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Drake has been absent from the Grammy Awards mix lately, but that drought appears to be over as the 6 God has offered up his joint album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, for consideration in several categories.
Billboard has confirmed that Her Loss was submitted for album of the year and best rap album for the 2024 awards show — news first reported by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday (Oct. 11) — while the songs “Rich Flex” and “Spin Bout U” were offered up in categories including record of the year, song of the year for both, best rap performance (“Rich Flex”), best rap song (“Rich Flex”) and best melodic rap performance (“Spin Bout U”). Drake also could earn further nominations for his collaborations on Travis Scott’s “Meltdown” and Young Thug’s “Oh U Want,” which are both entered for both rap song and best rap performance.
Her Loss was released in November 2022 and qualifies for the Feb. 4, 2024, Grammys because it falls into an eligibility period that opened on Oct. 1, 2022, and ran through Sept. 15, 2023; balloting for first-round voting for those awards opened on Wednesday, with nominations slated for announcement on Nov. 10.
Billboard has reached out to Drake and 21 Savage’s reps for comment.
Drake has criticized the Grammys in the past and withdrew his rap noms for the 2022 awards, with his management asking the Recording Academy to remove him from nominee consideration on the final-found balloting for 2022’s 64th annual awards in April 2022, a request the Academy honored. He also did not submit his 2022 Honestly, Nevermind album or any of its singles for consideration at this year’s Grammys in February. He did, however, share a best melodic rap performance trophy for his guest spot on Future’s “Wait For U” from the latter’s I Never Liked You album.
In 2020, Drake criticized the Grammys after The Weeknd (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) received no nominations for his After Hours album. “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artist that exist now and the ones that come after,” Drake said in an Insta story at the time. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just won’t change their ways.”
Drake’s latest album, For All the Dogs, was released Oct. 6 and would be eligible for the 2025 Grammys.
Last December, the Recording Academy convened a listening session of artists, label executives and stakeholders both in the United States and across Africa to discuss the rising influence of music coming from the continent. The meeting, which lasted several hours, was a key part of the process that led to the addition of a category that will be presented for the first time at the 66th Grammy Awards on Feb. 4: best African music performance.
“There’s a threshold that you like to see for a genre of music before it actually could make for a healthy category,” says academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., who led the meeting alongside global music genre manager Shawn Thwaites. “When you talk about music coming from Africa, you’re seeing Afrobeats grow, you’re seeing amapiano and other genres coming out of the continent over the last three to five years. That started the discussions around, ‘Is it the right time?’ ”
The new category reflects the exploding commercial and cultural appeal of music by African artists in the United States. Its growth over the past few years has been almost linear: Davido’s 2017 single “Fall” was the first Nigerian song to be certified gold in the United States by the RIAA in 2020; Wizkid and Tems’ “Essence” became the first Afropop song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021; Burna Boy’s Love, Damini debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 in 2022, becoming the highest-charting Afro-fusion album in chart history; and in May, Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” became the first song to ever top both the U.S. Afrobeats Songs and Pop Airplay charts and peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100. (“Calm Down” was released too early to be eligible.)
“I don’t think currently there’s better or more advanced music being made anywhere outside the continent,” says Seni Saraki, CEO and editor in chief of The NATIVE Networks, the Lagos, Nigeria-based media and content company that launched a joint venture with Def Jam in September 2022. “From what we call Afrobeats — which is, really, just popular music from Nigeria — through amapiano, the rap music, Afropop, I genuinely think this is some of the most exciting music in the world right now. And the academy is becoming cognizant of that.”
The new category is also an attempt to address some of the controversy that has arisen around the global music album award, renamed from best world music album in 2020 due to “connotations of colonialism,” but still seen as little more than a catchall for non-Western music. As the music industry has itself become more global, the academy recognized that the time had come to offer a home for music from the African continent. But it also goes beyond the popularity of Afrobeats, which itself is more of an umbrella term: The academy listed some 30 different genres that could qualify for the category, including alté, fuji and high life.
“People know about Afrobeats and they’re learning about amapiano, but they don’t realize there are so many other genres on the continent that are underserved, and they can’t just be put in a bulk category called ‘world music,’ ” says Tina Davis, president of EMPIRE, which has invested heavily in African music and artists. “And much respect to the Recording Academy because they actually took the time to want to find out. [Mason] went to the continent to just learn more about it.”
The industry has also taken notice. In the past few years, an explosion of new signings, joint ventures and licensing deals for African artists and labels from U.S.-based companies and distributors has brought a new generation of stars like Rema, Asake and Ayra Starr to join the continent’s established hit-makers. “There was a time a few years ago when I was at RCA and it seemed like we were the only ones on it,” says Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun, who signed Tems and worked closely with Wizkid and Davido while an A&R executive at RCA and has since signed Adekunle Gold and Stonebwoy to Def Jam. “Now every week, there’s another label signing someone. The budgets are open.”
“I think you see more labels paying attention to it, you see the marketplace paying more attention to it; there’s a spotlight on it,” RCA co-president John Fleckenstein says. “The Grammys are the big leagues of awards, one of those artistic validations that many artists dream about. It’s a bit of an awakening that we are more global than we’ve ever been.”
There is, however, a little reticence around the new category; in the past, artists from genres like hip-hop, R&B and some of the Latin sectors have looked at the genre categories as boxes that merely nod to their music while gatekeeping them from the more prestigious general-field categories like song, record or album of the year. Further, a category called best African music performance, while welcome, is itself incredibly broad, covering a continent with 54 countries and 1.4 billion people.
“It’s a really important moment for the Grammys,” says Temi Adeniji, managing director of Warner Music Africa and senior vp of strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. “But then the next step is, how do you actually roll this thing out? Even regionally — East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa — it would be great to see a diversity of nominees, and that would reflect a real understanding from the Grammys of how large the continent is and how diverse the sounds are that are coming out.”
