Awards
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The Country Music Association will soon launch its inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship, which will provide a select group of BIPOC students with an immersive educational experience leading up to the 2023 CMA Fest in June.
The CMA has partnered with the University of Alabama, Nashville’s Belmont University and Knoxville’s University of Tennessee. Six students (two from each university) will be selected to take part in the fellowship, launching this spring. Students must be an incoming junior or senior majoring in public relations, advertising, journalism, business or a related field. Each student will also receive compensation for their work, as well as a stipend to cover living expenses while in Nashville.
“As we look at our industry and how we can drive country music into the future, it’s being thoughtful about who is part of it and who feels like they can be part of it,” Mia McNeal, CMA senior director, industry relations and inclusion, tells Billboard. “Working with all three of these universities has been incredible, thinking strategically and intentionally about how we can engage the student body in a way that is very direct and making a pipeline of talent.”
McNeal adds, “There has been a push for more artists of color within the country music industry, but they also need the opportunity to team with people behind the scenes who look like them.”
In April, the students will begin working remotely with the CMA’s communications team, participating in planning meetings with cross-departmental teams and various industry partners. They will then join CMA team members in Nashville in the weeks leading up to and through CMA Fest, June 9-12. Following the event, the students will take part in a six-week assignment with a country music publicity partner, offering the students additional real-world PR experience.
“They get the 360-degree view of exactly how public relations and communications is central not only to the CMA, but to the industry at large,” says Tiffany Kerns, CMA vice president, industry relations and philanthropy.
“The idea for this fellowship came out of having significant conversations with several artists and a wide variety of industry professionals who really felt that publicists are part of the storytellers of our business,” Kerns adds.
The University of Alabama’s Dr. Kenon Brown, who was previously the faculty advisor for the UofA’s CMA EDU chapter for about three years, serves as the fellowship’s managing faculty member. Brown along with faculty representatives from the university partners and CMA staff will review applications.
“We felt the one thing that would help students be exposed to the industry would be to give them first-hand experience,” Brown tells Billboard. “We wanted to also give them mentors to give them a more realistic viewpoint of how the music industry works. Hopefully this helps make them more excited about not just working in music but working in country music.”
In describing the types of students they are looking for, Brown says, “We want students who recognize the opportunity they have here to become a leader in this industry and a voice for promoting diversity and inclusion in the country music industry. We want students who can look at the country music industry and see the strides that they have made and see the advantage that they have to really add a unique voice to the genre.”
The CMA is also working with the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations on the fellowship, as well as with Trell Thomas, a public relations executive and co-founder of My Publicist is Black, to match each student participant with an industry expert to serve as a mentor throughout the fellowship.
“At CMA Fest last year, we had diversity on all of our stages,” McNeal says. “Our fans are diverse and that representation matters so much. It’s hard to be something you cannot see.”
The application to apply for the fellowship is open today (Jan. 9) through Feb. 24 at cmaworld.com/fellowship.
The fellowship is one of multiple recent initiatives the CMA has launched to support leadership, education, and diversity. The CMA previously teamed with Discovery Education for a series highlighting STEAM careers within the country music industry. In 2022, the trade organization also launched a 16-week training program to support women in leadership throughout the country music industry.
On Wednesday, Feb. 1, the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing will kick off Grammy Week by honoring jazz drummer and producer Terri Lyne Carrington and classical producer Judith Sherman at its annual Grammy Week celebration at The Village Studios in Los Angeles.
“We’re thrilled to return live to The Village Studios for the first time in three years to celebrate two groundbreaking music creators who are dedicated to innovating both creatively and technically in the recording field,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Both Terri Lyne and Judith have made indelible contributions to music, and we look forward to bringing together producers, engineers and artistic professionals to honor these incredible artists and kick off our Grammy Week celebrations.”
Carrington and Sherman are both multi-Grammy winners. Both are nominated again this year. Carrington, a three-time Grammy winner, has two of the five albums nominated for best jazz instrumental album – New Standards Vol. 1 (a collab with Kris Davis, Linda May, Han Oh, Nicholas Payton and Matthew Stevens) and Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival (a collab with Wayne Shorter, Leo Genovese and Esperanza Spalding). Carrington won in that category nine years ago. Impressively, she has also won twice for best jazz vocal album.
