Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish are each up for track of the 12 months for his or her contributions to the Barbie soundtrack
Whisper it quietly… however might the Grammy Awards get it proper this 12 months?
The ceremony, which takes place in Los Angeles on Sunday, is infamous for scoring personal objectives, usually rewarding middle-of-the-road heritage acts over cutting-edge, modern pop.
However this 12 months’s nominees are straight-down-the-line populist picks, with R&B star SZA main the sphere on 9.
There will even be performances from massive names starting from Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish to Joni Mitchell and U2.
Comic Trevor Noah will host for the fourth 12 months working, overseeing a staggering 94 classes, from finest modern Christian album to finest audiobook, the place Michelle Obama will sq. off in opposition to Meryl Streep.
Elsewhere, Phoebe Bridgers’ indie-rock supergroup Boygenius, and pop star Victoria Monét have seven nominations every.
Chart stars Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey and Ice Spice even have a number of nominations in a female-led area.
Listed below are 9 issues to know forward of the occasion.
1) The right way to watch the Grammys
Comic Trevor Noah is internet hosting the present this 12 months
Initially, brew a powerful pot of espresso.
Greater than 80 awards shall be handed out in what’s known as the “premiere ceremony” at 20:30 GMT on Sunday (12:30 in Los Angeles).
It is usually price tuning in. The winners within the extra obscure classes are much less polished and extra enthusiastic about profitable, and the performances are looser and, dare I say it, extra musical than the Hollywood-scale set items you may see later.
You may watch the entire thing on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on dwell.grammy.com.
The primary present, which can begin at 01:00 Monday GMT, shall be broadcast dwell within the US on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus. Speeches and choose performances are often uploaded to YouTube the next day.
2) Will Taylor Swift overtake Ol’ Blue Eyes?
Taylor Swift already has 12 Grammys – which is greater than any human can fairly maintain directly
If Swift wins album of the 12 months for Midnights, she is going to turn into the primary ever artist to elevate the distinguished trophy 4 instances.
In the meanwhile, she’s tied with Paul Simon, Stevie Marvel and Frank Sinatra, who every have three wins.
However the Grammys have usually been much less excited by Swift’s pop data than her forays into nation and people.
Her competitors for album of the 12 months is robust. Here is the total checklist of nominees:
- Boygenius – The Report
- Janelle Monáe – The Age of Pleasure
- Jon Batiste – World Music Radio
- Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There is a Tunnel Beneath Ocean Blvd
- Miley Cyrus – Countless Summer time Trip
- Olivia Rodrigo – Guts
- SZA – SOS
- Taylor Swift – Midnights
3) Joni and Tracy might put younger stars within the shade
Joni Mitchell will proceed her dwell comeback on the ceremony
Fashionable-day superstars Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo will little question placed on lavish performances of their massive hits.
However the present is more likely to be stolen by two different feminine artists who’ve largely been out of the general public eye lately.
Joni Mitchell is assured a reception worthy of a dwelling legend when she makes her debut Grammys efficiency on the age of 80.
And Tracy Chapman is closely rumoured to be making a really uncommon public look to affix nation star Luke Combs on her 1988 basic Quick Automotive, which he took again to the charts final 12 months.
The evening’s different performers will embody Billy Joel, Travis Scott and Burna Boy.
4) A win for SZA is a win for Scotland
SZA’s second album SOS was considered one of 2023’s largest sellers
Within the US, SZA’s second album SOS topped the charts for 10 weeks and marked the singer’s ascension to the key league.
Born in Missouri and raised in New Jersey, the singer – actual title Solána Imani Rowe – educated in marine biology earlier than launching her music profession.
If her newest album picks up a Grammy, it should additionally imply a win for a 20-year-old music producer from Scotland.
Blair Ferguson, who writes underneath the title BLK Beats, wrote the music for her hit single Snooze in his Glasgow bed room, and it went on to promote greater than two million copies within the US.
“SZA is only a genius and she or he’s capable of rework any file with the best way she comes up with a melody,” he informed BBC Information. “I do not suppose some other artist might have made that monitor.”
5) Who’s a much bigger rock star: Mick or Olivia?