Talks of additional categories around African music, as well as a possible African Grammys, could be part of a future that Mason says this category is just the start of. “We want to serve music people, regardless of where they are,” he says. “I don’t know what that means yet, but we will continue to try and make sure that we are reaching as many music people regardless of their geography.”
The Potential Nominees?
Five songs that are in strong contention for a nod for the inaugural best African music performance Grammy.
Wizkid feat. Ayra Starr, “2 Sugar” (Starboy/RCA)
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Following the crossover success of his “Essence” (featuring Tems) was this breakout hit from the Nigerian superstar’s More Love, Less Ego album, featuring a powerful vocal from Starr, who is herself blossoming into a major force in African music.
Libianca, “People” (5K/RCA)
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With an arresting, emotional vocal performance, the 22-year-old Cameroonian American singer — who previously appeared on season 21 of The Voice — has captivated fans and the industry alike. “People” spawned remixes by artists such as Ayra Starr, Omah Lay and Becky G on the way to a long-running No. 2 peak on the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart.
Davido feat. Musa Keys, “Unavailable” (Davido Music Worldwide/RCA)
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The lead single from one of the year’s best albums in any genre, “Unavailable” showcases Davido at his irresistible best, combining Magicsticks’ amapiano production with a slick verse from South Africa’s Musa Keys to craft one of 2023’s more enduring anthems.
Adekunle Gold feat. Zinoleesky, “Party No Dey Stop” (Def Jam)
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Insistent, urgent and eminently catchy, Gold’s debut Def Jam single blends the street melodies of fellow Nigerian Zinoleesky with his own knack for songwriting for a club banger with substance. It’s aspirational yet relatable, much like the album on which it appears.
Asake feat. Olamide, “Amapiano” (YBNL/EMPIRE)
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Asake’s meteoric rise over the past few years led to a headlining slot at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in September. This track, alongside label boss and Nigerian music legend Olamide, is among his best, celebrating his trademark amapiano vibe and orchestral backing vocals, yet elevating both artists.
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
As R&B superstar SZA has continued to ascend to the highest levels of popular music’s stratosphere over the past year — No. 1 hits, festival headlining slots, A-list collaborations, raves from critics and peers — her résumé still lacks a key item: major Grammy success. While SZA has been nominated for 15 Grammys — an impressive number, considering that as of the most recent ceremony, she still only had one full-length album to her name — she has just one win: in the best pop/duo group performance category, for her guest turn on Doja Cat’s crossover smash, “Kiss Me More.”
That seems likely to change at the 2024 Grammys, following the December 2022 release of her SOS, one of the most universally lauded albums of the past year. Not only did it draw near-unanimous praise, it also brought SZA to a new level of commercial dominance: SOS topped the Billboard 200 for 10 nonconsecutive weeks, with all 23 of its tracks hitting the Billboard Hot 100 — including breakout single “Kill Bill,” which became her first No. 1 on the chart. “There’s nobody close,” says artist development specialist and academy member Chris Anokute when gauging SZA’s 2024 Grammy credentials. “The girl has paid her dues. She has been releasing music for seven years. And she has made a multigenre, multiformatted album — the best multigenre, multiformatted record I’ve heard in years. And it deserves to be the album of the year.”
Indeed, the feeling among insiders that Billboard spoke with for this article is that SZA’s career has hit all the right beats for a Grammy artist since she signed with Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) a decade ago — and that it’s time for the Recording Academy to properly recognize her. “The Grammys are supposed to reward artists who show development and growth; artists who were once opening up and then get to arena level,” one music industry veteran says. “The Grammys really should want to be behind the trajectory of an artist like that.”
A source on SZA’s team confirms that the label will run a traditional campaign for her and points to increased visibility from the second leg of her North America tour (which includes two late-October stops in Los Angeles), as well as a deluxe reissue of SOS — recently confirmed by SZA herself as being titled Lana, featuring “seven to 10 [new] songs” and coming sometime this fall. The team has also sent out SOS boxes to “partners at press, radio” and digital service providers that include the album on vinyl and CD, as well as a compass, ring, metal straw and cleaning brush.
“Such packages have become very effective through the years because that’s what helps make projects stand out,” says a veteran marketing strategist of the box set promotional strategy. “It’s about what’s going to remind people that this record is a contender.”
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While the album (and its accompanying singles, “Kill Bill” and the more recent top 10 hit “Snooze”) likely will be in the running, it’s working against the tide of recent history. R&B has had some success in the past decade within the all-genre Big Four categories, but the genre’s most successful artists in the general field have tended to be those who embraced more of a classic, retro-vibing R&B mold: Bruno Mars and Silk Sonic, H.E.R., Jon Batiste. Artists like SZA — whose R&B is largely rooted in hip-hop sonics (and who came up as the lone R&B artist on the rap-focused TDE) — have, like rap itself, struggled to gain that kind of Grammy recognition.
Anokute doesn’t necessarily see that lack of recent precedent as an issue for SZA’s chances, instead calling back two decades to a pair of artists whose blend of classic and modern soul sounds made them pop insiders and Grammy darlings. “To me, you could compare this SZA moment to Lauryn Hill’s and Alicia Keys’ big Grammy moments [in 1999 and 2002, respectively],” he says. “She has crossed boundaries, she has crossed race with this album. At the end of the day, popular is popular, right? … You can’t call pop music [only] music that is on top 40 radio. Pop music is the most popular genre. And at the end of the day, Black music is the most popular music in the world.”
No matter how popular her music is currently, SZA will still have her work cut out for her contending at next year’s Grammys, likely against some of the other biggest artists in the world right now — including Olivia Rodrigo, Morgan Wallen and of, course, three-time album of the year winner Taylor Swift. However, Anokute points out that no one, not even the galactically popular Swift, can boast the cross-demographic appeal that SZA now has: “In terms of the most popular record between all genres of people, SZA beats Taylor Swift. I don’t know anybody listening to Taylor Swift outside of mostly, you know, white people… But I know a lot of white people, a lot of Black people, a lot of Spanish people that are listening to SZA and are huge fans. I’m not saying that Taylor only appeals to white people or Caucasian people, but the majority of her fan base is not Black or brown. SZA’s is, but she also crossed over.”
