. I am such a nerd, a music lover. I breathe music, I wake up, listen to music and anything that has to do with either playing or writing or arranging — I really love doing it all. I had a video that went viral on YouTube, so a lot of people started reaching out from that. It opened a lot of doors for me, like the craziest names, people I really looked up to from when I first started. That’s when I first started into the producing world.

Was part of your journey also as being a performer in addition to playing instruments?

Yeah, I feel like I was always very low-key. I was just a nerd who ended up working with all these incredible artists, and it was never really about me. It was always about the music. There were a lot of labels who wanted to sign me super early on, and I’m so glad I really stuck to my gut and was like, “I don’t even know who I am or what type of music I want to make.” And they were kind of putting me in this box: “You should be then singing and wearing this type of stuff and doing this and working with this producer.” I was like, “No, producing is what I love doing.”

Quincy Jones reached out to you early in your career — what was that like?

I really looked up to him, and I still do. His music, his legacy lives on forever. He was probably my biggest inspiration as far as a producer. I was like, “I want to write these types of strings that I’m hearing on MJ’s records. I want to be able to score that.” I would see documentaries of Quincy with his pen. I was like, “I want to be able to do that.” I studied and now I know how to arrange strings, so it’s really thanks to him. 

It was a crazy week [when he died]; that moment was so sad for me and for a lot of people. I got nominated a few days later as producer of the year, so it was like the person I was looking up to the most passed a few days before I got the nomination, so my feelings were all over the place.

His team reached out and I got to sit down with him one time in New York, and it was incredible to be talking to someone you look up to so much. All his words of advice are really something I’ll always cherish. I love the fact that he was so humble … he’s so down to earth and a true music lover. And it’s really rare to find someone that is such a legend but also [someone] you can talk to like it’s a family member and makes you feel safe in his space.

You also interacted with Prince — what was that like?

During that time I was really shedding bass 24/7, and I feel like it was probably my biggest dream to get a call from Prince. I’m such a huge Prince fan. I’m one of those who would go on YouTube, look at all the live shows, like from the NPG, Revolution, The Time, and I actually put a cover of one of The Time’s songs on YouTube and I guess he saw that and he reached out. At first it was on Twitter and I wasn’t sure if it was him. I was like, “Is that Prince? How can I fact-check this?” He sent me a DM and was like, “Confidentially speaking, I see everything you’re doing. You’re incredible.” I was like, “Oh, my God.”

And literally the next day, I got a call from his assistant and he was like, “Prince wants you to come to Paisley Park.” I was melting. They were like, “When can you come to Paisley Park?” I was like, “I have a show tomorrow, so I can’t come right now, but I can come next week.” All of a sudden, I’m not hearing back anymore. He reached out again like a year later. They flew me out. I got to the airport and I waited at the airport for a while. I wasn’t hearing back from them. It’s kind of a sad story because he was already sick and I never got to actually properly jam with him. It’s a crazy story because I was so close. Later on I found out that he was putting his new band together and he saw all of my videos. I’ll always cherish the call from Prince. That’s something that is golden and inspiring.

You’re the ninth woman to ever be nominated for producer of the year and a woman has never won the award. How do you feel about that?

I feel like it’s so powerful to see women continue to move the needle. I feel like I’m so honored to be nominated in this category. I hope that I am an inspiration for other women to keep going, to always study hard, show up prepared and with confidence, do your thing and keep doing your thing, and never stop dreaming because it can happen to any one of us. 

Also, all the women that were nominated before me, [it’s] such an inspiration to see those types of women paving the way for people like me in this category. It’s very humbling. Even when I saw the nomination, I thought to myself, “It’s way bigger than me.” I’m carrying a big title. But it actually really fueled me even more to work harder.

What’s your experience been like as a female producer in an environment that feels like a boys club?

Being a woman, when you walk in a room full of men, in general, they might have some thoughts and maybe think that you’re [not] at their level; you kind of have to prove yourself more. I feel like in my career, even when I was playing bass, I felt like I had to study more than the average person, men, I guess, in order to really feel like I was able to have a seat at the table. And same being a producer. I feel like I really had to study for years, and really shed my craft thoroughly to have a seat at the table and have that respect and trust from artists.

And it also takes people to, in a way, it’s sad to say, but be open-minded. Some artists are conscious of that and they really try to include more women around them. I feel like we need more of that because there’s so many incredible women producers out there, and we sometimes don’t get the opportunity or the platform to really work with certain people. It takes a lot to really have a safe space for women in this industry. I receive so many DMs from young girls telling me, “I really love producing but I feel hopeless.” [I want] labels and artists to feel like they can really trust when they see a woman producer [and] they can really feel a little more inclined to include them in what they’re doing.  

You’ve collaborated a ton with Anderson .Paak and he also worked on Mary J. Blige’s album. Did he bring you into that project?

He brought me in for [that and the] Kaytranada project that we’re nominated for. Anderson is such an amazing artist and collaborator. We met years ago, and ever since, he’s one of the artists that I’m really grateful for because right from the beginning [he was] bringing me in a lot of sessions.  I really love working with him because his whole team is women, so he’s really conscious of that, and that’s really rare to see in this industry. It’s always fun, we always laugh, and it’s always a good time. But don’t get me wrong, he’s about working. He’s one of the hardest-working artists in this industry. 

You’ve also worked with Bruno Mars, right?

We have a song together, [Anderson .Paak’s] “Fire in the Sky” that Bruno co-wrote for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But I also connected later with Bruno as well.

And that’s for something that’ll be out later?

We’ll see. Bruno is another one that I really, really look up to. He’s such a genius. Everything he touches becomes gold. He knows the secret sauce and always has fun with it. Whenever I got to be in the same room as him, he’s always aiming for the greatest thing he can ever make, and it’s always good vibes. So super inspiring.