Sherman, a 13-time Grammy winner, is nominated for producer of the year, classical. Sherman has won in that category six times. If she wins again this year, she’ll tie David Frost, Steven Epstein and Robert Woods for the most wins in the history of the category, which was first presented in 1980.
“The Producers & Engineers Wing is privileged to pay tribute to two women who have pushed boundaries both in and outside of the studio,” Maureen Droney, vice president of the Producers & Engineers Wing added. “Terri Lyne and Judith are awe-inspiring honorees who represent the best of the recording industry and whose contributions to their respective genres continue to resonate with our music community.”
Along with saluting Carrington and Sherman, the event will also celebrate the year-round work of the Producers & Engineers Wing and its members, who advocate for excellence and best practices in sound recording, audio technologies and education in the recording arts, along with proper crediting, recognition and rights for music creators.
Grammy Week culminates with the 65th annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sun, Feb. 5, 2023. The show will broadcast live on CBS and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT.
Flo are crowned winners of the BBC’s Sound of 2023, an annual poll that identifies the next big thing in music.
The British R&B trio — Renée Downer, Stella Quaresma and Jorja Douglas — was formed in 2019 and signed the following year to Island Records, a division of Universal Music Group.
Their debut single, “Cardboard Box,” dropped last March and was followed in July by EP The Lead.
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Subsequent appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the BBC’s Later… With Jools Holland confirmed their talent with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
Flo’s message is “to be strong in yourself, to be confident,” the group tells the BBC.
“There is female empowerment – but everyone who listens should feel supported, inspired, independent,” says Quaresma. “We want them to feel the way music used to make us feel.”
The Sound Of 2023 was voted on by a 130-strong music industry panel, which included former nominees Dua Lipa, Stormzy, Sam Smith and Foals.
With the Corporation’s seal of approval, Flo joins an elite circle of winners which includes Adele, Sam Smith, Haim, Ellie Goulding, Sigrid and last year’s winner, PinkPantheress.
Producer Fred Again (real name Fred Gibson) is runner-up in the 2023 list, which was open to new artists yet to achieve a top five album or more than two top 10 singles by Oct. 31 2022. Those artists who had appeared on reality TV shows within the past three years were ineligible for the competition.
The competition was open to new artists who had yet to achieve a top five album or more than two top 10 singles by Oct. 31, 2022. Artists who had appeared on TV talent shows within the last three years were ineligible.
The BBC Music Sound of 2023 top five:
Flo
Fred Again
Nia Archives
Cat Burns
Gabriels
Nirvana, The Supremes, Ann Wilson & Nancy Wilson, Nile Rodgers and Slick Rick are among the Recording Academy’s 2023 lifetime achievement award recipients. The awards will be presented at the Special Merit Awards ceremony, which will be held on Feb. 4 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. It’s the first time the ceremony has been held since 2000, owing to the pandemic.
The Supremes are being honored a decade after Diana Ross received a lifetime achievement award. The only other artists to receive separate lifetime achievement awards as a solo artist and as part of a group are Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison (solo and with The Beatles) and Pete Seeger (solo and with The Weavers).
Ross is also a 2023 Grammy nominee for best traditional pop vocal album for Thank You. This is her 13th nomination. Amazingly, she has yet to win a Grammy in competition, either solo or with The Supremes. Rodgers is also a 2023 Grammy nominee. He’s up for album of the year for his work on Beyoncé’s Renaissance and best R&B song for co-writing Bey’s current hit “Cuff It.”
The Special Merit Awards ceremony will celebrate seven lifetime achievement award recipients, three Trustees Award recipients, two technical Grammy Award recipients, and the inaugural recipient of the best song for social change award. All but the recipient of that latter award were announced on Thursday (Jan 5).
“The Academy is proud to celebrate this diverse slate of influential music people spanning numerous genres and crafts as our 2023 Special Merit Awards honorees,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Each creator on this list has made an impact on our industry — from technical to creative achievements — representing the breadth of music’s diverse community. We’re excited to celebrate this group of legends next month that continues to inspire and shape the music world.”
