Grammys
Page: 11
Miley Cyrus was a ride-or-die pal of Beyoncé‘s long before their “II Most Wanted” collaboration dropped on the latter’s Cowboy Carter earlier this year.
And in her new W Magazine cover story published Monday (June 3), the “Flowers” singer opened up about how her yearslong friendship with Queen Bey indirectly inspired their decision to team up on the country-Western duet. “I wrote that song, like, two and a half years ago,” she said of “II Most Wanted,” which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April. “When Beyoncé reached out to me about music, I thought of it right away because it really encompasses our relationship.”
“I told her, ‘We don’t have to get country; we are country. We’ve been country,’” she continued. “Getting to write a song, not just sing, for Beyoncé was a dream come true.”
Trending on Billboard
Cyrus added that she’s been tight with the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer since they both participated in a 2008 performance for Stand Up to Cancer alongside Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and more female stars. “I was sandwiched between Beyoncé and Rihanna,” she recalled, noting that she was just 14 at the time. “They were protective of me.”
The Hannah Montana alum added that she often chats with Bey over text, sometimes discussing the similarities between their moms. “I think it’s a really cute part of our relationship, because over the past couple of years, I’ve really locked down on my privacy and on what I share with the public,” Cyrus told the publication. “She’s the same way. Part of our relationship is the safety between us.”
Both women were present at the 2024 Grammys in February, where Cyrus won awards for the first time, thanks to “Flowers” nabbing both best pop solo performance and record of the year. In the interview, the “Wrecking Ball” musician was candid about the milestone, revealing that she feels as though the recognition was long overdue.
“No shade, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is my first time actually being taken seriously at the Grammys,” she said. “I’ve had a hard time figuring out what the measurement is there, because if we want to talk stats and numbers, then where the f–k was I? And if you want to talk, like, impact on culture, then where the f–k was I? This is not about arrogance. I am proud of myself.”
See Cyrus’ W cover, plus photos from the shoot, below.
Miley Cyrus Covers W Magazine’s Volume 3, The Pop Issue
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Miley Cyrus
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Miley Cyrus
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Nineteen people have been elected or re-elected to the Recording Academy’s 42-member board of trustees, including Taylor Hanson, a member of the brother trio Hanson, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 with “MMMBop”; Sara Gazarek, who won her first Grammy on Feb. 4 for helping to arrange a new version of the classic “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”; and publishing veteran Mike Knobloch, president of music and publishing at NBCUniversal. Their terms took effect on Saturday (June 1).
“I’m honored to welcome this amazing group of creatives to our board of trustees,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Our board’s expertise and dedication to helping music people everywhere has been essential to all we have achieved at the Academy. However, the work never stops, and I look forward to working alongside our new and current trustees on ways we can continue to provide guidance for our music community.”
Trending on Billboard
Of the 42 trustees that serve on the national board, 30 are elected by the chapter board of governors (15 each year) and eight are elected directly by voting and professional members of the Academy (four each year). The remaining four seats are comprised of the national trustee officers, who are elected by the board of trustees once every two years. The current national trustee officers, who are all currently midterm, are Tammy Hurt (chair), Dr. Chelsey Green (vice chair), Gebre Waddell (secretary/treasurer) and Christine Albert (chair emeritus).
“Welcoming our newly elected trustees is always such an exciting time at the Academy,” Hurt said in a statement. “With new ideas to contribute to our board and the eagerness to helping change music, I have no doubt that together this year’s board of trustees will continue our commitment to fostering a diverse and representative music industry.”
The 2024-25 board includes six Grammy winners, including two who just won prizes at the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 4. Those newly-minted winners are J. Ivy, who won best spoken word poetry album for the second year in a row for The Light Inside, and Gazarek, who won best arrangement, instruments and vocals for the aforementioned new version of “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” by säje featuring Jacob Collier.
The four other Grammy winners on the current board are Angélique Kidjo, who won her fifth Grammy two years ago, for best global music album for Mother Nature; songwriter Jonathan Yip, who won two Grammys six years ago for co-writing the Bruno Mars smash “That’s What I Like”; Ledisi, who won best traditional R&B performance three years ago for “Anything for You”; and Cheche Alara, who won best Latin pop album five years ago for Sincera.
Three members of the current board of trustees served on the Recording Academy’s all-important television committee for the 66th Grammy Awards: Alara, Hurt and Knobloch.