And whether the Grammys ultimately reward SZA’s latest, one music industry veteran says that it is in the Recording Academy’s best interest to look forward with R&B as much as backward. “We appreciate [the recognition for] the Bruno Marses and the H.E.R.s — they’re a safe balance,” the veteran says. “I think the academy knows that to be a part of the future, they have to embrace the future… Can we prove the Rolling Stone guy [Jann Wenner] wrong? That’s what we should focus on.”
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
“I don’t go on TikTok,” says PinkPantheress when asked whom she pegs as future TikTok stars. It’s surprising, to say the least. Few musicians have utilized the platform as expertly as she has over the past three years. What started out as a bet with a friend to prove she could crack its algorithm — “I told her I could make a viral video if I wanted to. And then I did,” she remembers — wound up launching what has turned out to be a fruitful career IRL.
“Once I figured out the algorithm, I was like, ‘Well, surely this would be able to blow up the music, too,’ ” she says. The 22-year-old English musician (who goes by various pseudonyms in lieu of her real name) is sitting in a midsize meeting room at the 1 Hotel in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood, where the décor — black leather, bare metal and treated wood everywhere — is working hard to make nature feel modern, but she looks effortlessly cool in baggy denim and a comfortable tank top. She’s polite and cordial, even though it’s clear she would rather be doing anything but an interview. “I was like, ‘Well, I might as well just try and see what happens. And even if I don’t get anyone listening to it, at least it’s out there and not just stuck on my laptop.’ ”
The songs that were hiding out on her laptop quickly found an audience. Her brand of drum’n’bass-meets-’90s pop/R&B tapped right into the heart of the zeitgeist, resonating with a generation of kids who don’t know life before the internet, smartphones and social networks but are downright tickled by the idea of a more analog lifestyle.
“When I posted my first song, people were commenting saying it was really good. And I saw people using the sound — like 200 uses in a day or something,” PinkPantheress says. “At that point I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ Imagine you have a song that you didn’t think anyone was going to listen to, to suddenly way more people than you expected listening to it.”
Lia Clay Miller
Uploaded three years ago on Christmas Day, the song was the Michael Jackson-sampling “Just a Waste,” and it showcased what has become her trademark style: throwing a disco ball drenched in despair into a blender to create something deceptively fun. But while PinkPantheress loves sampling, she’s weary of relying on its easy pleasures. “I always like to think that I’m adding something to [the sample], which is, like, relevant enough that suddenly it’s a new song. I just think too many songs these days are just an interpolation,” she says.
With hordes of new fans clamoring for more, PinkPantheress uploaded “Pain” in January 2021, a song that would have fit in perfectly with the Euro alt-pop invasion of the late 1990s. At only a minute and 39 seconds long, it’s really more of a ditty than a song — but manages to perfectly convey forlorn teenage love.
“Just a Waste” and “Pain” showcased a young, gifted songwriter, one who could succinctly capture and clearly telegraph universal feelings to make listeners feel as if she might be reading their DMs. Early on, unrequited love dominated her music. The feeling of “having someone that you’ve always wanted to see romantically but you’ve never managed to be able to and stuff like that,” she says. Now that she’s getting more famous, though, her music may soon have a more optimistic glint. “I guess the more I create music, the less I want to be stuck in that world.”
Born in Bath, England, to a Black Kenyan mother and a white British father, PinkPantheress was raised in Kent with her older brother. She took to music at an early age, learning to play piano and forming a rock band with a few friends while in grammar school. She spent most of her free time watching music videos and interviews on YouTube. By the time she got to college, she started making electronic music and experimenting with musical software to create her own productions.
To try out her songs, she wrote and produced for her friend MaZz. “I think, objectively, the songs were good songs,” PinkPantheress says. “She was kind of the [voice] and face for my writing.” But, like many talented songwriters, PinkPantheress soon “wanted more control over how I sounded.” She registered for SoundCloud under the name of her favorite Steve Martin movie and began uploading songs.
Lia Clay Miller
Nothing caught on — but when she took to TikTok in December 2020, seemingly overnight, she became an indie pop darling. “Pain” broke onto the U.K. Singles chart in August 2021 and peaked at No. 35. Later that year, she signed a deal with Parlophone and Elektra Records and released her first mixtape, To Hell With It. As booking offers came in for PinkPantheress — who had yet to perform live — her management at Upclose took things slowly, opting for smaller shows that allowed her to build an audience rather than going for festival stages.
“I remember my first few shows after my mixtape was out at the end of 2021 and [my management] were making me do rooms of like 100 people and 150 people,” she recalls. “The biggest room I did was probably 800. I remember thinking, ‘Why are these rooms so small?’ ”
“It has been superintentional,” says Jesse Gassongo-Alexander, PinkPantheress’ co-manager, when asked about helping her build a fan base after finding so much success online. “It was always a case of putting in the hard work and taking the slower route to build a foundation that is solid that’s going to allow her to stay here for a while.”
Her story resembles that of another young female artist who managed to parlay massive online success into real-world results: rapper Ice Spice. On paper, PinkPantheress and Ice Spice may seem like photo negatives of each other — one’s a brash rapper from the Bronx who has no problem putting herself in the spotlight; the other’s an introverted singer who prefers the solitary pursuit of songwriting to industry glad-handing — but to PinkPantheress, they’re more alike than different. So much so that she offered Ice a spot on the remix to her hit song, “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2,” earlier this year.
“I feel like I don’t have that many peers that exist in a similar space to me,” she says. “I’m not talking about levels. I’m talking about internet space. I think a lot of people see me as being this, like, internet cutesy teen-pop girl. I feel like she was one of the newcomers whom I got drawn to because, even though she does drill and rap, it still feels like she’s in the same cutesy world to me. And she’s Black too, and that was a big important part of it to me. I prefer to collaborate with other Black artists.”