The lifetime achievement award is presented to performers who have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording. The trustees award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording. The Technical Grammy Award is presented to individuals and/or companies/organizations/institutions who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.
Here’s the complete list of 2023 Special Merit Award honorees:
At the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, Viola Davis could become the 18th person to achieve the EGOT. The Oscar, Tony and Emmy winner is nominated for a Grammy for the first time for best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording.
The other four nominees in the category are all past Grammy winners. Questlove, nominated for Music Is History, is a six-time Grammy winner. Mel Brooks, nominated for All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks, is a three-time Grammy winner – as is Lin-Manuel Miranda, nominated for Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World. Jamie Foxx, who rounds out the category with Act Like You Got Some Sense, has won one Grammy.
In 2001, Brooks became the eighth individual to become an EGOT winner.
Davis has won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a dramatic series for How to Get Away With Murder (2015), an Oscar for best supporting actress for Fences (2016) and two Tonys – featured actress in a play for King Hedley II (2001) and lead actress in a play for Fences (2010).
If Davis wins the Grammy – and it’s by no means certain, given that strong field – she would become the third Black woman to complete the EGOT, following Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Hudson.
At 57, Davis would be the seventh-youngest EGOT recipient. Robert Lopez was just 39 when he completed the awards sweep, followed by John Legend (also 39, but closer to 40), Hudson (40), Rita Moreno (45), Goldberg (46) and producer Scott Rudin (53).
Final-round voting for the 65th annual Grammy Awards closes on Wednesday (Jan. 4) at 6 p.m. PT. At that point, Grammy nominees can relax. They will no longer have to worry that an ill-considered tweet may go viral and hurt their chances. No matter what happens between now and Feb. 5 when the awards are presented at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, voting will be locked.
That means it’s time to predict the likely winners in the Big Four categories. This little game has never been easy, but it’s gotten considerably harder in recent years for two reasons. The Recording Academy membership is undergoing rapid change. And we’re all still trying to figure out how the expansion of the number of nominees in each of the Big Four categories from five to eight and now 10 is affecting the dynamics of these races.
The Academy welcomed a new member class of “nearly 2,000 diverse music creators and professionals” in September. This was the fourth new member class since the Academy transitioned to a “community-driven and peer-reviewed annual cycle” to create, in its words, “a more diverse and engaged membership base representative of the evolving musical landscape.” Since implementing the new model, the number of women members has increased by 19%, while membership among “traditionally underrepresented communities” (read: nonwhite members) has increased by 38%.
This is the second year in a row that there are 10 nominees in each of the Big Four categories. That’s a lot, so we started by dividing the contenders into three categories: little chance of winning (entries that were lucky just to be nominated), long-shots (entries that have a shot at winning, but probably won’t) and front-runners. Within these three categories, the nominees are listed alphabetically.
RECORD OF THE YEAR
Little chance of winning: ABBA’s “Don’t Shut Me Down,” Mary J. Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous,” Brandi Carlile featuring Lucius’ “You and Me on the Rock”
Long-shots: Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5”
Front-runners: Adele’s “Easy on Me,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Harry Styles’ “As It Was”
Notes: All 10 nominees are also nominated in their respective performance categories, which is another indication of support. There are no fluke nominations here.
This is the eighth nomination in the category (an all-time record) for Beyoncé; the fourth for Adele; the third for Carlile, Doja and Lamar; the second for ABBA, Blige and Lizzo; and the first for Lucius, Lacy and Styles.
Adele is a two-time winner in the category. If she were to win for the third time, she would tie Paul Simon and Bruno Mars for the most wins in the history of the category. None of the other nominees have won in this category before.
Five of the nominees were No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 – “Easy on Me,” “Break My Soul,” “Bad Habit,” “About Damn Time” and “As It Was.” A sixth, “Woman,” cracked the top 10 (peaking at No. 7).
Many will want to see Beyoncé finally win in this category. As was widely reported, “Break My Soul” became her first solo No. 1 on the Hot 100 since “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” 14 years ago. But the presence of Lizzo’s similarly ebullient “About Damn Time” in the category may cause these hits to split their votes. Besides, Beyoncé has a better chance in album of the year.
