Surprises, Snubs and Rule Changes

On Tuesday morning, the Recording Academy revealed the total slate of nominations for the sixty fourth Annual Grammy Awards. Over the previous few tumultuous years, the Recording Academy has overseen modifications in management and nominating procedures, with yet another twist being introduced simply this morning earlier than the nominations have been unveiled: the Massive 4 common area classes (Album of the 12 months, File of the 12 months, Track of the 12 months, and Finest New Artist) would develop from 8 to 10 nominees every. That is the second growth lately, with solely 5 nominees in these classes by 2018.

The ten nominees for Album of the 12 months embrace on-again-off-again rival superstars Kanye West and Taylor Swift. West, who was nominated for Album of the 12 months for every of his first three albums, has not been within the class since 2007’s Commencement. In one in all this 12 months’s largest surprises, his chart-topping album Donda breaks a streak of over a decade of snubs that included 2010’s mega-acclaimed My Stunning Darkish Twisted Fantasy.

Swift, who simply received her third Album of the 12 months in March for folklore, is up once more for its follow-up, evermore. She introduced earlier within the 12 months that she wouldn’t submit Fearless (Taylor’s Model), a re-recording of her 2008 album that received two Grammys, for awards consideration this 12 months. Rounding out the AOTY class are Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, H.E.R., Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Jon Batiste, and Girl Gaga & Tony Bennett.

As anticipated, 2021’s breakout star Olivia Rodrigo is the one artist up for the entire Massive 4 classes. As a result of that quartet of awards contains Finest New Artist, it’s solely doable to brush the entire common area awards originally of your profession, and it’s been performed solely twice in historical past: by Christopher Cross in 1981 and by Billie Eilish in 2020. Eilish herself has already made historical past once more this 12 months. With “Happier Than Ever” up for File of the 12 months, she’s now solely the fifth artist to be nominated for the award three years in a row, following “Dangerous Man” and “Every thing I Needed,” which each received.

Surprises and Snubs

Jon Batiste, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who leads the home band on The Late Present with Stephen Colbert, was seldom talked about in predictions for this 12 months’s Grammy nominations. However he wound up main the sector with 11 nominations – approaching the report for many nominations in a single 12 months at 12, which is shared by Michael Jackson and Babyface. Batiste, who grew to become an Oscar winner earlier this 12 months for his rating for Soul, might as soon as once more share an award with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the movie within the Grammy class Finest Rating Soundtrack For Visible Media. The key to Batiste’s doubtlessly enormous Grammy night time haul is that he blends so many genres in his work that he’s up for awards together with Finest R&B Album (for We Are), Finest Jazz Instrumental Album (for Jazz Picks: Music From and Impressed by Soul), and Finest American Roots Track.

This 12 months’s largest (and strangest) snub could also be for Texas singer Kacey Musgraves. In 2019, she took dwelling 4 Grammys, together with Album of the 12 months and Finest Nation Album, for Golden Hour. However final month, a couple of weeks after she launched the follow-up album Star-Crossed, a Recording Academy committee determined that the album wouldn’t be eligible for Finest Nation Album, as an alternative of placing it in competitors for Pop Vocal Album. Finally, Star-Crossed got here up empty in the entire pop and common area classes. As a substitute, the one two nominations Musgraves received this 12 months are for the album observe “Digital camera Roll,” within the Finest Nation Track and Finest Nation Solo Efficiency classes, rendering the Academy’s committee ruling all of the extra curious.

Issues turned out higher for Brandi Carlile, who was taken out of rivalry for Americana classes in one other controversial committee ruling this 12 months. Her single “Proper On Time” is up for File of the 12 months, Track of the 12 months, and Finest Pop Solo Efficiency. Her newest album, In These Silent Days, wasn’t obtainable because it was launched following the eligibility date.

Though The Weeknd introduced that he is not going to submit his music to the Grammys sooner or later after final 12 months’s shock snub of After Hours, he’s up for 3 Grammys for his work on Kanye West’s Donda, together with a Finest Melodic Rap Efficiency nomination for his or her hit collaboration “Hurricane.”

Donda’s nominations additionally shine a Grammy highlight on among the album’s extra controversial company, together with Marilyn Manson, who’s presently going through a number of lawsuits for sexual assault, and DaBaby, who was dropped from a number of festivals this 12 months following homophobic feedback at Rolling Loud. Controversial comics Dave Chappelle and Louis C.Ok. are additionally up for Grammys this 12 months, for Finest Spoken Phrase Album and Finest Comedy Album, respectively.

Notable Firsts

The veteran Minnesota indie band Low simply garnered the primary Grammy nominations of its lengthy profession. The band’s thirteenth album, Hey What, launched by Sub Pop, is up for Finest Engineered Album, Non-Classical in opposition to nominees together with Yebba and The Marias.

Swedish pop superstars ABBA are this 12 months’s comeback children, with a File of the 12 months nomination for “I Nonetheless Have Religion In You” (that tune’s father or mother album, Voyager, was launched in November and received’t be eligible for Grammys till subsequent 12 months). It’s the group’s first-ever Grammy acknowledgment, as ABBA was by no means nominated throughout its wildly widespread ‘70s and ‘80s heyday.

Tony Bennett and Girl Gaga are up for six awards for his or her second collaborative album of jazz requirements, Love For Sale. It’s Bennett’s ultimate album, with the legendary 95-year-old crooner retiring this 12 months following a 2016 prognosis of Alzheimer’s illness. And it offers Bennett the excellence of the longest span of time between first and final Album of the 12 months nominations, 59 years after his nod for I Left My Coronary heart in San Francisco (Bennett additionally received the award in 1995 for his MTV Unplugged). The final jazz album to be nominated for Album of the 12 months was Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, which beat out Kanye West and Amy Winehouse to take dwelling the award in 2008.

The sixty fourth Annual Grammys shall be broadcast on CBS on January 31, 2022 reside from the Los Angeles venue presently generally known as Staples Heart, which shall be rechristened the Crypto.com Enviornment subsequent month.