Lia Clay Miller
The song became an instant hit, her biggest so far, debuting at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 after going viral on TikTok. For many in the United States, “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” was the first time they had heard PinkPantheress. It got her her first BET Award nominations (best collaboration, BET Her Award), landed her an MTV Video Music Awards nod (best new artist) and ultimately peaked at No. 3.
Many believe she’s a lock for her first Grammy nomination thanks to the song — if she had to guess, probably for best pop duo/group performance. She’s taken aback and amused when told about the drama that has surrounded the Grammy Awards’ classification of certain albums by Black artists — even more so when she learns how disappointed Justin Bieber was when his album Changes got the nod for best pop vocal album instead of best R&B album.
But even without a Grammy nomination, she can count this year as an unequivocal success. In addition to her biggest single yet, she appeared on Barbie: The Album — as good an “I’ve arrived” moment as any. But still, even as her career explodes, it’s surprising to hear that TikTok has taken a back seat.
“I didn’t leave it behind. I still post on it,” she says reassuringly. “I love using it to post my own videos, but I do not watch videos on there. Because like a year ago, I would scroll and I’d see too many TikToks about me. I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ”
Makes sense. Her management team trusts her to make the best decisions for herself. “I think she has shown how globally intelligent she is by being one of the earlier trendsetters,” Gassongo-Alexander says. “Coming from TikTok and appealing to a wider audience and then knowing how to retain that wider audience.”
How does PinkPantheress plan to keep growing that audience? By keeping on keeping on, it seems. She’s uninterested in sacrificing her core audience at the altar of pop stardom. Thankfully, her music is naturally easy on pop fan ears. “What I’ve realized is that my natural way of writing is more pop-friendly than anything,” she says. “So even though the beats can be kind of alternative, I still write in a very standard structure. And I make sure all the lyrics are tangible. And because of that, I think that it has made the [music] that I’m doing very accessible to mainstream audiences. But my biggest fear is having people hear me do a [song] and recognize that I’m doing it for the wrong reasons.”
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The first time Gracie Abrams met Aaron Dessner, at his famed Long Pond studio near Hudson, N.Y., the pair wrote over 10 songs. “We hit it off,” recalls Dessner, 47, of their first session in spring 2021. That’s a bit of an understatement, considering what followed: Dessner went on to produce and co-write Abrams’ acclaimed debut album, Good Riddance, released in February and brimming with honest reflections sung in her delicate voice that float over intriguing chord progressions and indie-rock riffs. In June, following the album’s vinyl release, Abrams topped Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart.
In early September, following appearances by both on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour (Abrams as an opener, Dessner as a guest), the duo played three sold-out, intimate acoustic shows in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, where they performed songs of Abrams’ both old and new. The gigs bookended a recording pit stop at Long Pond. “We made a lot of music, and it feels really different than what we’ve done before… like the best stuff we’ve made,” Dessner reveals.
Abrams, 24, is one of the newest artists to become a Long Pond regular, joining an eye-popping group of talent that includes Swift, Ed Sheeran and, of course, Dessner’s band, The National — all of whom have been incredibly active in recent years, continuing Dessner’s streak as one of the most in-demand, and busiest, collaborators in music today. As such, and with Abrams a likely best new artist contender, could Dessner finally score a long-awaited nod for producer of the year, non-classical?
“I don’t know another person that could do what Aaron does,” Abrams says. “There’s a kind of sensitivity that doesn’t necessarily exist in most artist-to-producer relationships that I am aware of.”
What was it about Long Pond that felt immediately inspiring or comfortable?
Gracie Abrams: Everything. I felt really open as a result of the space feeling open, and it’s entirely a testament to Aaron’s entire personality. The place feels very inviting [for] sharing all your secrets and deepest, most private feelings without any hesitation.
When Gracie’s debut arrived, Aaron wrote on Instagram that it almost feels like you two are siblings. What’s the best example of that?
Abrams: I mean, maybe brutal truth all the time. I tell Aaron everything as soon as it happens to me, so I burden him with my life story in a way that I feel like only people who you’re related to by blood should have to take on.
Aaron Dessner: And I get to live vicariously through Gracie, which is really nice. (Laughs.) When you write songs and make music with someone — and when you make so much music as we have — it’s an intimate, vulnerable experience, so you get to know each other really well. And it’s also the thing that makes music most meaningful, I think, the friendships that you collect along the way. Because when I look back — I’m quite a bit older than Gracie, although we don’t feel so far apart — there are these friendships that I still have from different points along the way, and those are the mile markers. Because [as a musician] you don’t have a very normal life and you’re traveling all the time and kind of running on fumes and it’s so amazing but it’s also hazardous, being unstructured and not having your support system or your family close by a lot of the time. The only way I know how to do this is to grow close to people and learn from them. I always feel like I’m learning as much as anyone might learn from me.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned from each other?
Abrams: My identity now has been massively shaped by what I’ve learned in this relationship with Aaron the past couple years, not just musically — which it has entirely helped guide me in terms of self-trust — but just how to be a very decent person. Especially in the context of the music industry. I grew up in L.A. and started recording here first and it felt very different than when I went to Long Pond for the first time, and it really broadened my imagination for the kind of life that I could have if I’m lucky enough to do the thing that I love, versus what I assumed to be the blueprint that always secretly made me feel a little depressed.
Dessner: To be honest, I’ve never written songs in the room with anyone [before]. I would always make music alone or with my brother [Bryce]. Most of the time, I write the music first and then someone writes to it. That has been how The National worked and how I worked with [Swift] and other people. And Gracie came and we wrote together in the room, and it’s a scary thing because you don’t have the chance to be figuring out your brilliant idea. And I found I was even more comfortable doing it like that, where I would basically sketch [an idea] and Gracie could guide me or bounce off it in real time and write words and melodies. And then over time we got really good at it, and that’s what I ended up doing a lot with Ed Sheeran. I don’t know that I would have been able to do it had I not had that confidence from this.