“Bad Habit” manages to sound progressive, but also familiar enough to not put off more traditional Grammy voters. Lacy’s smash ranked No. 1 on the Billboard staff’s list of the 100 best songs of 2022. In his assessment of the song for that list, Andrew Unterberger called it “the perfect pop song for 2022, and more crucially, just a perfect pop song in general. Kicking in partway through its opening chorus, ‘Bad Habit’ has a casualness to its liquid grooves and ping-ponging vocals that almost makes it feel tossed off, spontaneous. But the craft on display here is actually impossibly high-level.”
Lizzo and Styles are both proven Grammy favorites. Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” won best pop solo performance three years ago – resulting in Billie Eilish’s only loss on her big night, where she became the first artist in 39 years to sweep the Big Four categories. Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” won in that highly-competitive category the following year. Styles’ smash inexplicably wasn’t nominated for record of the year, but in that performance category, it beat three records that were – including the eventual winner, Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted.” You could make a good case that both Lizzo and Styles are overdue for a record of the year win.
“As It Was” topped the Hot 100 for 15 weeks, setting a new record for the longest run at No. 1 by a U.K. artist. Styles achieved success on other fronts, too, with lead roles in two movies (the consensus: he’s no Daniel Day-Lewis, but he didn’t embarrass himself) and a highly successful tour in which he proved to be both a showman and a charmer. The song runs just 2:47, which would make it the shortest record of the year winner (by playing time) since the 5th Dimension’s sunshine pop classic “Up, Up and Away” 55 years ago.
“As It Was” also ranked No. 3 on the Billboard staff’s aforementioned list of the 100 best songs of 2022. Melinda Newman noted of the smash: “If you looked up ‘bop’ in Webster’s, this song would be there — but the propulsive, bouncy beat deceives. … Coming in at a lean 2:47, ‘As It Was’ serves as a broader anthem about how nothing is ‘the same as it was’ before the pandemic, but on a micro level, it turns out Styles isn’t the same either as he grapples with fame and the realization that ‘he’s no good alone’ when left to his own devices and pills.”
Likely winner: “As It Was”
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Little chance of winning: ABBA’s Voyage, Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe), Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres
Long-shots: Carlile’s In These Silent Days, Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, Lizzo’s Special
Front-runners: Adele’s 30, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, Styles’ Harry’s House
Notes: Similar to record of the year, all 10 nominees are also nominated in their respective genre album categories.
This is the fourth album of the year nomination for Beyoncé and Lamar; the third for Adele and Coldplay; the second for Carlile and Lizzo; and the first for ABBA, Bad Bunny, Blige and Styles.
Adele has won with her last two studio albums. If she wins again this year, she’ll equal Stevie Wonder’s hallowed record as the only artist to win in this category with three consecutive studio albums.
None of the other nominees have won in this category before. Beyoncé has earned more album of the year nominations than any other woman of color. Lamar is the first rapper to be nominated for album of the year with four consecutive studio albums.
Though Adele has never lost in this category, it seems unlikely she’ll win again this time. In her magnanimous acceptance speech last time, she was so generous to Beyoncé that she left the impression that even she thought Beyoncé should have won the award. That will likely work to Bey’s benefit here.
Bad Bunny’s album is the first Spanish-language album to receive an album of the year nod. It topped the Billboard 200 for 13 nonconsecutive weeks, longer than any other album this year. He won artist of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards in August. Bunny gave his acceptance speech in Spanish – which added to his reputation for authenticity.
In recent years, the Academy has aggressively recruited voters of color, and especially Black voters. Speaking at a Recording Academy online membership meeting in September, CEO Harvey Mason, jr. noted that while there has been a 38% increase in people of color in the Academy over the past four years, there has been a 100% increase in the number of Black members.
Some of them might chafe if a white pop artist, such as Styles or Adele, beat Beyoncé in this category for what would be the fourth time, following her previous losses to Taylor Swift, Beck and Adele. There would probably be less friction if Bunny won, though it would likely be noticed that a Latin artist won on his first album of the year nomination while Beyoncé just keeps getting passed over.
