While I don't know much about her, this was not expected.... the magazine generally doesn't talk about music much, and when it does it generally ties somehow to the Smithsonian Folkways label or to some other historic/cultural aspect of stuff. Contemporary music references are pretty rare. Even so, given the other award recipients presented in the magazine I would have expected a choice that was both less well known to the public at large and also more adventurous. I dunno though.

Excerpt from article here:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/The-Totally-Original-Sound-of-St-Vincent-231146841.html#StVincent-Ingenuity-intro-473.jpg