Gracie Abrams photographed on September 1, 2023 at Long Pond Studio near Hudson, NY.
Wesley Mann
Aaron Dessner photographed on September 1, 2023 at Long Pond Studio near Hudson, NY.
Wesley Mann
Aaron, why do you think Gracie could be in the running for best new artist?
Dessner: Gracie is making incredibly compelling, emotionally direct songs that really resonate with her fan base. [She has] become an artist that’s clearly impacting a lot of people. And I think the record is one of the best of the year, and she’s one of the artists that should be in that discussion. I also think with all of this stuff, it’s subjective. It’s a total honor to be in any conversation about the Grammys and to win a Grammy, and of course it sounds like I have to say that, but a lot of my favorite artists have never been in that conversation. So I kind of take it with a grain of salt. I have a lot of respect for it, but at the same time if you don’t get nominated… it doesn’t diminish what you’re doing.
And Gracie, why should Aaron get a producer of the year nod?
Abrams: I don’t know another person that could do what Aaron does could make album of the year after album of the year. I can identify instantly whether or not Aaron has touched a song because you can feel it, and I can’t compare that to anything. It’s not something that I’ve found anywhere else. And I think also it’s so evident, like the songs that people fall in love with on all the albums that Aaron has made are the ones that really work. The ones that the die-hard fans want to hear and scream at the top of their lungs.
How do these sets you’ve been performing together compare to the stadium shows you both played as part of Swift’s Eras Tour?
Dessner: As much as I am close friends with and know Taylor well, you can’t believe that she pulls it off. It’s like, the best thing that has ever happened to live music in a way. And seeing Gracie play those shows [as an opening act] and seeing people in the stadium singing the songs, it’s a crazy moment in her career. It reminded me of, in a way, in 2007-8, R.E.M., on their final tour, invited The National to open for them, and that was this real moment for us because one of our favorite bands, a giant American rock band, was saying, “Come, we love you.” This is on a much bigger scale than that was, but it feels related, it feels like that really fueled us, and I can feel that in Gracie now, like there’s this confidence, and it’s exciting.
Abrams: There’s something about the scale of what Taylor has done that is unlike anything I’ve ever felt or known in my entire life, and I agree that it is the best thing that has ever happened to live music. Just to be in a place where that many people are equally moved and emotional and down to express it as loudly as possible, it’s really unbelievable. That feeling, though — being in a stadium, at least a Taylor Swift stadium, and these intimate rooms — is very connected, which sounds wild maybe. One of the many millions of things I learned this summer is, she does actually make it feel like you’re on another planet and like it’s just you and her in the room. And I’ve been lucky enough to see the show so many times and I’ve watched it from every possible place in the stadium, and that’s true every time.
From left: Gracie Abrams and Aaron Dessner photographed by Wesley Mann on September 1, 2023 at Long Pond Studio near Hudson, NY.
Wesley Mann
From left: Aaron Dessner and Gracie Abrams photographed by Wesley Mann on September 1, 2023 at Long Pond Studio near Hudson, NY.
Aaron, have you and Taylor’s longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff ever joked that you two could be competing for producer of the year for the foreseeable future?
Dessner: He has produced so many records and been in that really intensely for a long time, whereas I’ve been really doing all my esoteric art music with my brother and making music with The National and touring a lot. But I feel like there’s a lot of camaraderie between Jack and I, having worked on a lot of the same records now, and I think anyone that gets nominated is lucky. Some people have more notoriety for whatever reason, and I think part of the thing is like, how much do people know what you do? So, the answer is, I think we’ll think it’s funny.
For an artist or producer who wants to build what you two have, what advice would you give?
Abrams: I hope I’ve gotten less annoying about it, but [Aaron] very much encouraged following your gut, which is maybe cliché advice or feels empty, but I think I was so lucky to have had the person saying that to my face be someone whose work I have admired forever and someone who I trust. But having not heard that or believed it, a lot of the music wouldn’t exist, or I would be in a very different place in general right now.
Dessner: There are a lot of producers who franchise themselves and collect as many artists as they can, and you can see that, and I feel like the work becomes diminished or something. You also have to live and experience things. I like the way community slowly grows… I feel like people find each other for a reason.
This story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
After the anonymous artist Ghostwriter went viral with their A.I.-generated track “Heart on My Sleeve” — which mimics Drake and The Weeknd — earlier this year, representatives for the unknown act recently disclosed in an interview with The New York Times that they submitted the controversial song for next year’s Grammy awards.
Submitted for best rap song and song of the year, “Heart on My Sleeve” was eligible despite the use of A.I. technology on the record, Harvey Mason, jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, told The New York Times. “As far as the creative side, it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human,” he noted.
Billboard has reached out to Drake and The Weeknd for comment.
Last April, “Heart on My Sleeve” was pulled from streaming services after generating more than 600,000 plays on Spotify and 275,000 views on YouTube. Following the outrage, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, TIDAL and Deezer yanked the song from their respective platforms. In a statement to Billboard, UMG denounced the track and usage of A.I. by saying the viral postings “demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists.”
Mason told the paper that he sent Ghostwriter a direct message on social media after the song’s explosion and organized a virtual roundtable discussion with the Recording Academy to understand further the powers of A.I. Ghostwriter attended the meeting with a distorted voice, further hiding their identity.
“I knew right away as soon as I heard that record that it was going to be something that we had to grapple with from an Academy standpoint, but also from a music community and industry standpoint,” said Mason. “When you start seeing A.I. involved in something so creative and so cool, relevant and of-the-moment, it immediately starts you thinking, ‘OK, where is this going? How is this going to affect creativity? What’s the business implication for monetization?’”
The Recording Academy announced Artificial Intelligence “protocols” earlier this year. “Only human creators are eligible to be submitted for consideration for, nominated for, or win a Grammy Award,” the Academy stipulated. “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category. The Academy may disqualify any entry in a particular category if it determines, in the Academy’s sole discretion, that such entry does not incorporate meaningful and more than de minimis human authorship that is relevant to such category. {The Academy offered a definition of that term: “De minimis is defined as lacking significance or importance, so minor as to merit disregard.”