Here’s another factor that’s working in Beyoncé’s favor: Many album of the year winners have a thematic unity that gives them a sense of importance. They’re usually more than just collections of 10 or 12 worthy tracks. Beyoncé’s first post-pandemic studio album was a celebration of dance music, honoring its Black and gay roots.
Beyoncé’s album ranked No. 2 on the Billboard staff’s list of the 50 best albums of 2022, just behind Bad Bunny, but ahead of Lamar at No. 4, Styles at No. 6 and Lizzo at No. 11. As Gail Mitchell wrote in her assessment of the album: “This time around, Beyoncé set her sights on dance music, paying homage to its various iterations, from the house-burning anthem ‘Break My Soul’ to infusions of disco, techno and go-go. … As the album’s fitting title conveys, Beyoncé proves once again that she can always be counted on to pinpoint the cultural zeitgeist, reinvent it and take it to the next level.”
Likely winner: Renaissance
SONG OF THE YEAR
Little chance of winning: “abcdefu” (Gayle), “God Did” (DJ Khaled featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy)
Long-shots: “Break My Soul” (Beyoncé), “Just Like That” (Bonnie Raitt), “The Heart Part 5” (Lamar)
Front-runners: “About Damn Time” (Lizzo), “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (The Short Film)” (Taylor Swift), “As It Was” (Styles), “Bad Habit” (Lacy), “Easy on Me” (Adele)
Notes: “God Did” and “The Heart Part 5” are both nominated for best rap song. “Just Like That” is nominated for best American roots song. There is no equivalent award for the other seven contenders, which all come from the pop and dance fields, in which there is no song category.
In the unlikely event that “God Did” wins, it will set a new record as the song of the year winner with the most credited songwriters (nine). The current record is held by Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like,” with eight songwriters.
“Just Like That,” which brought Raitt her first song of the year nomination, is a lovely and subtle song about a mother whose son’s organs were harvested to save other lives. The song is a long-shot to win, but then many (including me, I must admit) considered her 1989 album Nick of Time a long-shot to win. It not only won, but made Raitt a star overnight. “Just Like That” is the first song of the year nominee written by just one songwriter since Taylor Swift’s “Lover” three years ago. If it wins, it would become the first song of the year written by a solitary songwriter since Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” 15 years ago.
This is Swift’s sixth song of the year nomination, which puts her in a tie with Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie for the most nominations in the history of the category. Unlike those two songwriting masters, she has yet to win in this category. So, she’s overdue. And if everybody who has called her “the songwriter of her generation” votes for her, she just may take it. But her update of “All Too Well” was passed over for nods for record of the year and best pop solo performance, which seems to show some weakness. Four of its rivals here – “Easy on Me,” “Bad Habit,” “About Damn Time” and “As It Was” – were nominated in both of those categories. Also, Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is already a front-runner for record and song of the year nods a year from now. Some voters may have decided, “Let’s hold off. She’ll probably win next year.”
Beyoncé, The-Dream and Chris “Tricky” Stewart shared the award 13 years ago for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” If they win again, they’ll join D’Mile as the only writers of color to win twice in this category. But again, this song is competing with the stylistically similar “About Damn Time.”
“About Damn Time” and “Bad Habit” are formidable contenders here for the same reasons they are front-runners for record of the year.
Adele and Kurstin won in this category six years ago for “Hello.” Adele also won in this category with “Rolling in the Deep,” which she co-wrote with Paul Epworth. If she wins again, she’ll become the first three-time winner in the category’s history. Adele had a big year, and not just on the charts. Her TV special Adele One Night Only won five Primetime Emmys. And her Las Vegas residency has gotten rave reviews, including this one from Billboard’s Katie Atkinson.
“Easy on Me” ranked No. 14 on the Billboard critics’ list of the 100 best songs of 2021 (it has been out awhile). In assessing the song, Atkinson (our in-house expert on all things Adele) wrote: “The expectations heading into Adele’s first new music in nearly six years were as sky-high as one of the British singer/songwriter’s patented power notes. But instead of going the bombastic route with 30‘s lead single ‘Easy on Me,’ Adele sent this vulnerable musical message to her son, setting the tone for a beyond open post-divorce project and reintroducing the peerless vocal delivery fans had desperately missed.”