All positions on the board of trustees are subject to two, two-year term limits.
These newly elected or re-elected trustees joined the Academy’s midterm trustees to uphold the Academy’s mission, which the Academy says is “to serve and represent the music community at-large through its commitment to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, fight for creators’ rights, protect music people in need, preserve music’s history, and invest in its future.”
You can find the full list of the Academy’s board of trustees, chapter officers and bylaws here.
The full list of the Academy’s board of trustees is shown below. An asterisk signifies that they were elected or re-elected this year.
Cheche Alara*
Christine Albert
Marcella Araica
Julio Bagué
Nikisha Bailey*
Larry Batiste
Marcus Baylor
Jennifer Blakeman*
Evan Bogart
Torae Carr*
Dani Deahl*
Maria Egan*
Fletcher Foster*
Anna Frick
EJ Gaines*
Kennard Garrett
Sara Gazarek*
Tracy Gershon
Dr. Chelsey Green
Dave Gross*
Jennifer Hanson
Taylor Hanson*
Justin “Henny” Henderson*
Tammy Hurt
J. Ivy
Terry Jones*
Angelique Kidjo
Mike Knobloch*
Ledisi
Eric Lilavois
Susan Marshall
Riggs Morales
Donn Thompson Morelli “Donn T”
Ms. Meka Nism*
Ashley Shabankareh*
Ken Shepherd*
Jessica Thompson*
Gebre Waddell
Paul Wall
Wayna
Tamara Wellons*
Jonathan Yip
The early returns are excellent for Billie Eilish’s third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. The album enters the Billboard 200 at No. 2 with 339,000 equivalent album units — Eilish’s largest week to date by units earned. Of that sum, 191,000 are traditional album sales — her best sales week yet. Critical response has […]
The 67th annual Grammy Awards are set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Crypto.com Arena, formerly known as Staples Center, has hosted all but four Grammy telecasts since 2000. First-round voting, to determine the nominations, will be conducted from Oct. 4 to Oct. 15. Nominations will be […]
Controversy over winners and losers has been part of the Grammy experience since the very first presentations, which took place on May 4, 1959 — 65 years ago today. The biggest controversy that year had to do with a disappointing showing by Frank Sinatra, who was coming off one of the biggest years of his long career. He had two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in 1958 — Come Fly with Me and Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Sinatra was the year’s top Grammy nominee, with six nods, including two for album of the year (the aforementioned albums) and two for best vocal performance, male (Come Fly with Me and “Witchcraft”). The star wound up winning just one award — and it wasn’t even for his singing. He took best album cover for his art direction of Only the Lonely.
Sinatra attended the event, which was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. — now best known for hosting the Golden Globes every year. (There was a simultaneous event in New York City for East Coast denizens.) Other attendees at the Beverly Hilton included Sinatra’s fellow Rat Pack members Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, as well as fellow nominees Henry Mancini and Peggy Lee. Comedian Mort Sahl served as MC.
Sinatra’s two nods for album of the year no doubt worked against him in that category. (The rules have since been changed so an artist can only have one nomination as a lead artist in most categories.) The award went to Mancini for The Music from Peter Gunn. The album featured music from a weekly TV detective series that debuted in September 1958 and ran for three seasons. (Mancini’s album was released after the Dec. 31, 1958 eligibility cut-off for the 1958 awards. It’s a mystery how it was nominated in the first place. It was probably just a goof that slipped by the small staff at the fledgling Recording Academy. The many tools that people use today to quickly check facts didn’t exist back then, an era of rotary phones and 3 x 5 cards.)
In addition to album of the year, Mancini won best arrangement for that same album. Mancini went on to win 20 Grammys, which was, for many years, the most won by any artist. (That title is currently held by Beyoncé with 33 awards.)
Perry Como‘s silky “Catch a Falling Star” won best vocal performance, male, beating the two Sinatra entries. “Witchcraft” and “Catch a Falling Star” were both nominated for record of the year, but lost to Domenico Modugno‘s lounge music staple “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare).”
In addition to record of the year, Modugno took song of the year for “Volare,” which is, to this day, the only foreign-language song to win record or song of the year. “Volare” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in 1958, though Modugno landed just one more Hot 100 entry, a song that peaked at No. 97.
