Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh are hosting this year's Golden Globes Awards, and it may have been a shock to some people that Samberg...is married? Yes, Andy Samberg has been married to Joanna Newsom, a 36-year-old harpist, singer, and songwriter for five years, who is also known for having a fabulous sense of style. So, get on it: Here's a few things to know about her and their relationship.
Who is Joanna Newsom?
Newsom is a harpist, lyricist, and musician who began her harp training when she was young, and her music features folksy, almost childlike vocals. Her first break came in the early 2000s when she signed with independent record label She got a big break in the early 2000s when she signed with independent label Drag City Rolling Stone called Newsom "the best-known harpist in American indie music."
She's also known for her lyrical depth—she refers to her most devoted fans as "delvers", as in those who delve deep into every single line of her extended songbook (her songs can go as long as 17 minutes) and find meaning and logic in every single line. Her song “Sapokanikan", off her third album, Divers, from 2015, is about the Lenape village that once stood on Manhattan, but the lyrics can give off a sentiment of heartbreak—Newsom herself told NPR that “Sapokanikan" is a ragtimey encomium to the forces of remembrance, forgetting, accretion, concealment, amendment, erasure, distortion, canonization, obsolescence, and immortality.” So like, light and casual stuff.
Her fans are devoted and dedicated, with a book called Visions of Joanna Newsom dissecting her lyrics, and a series of in-depth Medium posts.
How did she and Andy Samberg meet?
Samberg had a crush on Newsom before he even met the singer/harpist/multi-talented singer. He was already a huge fan of Newsom's music would frequently go to her shows, a source telling Us Weekly that he had "the biggest crush on her" from the start. The two met through mutual friends—Fred Armisen, Samberg's Saturday Night Live co-star and Newsom's label boss–and dated for five years before they married in 2013.
“He’s my favorite person in the world. He’s the person I’d most want to hang out with at any given moment,” Newsom gushed to Larry King about Samberg in 2014. The two greeted a daughter in 2017, but are so private they've kept details mum about the baby girl.
What are some other fun facts?
She's appeared in Inherent Vice and on Portlandia, and is the second cousin (twice removed) of Governor-elect of California Gavin Newsom. That's a cool family connection!