Likely winner: “Easy on Me”
BEST NEW ARTIST
Little chance of winning: DOMi & JD Beck, Tobe Nwigwe
Long-shots: Omar Apollo, Samara Joy, Molly Tuttle, Wet Leg
Front-runners: Anitta, Muni Long, Latto, Måneskin
Notes: This is the first time in six years that none of the best new artist nominees were nominated in any other Big Four category. Lacy, a top contender for both record and song of the year, wasn’t eligible because he had received two previous nominations for what is now called best progressive R&B album – one as a member of The Internet and one solo. If he had been eligible for best new artist, he most likely would have won. Gayle, a song of the year nominee, was eligible for best new artist but was passed over for a nod.
Four of these contenders are nominated for genre album awards. Wet Leg’s Wet Leg is up for best alternative music album; Tuttle’s Crooked Tree for best bluegrass album; Joy’s Linger Awhile for best jazz vocal album; and DOMi & JD Beck’s Not Tight for best contemporary instrumental album.
Apollo and Wet Leg both made the top 10 on the Billboard staff list of the 50 best albums of 2022.
Måneskin has doggedly climbed its way to success in America and is a leading contender here. The band would be the first Italian act to win a Grammy as a lead artist in a Big Four category since Domenico Modugno, the winner for record and song of the year at the very first Grammys for the lounge-lizard classic “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare).”
The five female solo artists in the race – Anitta, Long, Joy, Latto and Tuttle – may have the inside track. Since 2000, female solo artists have won in this category 14 times. (By way of comparison, in that same period, three male solo artists, five groups and one duo have taken home the prize.)
Latto’s “Big Energy” was by far the biggest hit single from any of these contenders. It reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 in April and ranks No. 7 on the year-end Hot 100. Mariah Carey, the winner in this category 32 years ago, gave “Big Energy” a boost by hopping on a remix. (“Big Energy” and Carey’s “Fantasy” both interpolate Tom Tom Club’s 1982 classic “Genius of Love.”)
Latto would be the third female rapper to win in this category, following Lauryn Hill and Megan Thee Stallion.
Likely winner: Latto
Hugh Jackman rang in the new year on Wednesday (Jan. 4) with a very serious and important request for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences … and it has to do with Ryan Reynolds.
“Hey, everybody. It’s 2023 and I really, really wanted to send out a positive message at the beginning of the year, but, umm, recent events have made that impossible,” the actor said with mock seriousness straight to camera. “Don’t get me wrong, I loved Spirited. It’s a great movie, we had a blast, the entire family watched it. I love Will [Ferrell], I love Octavia [Spencer]. Obviously I did The Greatest Showman with Benj [Pasek] and Justin [Paul] — they’re incredible and I love their music … And ‘Good Afternoon,’ by the way, the song ‘Good Afternoon’? I laughed the entire way through, it is absolutely brilliant. However, I’ve just heard the Academy have shortlisted ‘Good Afternoon’ in the best song category.
“Now, Ryan Reynolds getting a nomination in the best song category would make the next year of my life insufferable,” The Music Man star continued. “It would … I mean, I have to spend a year with him shooting Wolverine and Deadpool and … trust me, it would be impossible. It’d be a problem. So, just to recap, love Spirited, love Will, love Octavia, love the song ‘Good Afternoon,’ love Benj and Justin. But please, please, from the bottom of my heart, do not validate Ryan Reynolds in this way. Please.”
Indeed, Jackman is set to step back into the role of Wolverine opposite Reynolds in the upcoming Deadpool 3. His character’s return was first teased in a post-credits scene in 2018’s Deadpool 2.
Other superstars on the Oscars shortlist for best original song this year include Taylor Swift (“Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing), Rihanna (“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Lady Gaga (“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick), The Weeknd (“Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” from Avatar: The Way of Water) and more.
Watch Jackman’s hilarious plea to the Academy below.
Brazilian powerhouse Anitta is among the nominees for best new artist at the 2023 Grammys, and before she walks down the red carpet in February, Billboard invited her into the studio to talk about her first Grammy nod and much more.