There were just 28 categories at the first Grammys, the lowest number ever. There were five double winners — Mancini, Modugno, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Ross Bagdasarian Sr., the creator of The Chipmunks.
Fitzgerald won two awards for different installments of her celebrated Song Book series, a fitting tribute to this versatile singer. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book won best vocal performance, female. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book took best jazz performance, individual.
Count Basie won awards in different genres for the same album (something that couldn’t happen today). He took best performance by a dance band and best jazz performance, group, both for Basie.
Bagdasarian won best comedy performance and best recording for children, both for “The Chipmunk Song,” which was a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. The smash was also nominated for record of the year. It is, to this day, the only children’s or comedy recording to be nominated in that category.
The Grammys were the last of the four EGOT-level awards shows to get underway, arriving a little more than a decade after the third of the four, the Emmys, rolled out. The first Oscars were presented on May 16, 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The first Tony Awards were presented on April 6, 1947 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The first Primetime Emmys were presented on Jan. 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
The first Grammys were a black-tie affair. “The Grammy Awards were a formal event from the beginning and very much in keeping with the times,” Christine Farnon, who was instrumental in organizing the first show, was quoted as saying in the 2007 coffee table book, And the Grammy Goes To… The Official Story of Music’s Most Coveted Award, written by David Wild. “As I recall, no one objected to dressing black-tie back then, though like so much else, that would change eventually.” Farnon went on to be the academy’s executive vice president. She ran the academy for 35 years until her retirement in 1992 — an undersung pioneer for powerful women in the music industry.
Sinatra didn’t let his disappointing showing at the 1st annual Grammy Awards keep him down for long. He landed three more nominations the following year, and this time won album of the year for Come Dance with Me! He would win that award two more times, for September of My Years (1966) and A Man and His Music (1967). This made him the first two-time winner and also the first three-time winner. On Feb. 4, 2024, Taylor Swift became the first four-time winner.
Now that Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 and smashed sales records, thoughts turn to its next big test – how it will fare with Grammy voters.
If it is nominated for album of the year, Swift will become the first woman to receive seven album of the year nods, breaking out of a tie with Barbra Streisand, who received six nods from 1964-87. (All years in this story refer to the year of the Grammy ceremony.)
Trending on Billboard
Swift would be the sixth artist to land seven or more album of the year nominations – and just the second artist to reach that mark strictly with solo albums.
Paul McCartney is the leader with nine album of the year nods – five with The Beatles, one (Band on the Run) with Paul McCartney & Wings and three as a solo artist.
Frank Sinatra and George Harrison are next in line with eight album of the year nods. Sinatra scored with seven solo albums and one collab, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. Harrison scored with five Beatles albums; a solo album (All Things Must Pass); an all-star live album, The Concert for Bangla Desh, which was credited to George Harrison & Friends; and a Traveling Wilburys album (Volume One) on which he teamed with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.
Paul Simon follows with seven album of the year nods –- two with Simon & Garfunkel (Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water) and five on his own. Swift, if nominated, would pull into a tie with Simon for third place.
Swift’s last three studio albums, not counting her Taylor’s Versions re-recordings, were nominated for album of the year, though one of them just barely made it. The Recording Academy confirmed the accuracy of a New York Times report that Evermore placed ninth or 10th in the voting and was nominated only because, at the eleventh hour, the Academy expanded the field of nominees in each of the Big Four categories from eight to 10 that year (2022). After keeping the number of nominees at 10 the following year, the Academy returned to eight nominees in each of those categories for the telecast in February and will presumably hold it at that number for next year’s telecast, so Tortured Poets will have to do better than Evermore to be nominated. (Fittingly, that was a rather “tortured” explanation.)
If Tortured Poets is nominated, Swift will become the first artist to receive album of the year nominations with four consecutive official solo studio LPs since Kendrick Lamar (Swift’s colleague on “Bad Blood,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100) scored with good kid, m.A.A.d city, To Pimp a Butterfly, DAMN. and Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. The last artist before Lamar to achieve this feat was Billy Joel, who scored with 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain and An Innocent Man.
It’s of course way too early to know with any certainty if Swift will be nominated. Compared to Swift’s recent releases, the new album has drawn somewhat mixed reviews. The album has a 76 rating on Metacritic.com, the review aggregation site. That’s a bit below the marks registered by her four previous studio albums (excluding Taylor’s Version albums). Lover had a 79, folklore an 88, and evermore and Midnights, both an 85. (An expanded version of the new album, dubbed The Anthology, has a lower rating, 69.)
Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz took stock of Swift’s album in a thoughtful review headlined, “Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Is Messy, Unguarded and Undeniably Triumphant: Critic’s Take.” Here are the first four paragraphs from Lipshutz’s review, which posted on April 19, the day the album was released.
“One of the constants of Taylor Swift’s storied career has been the chances she’s taken at the precise moment when taking a chance wasn’t necessary. She was a country superstar who didn’t need to go pop; she was less than a year removed from a major pop album and didn’t need to take an indie-folk detour; she was in the middle of a blockbuster run of new albums and didn’t need to re-record her old ones.
“Time and again, Swift has identified artistic opportunities that other stars would have blanched at (or at the very least, set aside for a different time, so as to not muck up any professional momentum), and she has leapt into them fearlessly, always coming out on top.
“So right now — in the middle of a mega-selling stadium tour, after a record-breaking fourth album of the year Grammy win, in a high-profile new romance and at the commercial zenith of an already all-time career — is, naturally, the time Swift has chosen to release a knowingly messy, wildly unguarded breakup album.
“She didn’t have to do this! But then again, making an album like The Tortured Poets Department is exactly what separates Swift from her more careful peers. Challenging herself to shape-shift, to accomplish something new at the moment anyone else would rest on their laurels, is what makes her so fascinating.”
Other albums that are seen as front-runners for album of the year nominations include Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine and Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manana. Upcoming albums that are seen as likely prospects include Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism (due May 3) and Billie Eilish’s Hurt Me Hard & Soft (due May 17). The eligibility period ends Sept. 15.
If both Beyoncé and Swift are nominated, this will be the second time the two superstars have faced off in this category. In 2010, Swift’s Fearless beat Bey’s I Am…Sasha Fierce.
Could Swift possibly win her record-extending fifth award in the category? I have learned to never say never, especially when it concerns Swift at the Grammys. But more than a few Grammy watchers would howl if Swift won a fifth album of the year award before Beyoncé won her first in the category.
It would probably be better for Swift if she lost the big one and was seen leading the cheers for Beyoncé. If that does happen – and at this moment, it seems the likeliest scenario – this would be the third time in Grammy history that there has been a reversal of fortune in the top category, where there was a different outcome in a rematch.
At the first Grammy Awards in May 1959, Henry Mancini won album of the year for The Music From Peter Gunn, his jazzy score to the TV detective series of the same name. It beat a pair of Frank Sinatra albums, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and Come Fly With Me. (Did the double nominations cause Sinatra to “split his votes”? We’ll never know for sure, but the rules have since been changed so that an artist can be nominated with only one album as the lead artist in any one year.)
Mancini and Sinatra competed again at the second Grammy Awards in November 1959 (yes, there were two ceremonies that year) with the opposite result. Sinatra’s Come Dance With Me! beat More Music From Peter Gunn, a sequel to Mancini’s album.
Sinatra and The Beatles competed for album of the year three years in a row, 1966-68. Sinatra’s highly regarded thematic album September of My Years (which contained the classic “It Was a Very Good Year”) won the award in 1966, beating The Beatles’ Help! soundtrack. Sinatra’s A Man and His Music, a two-disc career retrospective, won the award in 1967, beating The Beatles’ Revolver. (That victory by Ol’ Blue Eyes is harder to defend, since his album was a career recap, and Revolver was another step forward by a group that was growing by leaps and bounds.) In 1968, The Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band beat Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, the singer’s widely admired collab with the architect of the bossa nova sound.
Swift co-produced her new album with Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner and Patrik Berger. Antonoff has been nominated for producer of the year, non-classical the last five years running – and has won the last three years in a row.
If Antonoff is nominated again this year, he’ll be the first producer or production team to be nominated six years in a row since Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who were nominated each year from 2001-2006. Moreover, if he is nominated again, Antonoff will become one of just five producers or production teams to land six or more producer of the year nods (whether consecutive or nod). He will join Jam & Lewis (11 total nods), Quincy Jones (eight), David Foster (eight) and Babyface (six).