On Tuesday (Sept. 5), Ghostwriter returned with a new A.I.-generated song titled “Whiplash,” featuring vocals that sound like Travis Scott and 21 Savage. The record mimics both artists and pokes fun at Ghostwriter’s detractors with lines such as “Me and Writer raise a toast/ Trying to shadowban my boy but you can’t kill a ghost.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Scott and Savage. Listen to the song below.
Procrastinators (and you know who you are): The deadline to enter recordings for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards is fast approaching. Voting members must make their entries by Thursday (Aug. 31 )at 6 p.m. PT — including for recordings that are scheduled for release in the first 15 days of September. The Grammy eligibility year […]
When the nominations for the 66th annual Grammy Awards are announced Nov. 10, Taylor Swift and SZA are each likely to receive nods for album, record and song of the year. It will be a bit harder to crack the Big Four categories than it was the last two years: The Recording Academy is cutting the number of nominees in each of those categories from a bloated 10 to eight, which was the magic number from 2018 to 2020. (Before that, it was generally five.)
And this year’s eligibility period closes two weeks earlier than usual, running from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 15, 2023. Following are Billboard’s best bets for who will be in contention.
In a welcome change, the academy reinstituted a baseline of involvement needed to receive a nomination in this category. Credited and featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers, mixers and mastering engineers must have worked on at least 20% of an album’s playing time to receive a nod. This is up from no baseline the last two years, when the academy handed out nominations in this category like they were Halloween candy.
Boygenius, The Record
The trio, consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, co-produced its long-awaited debut album with Catherine Marks. Previous “supergroup” collaborations to be nominated in this category include Crosby, Stills & Nash; the all-star Trio consisting of Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris; Traveling Wilburys; and The Three Tenors. Billboard 200 peak: No. 4.
Drake & 21 Savage, Her Loss
This year’s 50th anniversary of hip-hop has received yearlong coverage, which boosts the already good chance that at least one rap album will make the finals. Her Loss was up for album of the year at the BET Awards in June. This would be the third album of the year nomination as a lead or co-lead artist for Drake (following Views and Scorpion) and the first for 21 Savage. Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (one week).
Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Del Rey’s ninth studio album could yield her second nod in this category, following Norman F–king Rockwell! four years ago. Del Rey co-produced the album with Jack Antonoff, Benji, Zach Dawes, Drew Erickson and Mike Hermosa. Billboard 200 peak: No. 3.
Foo Fighters, But Here We Are
One of the Grammys’ favorite bands collaborated with one of the Grammys’ favorite producers, Greg Kurstin, a two-time winner for producer of the year, non-classical. The Foo Fighters’ 11th studio album — their first since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in March 2022 — could yield their third nod in this category. Billboard 200 peak: No. 8.
Olivia Rodrigo, Guts
Rodrigo’s upcoming second album could very well follow her debut, Sour, to an album of the year nod. It was produced by Dan Nigro, who also did the honors on Sour. This would be the second time Rodrigo has been nominated alongside one of her idols, Taylor Swift, in this category. Sour competed with Swift’s evermore two years ago.
SZA, SOS
This tied for album of the year at the BET Awards with Beyoncé’s Renaissance (a Grammy nominee in this category last year). SZA’s second studio album had multiple producers, including Babyface, Jeff Bhasker, Benny Blanco and Shellback. Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (10 weeks).
Taylor Swift, Midnights
This would be Swift’s sixth nomination in this category, which would put her in a tie with Barbra Streisand for the most nods by a woman in Grammy history. Swift co-produced Midnights with Jack Antonoff, Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet and Keanu. She could make history when the Grammys are presented Feb. 4, 2024, becoming the first person to win album of the year four times. She’s currently tied with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon with three wins each. Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (six weeks).
Morgan Wallen, One Thing at a Time
This would be the first country album to be nominated in this category since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour five years ago (which won) and the first by a male country artist since Chris Stapleton’s Traveller eight years ago. Joey Moi, Cameron Montgomery, Charlie Handsome and Jacob Durrett co-produced the collection, which is Wallen’s third studio album. Billboard 200 peak: No. 1 (15 weeks — longer than any other album since Adele’s 2011 release, 21).
Within Reach: Luke Combs, Gettin’ Old; Miley Cyrus, Endless Summer Vacation; Jelly Roll, Whitsitt Chapel; Noah Kahan, Stick Season; Karol G, Mañana Será Bonito; Lil Baby, It’s Only Me; Metro Boomin, Heroes & Villains; Janelle Monáe, The Age of Pleasure; Paramore, This Is Why; Ed Sheeran, – (Subtract); Sam Smith, Gloria; Tanya Tucker, Sweet Western Sound; Lainey Wilson, Bell Bottom Country
Clockwise: Luke Combs, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Rihanna.
Illustration by Andrei Cojocaru. Jeremy Cowart; Brianna Capozzi; Christopher Polk for PMC; Ezra Shaw/Getty Images.
Swift is still looking for her first win in this category, as are past contenders such as SZA and Rihanna. “Calm Down” by Rema & Selena Gomez, which would have been a strong contender, was released before the start of the eligibility year. Rema’s solo recording of the song was entered, but not nominated, for best global music performance last year.
Miley Cyrus, “Flowers”
Cyrus’ father, Billy Ray Cyrus, has received two record of the year nods — for “Achy Breaky Heart” and “Old Town Road,” his collaboration with Lil Nas X. The Cyruses would become just the third parent and child to each receive record of the year nods, following the Sinatras (Frank and Nancy) and the Coles (Nat “King” and Natalie). Billboard Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (eight weeks).
Luke Combs, “Fast Car”
Tracy Chapman’s original version of this song was a 1988 record of the year nominee. This would become only the second song in Grammy history to be the basis of two singles that received record of the year nods. The first was “Mack the Knife.” (Bobby Darin’s recording was the 1959 winner, while Ella Fitzgerald’s was a 1960 nominee.) Hot 100 peak: No. 2 (so far).