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Speaking with Billboard News, Anitta reveals that when she found out she was nominated, she was already in full Grammy mode, as she was hosting the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas. She also shared that the best new artist nomination is something of an irony, given that she began her career in Brazil 12 years ago.
“But here in America,” she says, “I’m just starting right now … It’s so different, it’s so hard for me to get to this other level of jumping into another market and working there that for me it is a new artist, because for me it is a new career from zero.”
She also notes that the last time a Brazilian act was nominated for best new artist was in 1964, when Astrud Gilberto earned a nod on the heels of the hit “Girl From Ipanema,” a song Anitta pays homage to on “Girl From Rio” from her 2022 LP Versions Of Me.
She continues that while it’s been challenging to get non-Brazilian audiences to get used to her native language — Portuguese — global markets are warming up to it via her work, and that’s she’s working on a funk album that will fully showcase the sounds and style of her homeland.
“For me,” she says, “I understand that this whole moment was like the construction of the foundation for me to actually introduce my culture.”
Watch the interview above, and stay tuned for part two of the conversation in the coming weeks.
Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 Songs chart included a total of 15 artists who were both entered and eligible for this year’s Grammy’s best new artist award, but only two musicians — Latto and Muni Long — were able to make this cut for 2023.
One of the biggest Hot 100 success stories is Gayle and her breakout track “abcdefu.” Though she is not nominated for best new artist this year, the track allowed her to peak at the year end Hot 100 at No. 17, and earned her a nomination in the coveted song of the year category, but also has a series of fellow hitmakers who fans believed deserved a spot in the best new artist category at the Grammy’s this year.
Former Disney Channel star Dove Cameron came into her own in 2022 — the singer release her EP, Girl Like Me, in December, which included hit track “Boyfriend” as its lead and breakout single. Though snubbed for best new artist, the track gained her enough traction to be named best new artist at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 28 and secure at spot on the year-end Hot 100 at No. 51.
And while Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy” didn’t start making waves until the end of 2022, the track made a big splash and instead is up for best pop duo/group performance, though Petras was left out of the best new artist nominees at the Grammys.
So who do you think should have been nominated for best new artist at the Grammy’s this year? Vote in out poll below.
Most Billboard readers have at least a rough idea of the top albums and songs of each year but may be less familiar with the top box-office hits from each year. Fortunately, boxofficemojo.com has that information for each year dating back to 1977.
So what do we learn scrolling through the list of top-grossing films for each year since Jimmy Carter became president and Elvis Presley died? One thing that comes across loud and clear is the degree to which sequels and franchises have come to dominate the marketplace. Just four of the year-end box-office champs were films that were not part of franchises (or did not spark a franchise or a reboot of some kind). Those four films that stand alone are E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ghost and Titanic.
Star Wars is the top franchise on this recap, with six installments that have been the year’s top-grossing film. Batman is runner-up, with four installments that finished first for the year. Spider-Man is third, with three installments that yielded the year’s top box-office hit.
James Cameron and George Lucas are tied as the only directors who each directed three films that took the year-end crown. Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Tony Scott, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Stanton and Robert Zemeckis are tied for second place, each having directed two year-end champs.
John Williams is far and away the top film scorer. The legendary composer scored 10 films that took the year-end box-office crown. Danny Elfman and Alan Silvestri have each scored films that finished first four times. (Hans Zimmer will join them if Top Gun: Maverick, on which he teamed with Harold Faltermeyer and Lady Gaga to provide the music, finishes first for the year.)
Lucas and Williams are the only director/composer team to collaborate on three year-end box-office champs. Six other such teams have collaborated on two year-end champs: Spielberg and Williams; Zemeckis and Silvestri; Scott and Faltermeyer; Cameron and James Horner; Burton and Elfman; and Stanton and Thomas Newman.
Top Gun: Maverick took the box-office crown for 2022, with a domestic (U.S. and Canada) gross of more than $718 million. The rest of the top five consisted of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Avatar: The Way of Water and Jurassic World: Dominion.
Let’s scroll back through the films that had the most success at the domestic box office (that’s the U.S. and Canada) in each calendar year since 1977, when Annie debuted on Broadway, Laverne & Shirley was the top TV show and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours dominated the Billboard 200.