The Grammys, the most televised awards show of the year, will air their 67th installment on Feb. 2, 2025, and recognize the largest figures in pop, rock and other genres. On Nov. 8, nominations for the upcoming award show were released.
Notable for this year, there are many female artists receiving nominations in a vast majority of the genres. Beyonce this year has received eleven nominations (the most of all artists this year), which has led to her becoming the most Grammy nominated artist with 99 total nominations. Other top nominees include Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Kendrick Lamar, and Post Malone- each with seven nominations.
Many of the nominees with the most nominations are coming into this Grammy season off of the back of large cultural moments, i.e. “Brat Summer” and the success of “Not Like Us” for Charlie XCX and Kendrick Lamar, respectively. Another example of this phenomenon, Chappell Roan, has nominations in all three of the biggest categories (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year) and a nomination for best new artist.
Off the back of “Brat Summer,” Charli XCX has introduced some new sounds to the Grammys, interestingly being found on the general “Album of the Year” nomination list and the top Dance/Electronic album. Other albums in the Dance/Electric field have found nowhere near the same mainstream success as Charli XCX has with “Brat,” and it’s fascinating to view the overlap in Pop/Electronic this year. Another example of genre overlaps at the top of nominations this year is found within Beyonce’s nomination for her heavily country-influenced album. While the country and pop charts have overlapped fairly often in modernity, Beyonce’s nomination showcases an ever-closer relationship between pop and modern country.
For the first time in four years, the Grammys have not introduced any new categories, but there are new nominations in the three categories added last year. Interestingly, in the Alternative Jazz Album category, Andre 3000’s (half of former hip-hop duo Outkast) new album New Blue Sun can be found. Andre 3000’s debut album, New Blue Sun, sees the rapper explore jazz flute music This album was also nominated for Album of the Year, which is a highly unusual overlap. The nomination is atypical, as although the music comes from a popular artist, the album explores sounds far from the modern mainstream. The album’s focus on woodwind instrumentation and song lengths well over ten-minutes mark it as completely unique among top category albums.
In the main three categories of Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year, the following artists were nominated for at least one of the three main awards: Andre 3000, The Beatles, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Jacob Collier, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift. For the first time in Grammy history, one of the Record of the Year nominees (Now and Then by the Beatles) was created using AI. Though in the Beatles song it was just used to isolate the deceased John Lennon’s vocals, it is an interesting trend to see a piece of music using AI be so officially recognized.
Some other notable firsts this year include Taylor Swift’s nomination for The Tortured Poets Department making her the first person to have seven career nominations for album of year and Jimmy Carter becoming the oldest person to ever be nominated for a Grammy at 100 years old for an Audiobook category award.
Overall, these Grammy nominees establish the awards to be interesting for this upcoming year, and it is amazingly refreshing to see an expansion of sounds at the top of the nomination charts. The more recognition these sounds and genres receive, the more people are likely to find music that is fulfilling and inspiring to them. I sincerely hope this trend continues in the upcoming years so that more and more people can discover new music that is meaningful to them. Those wishing to watch the awards as they unfold can do so live on Feb. 2, 2025, through CBS or Paramount+.