Lil Durk & J. Cole, “All My Life”
The melodic chorus on this hip-hop smash gives it broad-based appeal. This would be the first collaboration by two rappers to receive a nod in this category since DaBaby’s “Rockstar” (featuring Roddy Ricch) three years ago. J. Cole finally won his first Grammy (after amassing 12 nominations) four years ago for “A Lot.” Lil Durk is still looking for his first win. Hot 100 peak: No. 2.
PinkPantheress & Ice Spice, “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2”
This is vying to become the third collaboration by two women in the past four years to land a nod in this category. Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” (featuring Beyoncé) was nominated three years ago, and Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” (featuring SZA) was a contender two years ago. Hot 100 peak: No. 3.
Rihanna, “Lift Me Up”
This soulful ballad from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrived at the start of the eligibility year. This would be Rihanna’s fourth record of the year nominee, and her first on her own. She was previously nominated for collaborations with Jay-Z (“Umbrella”), Eminem (“Love the Way You Lie”) and Drake (“Work”). Hot 100 peak: No. 2.
SZA, “Kill Bill”
This would be SZA’s third record of the year nominee, and her first on her own. She was previously nominated for collaborations with Kendrick Lamar (“All the Stars”) and Doja Cat (“Kiss Me More”). Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (one week).
Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”
This would be Swift’s fifth nod in this category. She was previously nominated for “You Belong With Me,” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space.” Swift would be the first artist whose first five nominations in this category were for solo recordings (and not collaborations or group/duo recordings) since Frank Sinatra in the ’50s and ’60s. Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (eight weeks).
Morgan Wallen, “Last Night”
This single and/or Combs’ “Fast Car” would be the first country single (going by Grammy performance category placements) to receive a record of the year nod since Lady A’s “Need You Now” 13 years ago (which won). Taylor Swift’s subsequent “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, but vied for a performance nod in the pop field at the Grammys. Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (13 weeks).
Within Reach: Zach Bryan featuring Maggie Rogers, “Dawns”; Lana Del Rey, “A&W”; Jelly Roll, “Need a Favor”; Labrinth, “Never Felt So Alone”; Coi Leray, “Players”; Lil Uzi Vert, “Just Wanna Rock”; Dua Lipa, “Dance the Night”; Janelle Monáe, “Lipstick Lover”; Paramore, “This Is Why”; P!nk, “Trustfall”; Olivia Rodrigo, “Vampire”; Ed Sheeran, “Eyes Closed”; Toosii, “Favorite Song”; Tanya Tucker & Brandi Carlile, “Ready As I’ll Never Be”
From left: Tanya Tucker & Brandi Carlile, Jelly Roll & Lil Durk.
Illustration by Andrei Cojocaru. Gary Miller/WireImage; Chum Daddy; Katie Jones for WWD.
Last year, six of the 10 record of the year nominees were also nominated for this songwriter’s award. This year, five out of eight could double up. Luke Combs’ “Fast Car” won’t be eligible because it was already well-known. Tracy Chapman was nominated in this category in 1988 for writing it.
“A&W”Songwriters: Lana Del Rey, Jack Antonoff, Sam Dew
Del Rey and Antonoff were nominated in this category four years ago for co-writing “Norman F–king Rockwell.” He won this honor 11 years ago for co-writing fun.’s “We Are Young” (featuring Janelle Monáe). This would be Dew’s first nomination in the category.
“All My Life”Songwriters: Lil Durk, J. Cole, Dr. Luke, Rocco Did It Again!, Ryan OG, LunchMoney Lewis, Theron “Uptown AP” Thomas
This would be Dr. Luke’s third nomination in this category following nods for Katy Perry’s “Roar” and the Doja Cat-SZA collaboration “Kiss Me More.”
“Anti-Hero”Songwriters: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
“Anti-Hero” could give Swift a record seventh nomination for song of the year, which would surpass Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie for the most nods in the history of the category. Surprisingly, this would be the first Swift-Antonoff collaboration to be nominated for this award.
“Flowers”Songwriters: Miley Cyrus, Gregory “Aldae” Hein, Michael Pollack
This would be the first nod in this category for all three co-writers. The song is a modern twist on such hits as “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” a nominee in this category 45 years ago, and Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man,” a nominee for best pop solo performance 10 years ago.
“Kill Bill”Songwriters: SZA, Carter Lang, Rob Bisel
This would be SZA’s third nod in this category; she was among the co-writers of “All the Stars” and “Kiss Me More.” Lang was also nominated in this category for co-writing the latter. Bisel was nominated for record of the year as an engineer-mixer on the irresistible pop smash.
“Lift Me Up”Songwriters: Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna, Tems, Ryan Coogler
This would be the first nomination in this category for Rihanna, Tems and director Coogler. Göransson won this award five years ago for co-writing Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” “Lift Me Up” would be the first Academy Award nominee for best original song to also be nominated for the top songwriting Grammy since “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah two years ago.
“Need a Favor”Songwriters: Jelly Roll, Rob Ragosta, Joe Ragosta, Austin Nivarel
This song, released as the lead single from Jelly Roll’s breakthrough album, Whitsitt Chapel, has a refreshingly honest and affecting chorus, which begins: “I only talk to God when I need a favor/And I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer.”
“Ready As I’ll Never Be”Songwriters: Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker
This would be Carlile’s fifth nomination in this category and Tucker’s second. They previously collaborated on “Bring My Flowers Now,” a nominee here two years ago. “Ready As I’ll Never Be,” which was featured in the 2022 documentary The Return of Tanya Tucker, could also receive a nod for best song written for visual media.
