(The Recording Academy asked some of this year's first-time GRAMMY nominees to collect their thoughts and share what it feels like to be nominated for a GRAMMY.)

[The morning nominations were announced] I was excited and nervous. You expect nothing and hope for the best, but you definitely hope to be nominated for a GRAMMY. I remember being so nervous, I gave my bassist a key to my hotel room in Pittsburgh and asked, "Will you come to my room and sit with me?" He came in the room and I was already up, the TV was already on, and we sat on the bed and we held hands. Alicia Keys comes on and I had my phone next to me, because I knew my mom was about to call me. [Keys] starts reading off [the nominations] and my name's not called. My mom calls me instantly and she's like, "Baby, you've got a long road ahead, and there's always next year."

I said, "You know, mom, it's OK, it's been fine, a lot of my friend's names were called …" and then I was like, "Wait a minute. I think there's a lot more things that people get nominated for. Goodbye mom." 

I looked online and I just hit refresh a couple of times, and as I scrolled down the nominations list, I see my name first for Best Rock Song. I called my mom back, and I remember just shaking and not being able to catch my breath and my bassist is just like, "Oh my gosh, it really did happen." And my mom says, "Two, not one but two."

I've thought about this for a long time. It's an honor just being nominated. Being GRAMMY-nominated for the rest of your life is a huge thing. It's recognition. It's being recognized for your talents and your work.

Being recognized by people that you look up to, it's really a crazy thing. And to be included in the [Best Rock Performance category] — because I grew up with rock and roll — I feel like I've got a little street cred, finally. And there's some bad-a** women [in the category], and that's amazing. It's really nice to see women kind of kicking a** and taking names and getting nominated for a GRAMMY this year for rock and roll. That's f****** cool.

(Elle King is nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for "Ex's And Oh's." The Top 10 hit is featured on her 2015 debut studio album, Love Stuff, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200.)

Tune in to the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.