The Rolling Stones are nominated for the primary time in six years
One of the best rock track class is a tradition conflict for the ages, as Olivia Rodrigo’s punky Ballad Of A Homeschooled Lady faces off in opposition to The Rolling Stones’ Offended, a story of a lovers’ quarrel.
So who’s the face of rock ‘n’ roll in 2024? The Grammys wish to reward longevity, however perhaps they’re going to be swayed by Rodrigo’s rock revivalism, which has helped to ignite the primary resurgence in guitar music in over a decade.
It is a sturdy area, with Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age additionally within the working. However the true contenders must be Boygenius.
Shaped by indie songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, final 12 months they made an era-defining guitar album, stacked with spectral harmonies and poetic lyrics.
Nominated in all the key classes in addition to the rock subgenres, it could possibly be this 12 months’s runaway winner.
6) A primary for Africa
Nigeria’s Burna Boy has turn into one of many world’s largest stars
A brand new class, finest African music efficiency, displays the rising prominence of genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano but in addition “Africa’s profound affect on music historical past”, in accordance with the Grammys.
The inaugural nominees – who would beforehand have slugged it out on the earth music class – embody Nigerian stars Burna Boy, Asake, Ayra Starr and Davido, alongside breakout South African singer Tyla.
“Actually, particularly the Grammys is a large accolade,” stated Tyla, who scored a worldwide hit with Water on the finish of 2023.
Two different new awards have additionally been launched for 2024 – finest different jazz album and finest pop dance recording.
7) Justice for Miley!
Miley Cyrus has by no means gained a Grammy
Regardless of her storied profession, Miley Cyrus is but to win a Grammy, and had solely been nominated twice previously.
Nonetheless this 12 months, the SFKAHM (Singer previously generally known as Hannah Montana) has six nominations for her all-grown-up pop album Countless Summer time Trip.
Lead single Flowers, which was the biggest-selling track within the UK final 12 months and topped the US Billboard charts for eight weeks, is up for file and track of the 12 months, and finest pop vocal efficiency.
However in a powerful 12 months for unhappy ladies singing pop songs, she might depart empty-handed yet again.
8) Are the Grammys ghosting nation music?
Morgan Wallen’s album offered extra copies than some other final 12 months, however he solely has one nomination
Nation had an enormous resurgence within the US final 12 months. Streams of the style rose 20%, and final August the highest three positions within the Billboard Scorching 100 have been occupied by nation songs for the primary time.
However none of these artists – Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan – are nominated within the Grammys’ largest, all-genre classes.
In actual fact, no nation album has been nominated for album of the 12 months since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour 5 years in the past (which gained the award).
So what is going on on? It appears to be a response to the political and racial undertones of the style’s largest stars.
Voters are cautious about Wallen due to a headline-making incident in 2021, the place he was caught on digicam utilizing a racial slur.
With Aldean, the politics have been embedded in his track, Attempt That in a Small City – a narrative of vigilante justice that some listeners interpreted as having racial undertones.
Aldean denied these accusations, however apologised when it transpired he’d filmed the video in entrance of a Tennessee courthouse that had been the scene of a brutal lynching in 1927.
Whereas stars like Jason Isbell and Zach Bryan made considerate songs that challenged Nashville’s extra regressive tendencies, they have been additionally shut out of the massive prizes.
It appears the Academy, with typical warning, has determined to steer clear.
9) How new does the very best new artist must be?
Jelly Roll not too long ago gained finest new artist on the Nation Music Affiliation Awards
A mere 21 years after releasing his first track, Tennessee singer Jelly Roll is up for finest new artist.
The musician, whose actual title is Jason DeFord, is not a conventional contender for the class, however his latest transfer from the underground to the mainstream makes him eligible underneath Grammy pointers.
A convicted felony and former drug vendor, he has served a number of stints in jail and not too long ago testified earlier than the US Congress in assist of anti-fentanyl laws.
His emotional tales of habit and redemption lastly propelled him into the charts final 12 months after a later-career pivot from rap into nation music.
At 39, he could be the oldest-ever winner of the very best new artist trophy – overtaking Sheryl Crow, who was 33 on the evening of her victory in 1995.
However that is nothing in comparison with the Latin Grammys, which gave a finest new artist trophy to 95-year-old Angela Alvarez in 2022.