Within Reach: “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2,” PinkPantheress & Ice Spice; “Dance the Night,” Dua Lipa; “Dawns,” Zach Bryan featuring Maggie Rogers; “Eyes Closed,” Ed Sheeran; “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old,” Luke Combs; “Last Night,” Morgan Wallen; “Lipstick Lover,” Janelle Monáe; “Never Felt So Alone,” Labrinth; “Players,” Coi Leray; “Thank God,” Kane Brown & Kaitlyn Brown; “This Is Why,” Paramore; “Trustfall,” P!nk; “Vampire,” Olivia Rodrigo
Clockwise: Gracie Abrams, Ice Spice, Peso Pluma and PinkPantheress.
Illustration by Andrei Cojocaru. Mark Horton/Getty Images; Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Jerry Budar; Mia Teresa.
Though The Record is boygenius’ first album, the trio won’t be eligible here because one of its members, Phoebe Bridgers, is a previous Grammy nominee. She received four nods, including best new artist, three years ago.
Zach Bryan and GloRilla probably won’t be eligible because they were nominated in performance categories last year. The Grammy rulebook makes an exception for such artists, provided they hadn’t at the time of those nominations released enough material to be “eligible in this category for the first time.” Bryan and GloRilla were both eligible and entered for best new artist last year.
The Grammy screening committee will have the final say on whether Coi Leray and Jelly Roll are eligible. Neither has been nominated before, but both have been around awhile. Leray was nominated for best new artist at the BET Awards two years ago, and Jelly Roll has been releasing records since 2011.
Gracie Abrams
Aaron Dessner and Matias Tellez co-produced the singer-songwriter’s first studio album, Good Riddance. Abrams has served as an opening act on Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour tour and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Fun fact: Abrams’ father, J.J. Abrams, won two Primetime Emmy Awards as executive producer/director of Lost.
Ice Spice
The rapper, born Isis Naija Gaston, has landed four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023 thanks to collaborations with PinkPantheress (“Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2”) and past best new artist nominees Taylor Swift (“Karma”) and Nicki Minaj (“Princess Diana,” “Barbie World”). Ice Spice was nominated for best new artist at the 2023 BET Awards.
Jelly Roll
The rapper turned country artist had a star-making night in April at the CMT Music Awards, where he performed “Need a Favor” and won three trophies. Jelly Roll, born Jason Bradley DeFord, will turn 39 in December, which would make him the oldest individual nominee in this category since Andrea Bocelli, who was 40 when he was nominated 25 years ago.
Coco Jones
Jones won best new artist at the BET Awards, beating GloRilla and Ice Spice. The former child star was featured on Radio Disney’s The Next Big Thing in 2010-11 and starred in the Disney Channel film Let It Shine in 2012. Her breakthrough track, “ICU,” reached No. 63 on the Hot 100 in May. Jones was also featured on a track on Babyface’s 2022 album, Girls Night Out.
Noah Kahan
The singer-songwriter’s third album, Stick Season, vaulted to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 following the release of an expanded edition in June. It will probably be nominated for best Americana album or best folk album.
PinkPantheress
The British singer-songwriter was nominated for the rising star award at the Ivor Novello Awards in 2022. She won the BBC’s Sound of 2022 poll and has been nominated for three NME Awards. “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” reached No. 3 on the Hot 100.
Peso Pluma
The Mexican singer-songwriter-rapper born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija is vying to become the third Latin artist to be nominated in this category in the past five years, following Rosalía and Anitta. Génesis, his third studio album, entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3, becoming the highest-charting regional Mexican album to date.
Bailey Zimmerman
The singer-songwriter’s first studio album, Religiously. The Album, reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200. Zimmerman was nominated for new male artist of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in May.
Within Reach: Lola Brooke, Doechii, Fifty Fifty, FLO, HARDY, JVKE, Kelela, RAYE, Rema, Toosii, The War and Treaty, Hailey Whitters
This story will appear in the July 15, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The Recording Academy has always had rules and guidelines, dating back to its founding in 1957. In recent years, in a bid for greater transparency, and at the direction of Academy CEO Harvey Mason, jr., the Academy has posted its rules and guidelines online. It’s not a little digital pamphlet, either: It’s a 76-page document […]
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A lawsuit against Childish Gambino alleging that his hit track “This Is America” contained elements of another previously released song has been dismissed in court.
According to reports, the case concerning the Grammy Award-winning song from 2018 came to an end after Judge Victor Marrero declared a dismissal in a Manhattan courtroom last Friday (March 24). The lawsuit was brought by rapper Kidd Wes (aka Emelike Nwosuocha) in 2021, alleging that Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) committed copyright infringement on his 2016 song “Made In America.” Wes said the hook was “unmistakably substantially similar, if not practically identical,” to his track.
“A cursory comparison with the challenged composition reveals that the content of the choruses is entirely different and not substantially similar,” Judge Marrero said, explaining Kidd Wes’ song was more of a “short, simple, aggrandizing proclamation” as opposed to Glover’s song detailing “what America means and how it is perceived.” The lawsuit also named Roc Nation, composer Ludwig Göransson and Young Thug as co-defendants.
Another factor in the decision made by Judge Marrero involved a discrepancy in how Kidd Wes registered the copyright for the song with the United States Library of Congress. The court ruled that his copyright claim isn’t valid because his registration certificate only covers the sound recording and doesn’t cover the music of the song.
“Even if Nwosuocha had a copyright registration for the composition of Plaintiff’s Composition, however, dismissal would be warranted here because the elements of Plaintiff’s Composition purportedly infringed upon are insufficiently original to warrant protection, or because they are not substantially similar to the Challenged Composition,” Marrero said.
The legal team for Kidd Wes issued a statement after the decision, saying that the artist is disappointed and is contemplating an appeal. “He stands by his music, creativity, and the independence of grassroots artists to create their own music, and receive credit where credit is due, without the fear of it being apportioned by another,” attorneys Imran H. Ansari and La’Shawn N. Thomas said.
A lawyer for Glover, Jonathan D. Davis, said in a statement: “We are very grateful for the court’s decision. No case existed here, as there was no infringement—let alone a copyright registration. That was obvious from a simple comparison of the two songs and a review of the U.S. Copyright Office records.”
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Photo: Getty