If Antonoff wins in that category again early next year, he’ll become the first producer to ever win four years in a row. Babyface is the only producer to win four times – in 1993 (with L.A. Reid) and then on his own from 1996-98.
Celine Dion is opening up about her surprise appearance at the Grammys earlier this year, which marked the singer’s first appearance since being diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder Stiff Persons Syndrome in late 2022.
In a video with Vogue France, in which Dion recounts memories she associates with some of her favorite fashion moments of her career (including singing “My Heart Will Go On” at the Academy Awards and performing at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards), she also recalls her experience at the Grammys in February.
Trending on Billboard
“It was very nerve-racking, but at the same time, a big honor,” Dion told the outlet. “That magic, that excitement. To see the fans, to see the crowd, to see show business again.” She added: “It took a lot, a lot out of me. But my son, René Charles, RC, came and gave me his support.”
[embedded content]
Dion also addressed one of the most-talked-about moments from the evening, when Dion presented Taylor Swift the Grammy for album of the year for Midnights. Swift drew criticism for seemingly ignoring Dion while accepting her Grammy onstage.
“To present the award, the album of the year, to Taylor Swift, it was an honor because she’s having the time of her life and I’m the one who’s presenting it to her. But it’s always very, very touching when you have a standing ovation,” Dion said.
Though Swift garnered backlash in the moment, photos from backstage seemed to tell a different story, as one image depicted Swift and Dion posing together and smiling, with Swift hugging Dion.
In Dion’s Vogue France cover story, the five-time Grammy winner noted that she was honored to be in the spotlight for Vogue France at age 55.
“I’m very proud that, at 55, I’ve been asked to reveal my beauty,” Dion said. “But what is beauty? Beauty is you, it’s me, it’s what’s inside, it’s our dreams, it’s today. Today, I’m a woman who is feeling strong and positive about the future. One day at a time.”
Dion previously had to postpone her tour dates for 2023 due to her diagnosis, and says her plans for returning to performing are vague at the moment.
“I’ve been saying to myself that I’m not going back, that I’m ready, that I’m not ready,” Dion said. “As things stand, I can’t stand here and say to you: ‘Yes, in four months.’ I don’t know. … My body will tell me. On the other hand, I don’t just want to wait. It’s morally hard to live from day to day. It’s hard, I’m working very hard, and tomorrow will be even harder. Tomorrow is another day, but there’s one thing that will never stop, and that’s the will. It’s the passion. It’s the dream. It’s the determination.”
Beyoncé and Taylor Swift will probably find themselves going head-to-head in one or more categories when the nominations for the 67th annual Grammy Awards are announced later this year. Beyoncé is a lock to be nominated for album of the year for March’s Cowboy Carter. Swift is also likely to be nominated in that category […]
As has been widely critiqued here and elsewhere, Beyoncé has yet to win album of the year. She was previously nominated for I Am…Sasha Fierce in 2010 (lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless), Beyoncé in 2015 (lost to Beck’s Morning Phase), Lemonade in 2017 (lost to Adele’s 25) and Renaissance in 2023 (lost to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House). The fact that she lost to a white artist in each case has not escaped notice.On “Sweet Honey Buckiin’,” a track on the new album, Beyoncé addresses her album of the year (AOTY) track record. “A-O-T-Y, I ain’t win/ I ain’t stuntin’ ’bout them,” she raps. “Take that s—t on the chin/ Come back and f—k up the pen.”
In accepting an honorary award on the Grammy telecast on Feb. 4, Jay-Z “went there” and bluntly addressed her losses.
Looking at his wife, who was standing in the audience, he said, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys, never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.”
He then doubled down by saying, “When I get nervous, I tell the truth.”
Jay’s calling out the Grammys, right there on the Grammy stage, was a moment of high drama. Never mind that many other artists with large numbers of Grammys have never won album of the year, including Jay himself (24), Kanye West (also 24), Vince Gill (22) and Bruce Springsteen (20).
Because of all the attention Beyoncé’s repeated losses for album of the year have received, Recording Academy voters may feel unspoken pressure to finally give her the big one. It will be hard for voters to be totally objective when they have so much Grammy history on their minds, but that’s how it often works with awards.
Should Bey win for Cowboy Carter, it would be her first win on her fifth try. No one else in Grammy history has ever won for the first time on their fifth nomination in the category. Seven artists won for the first time on their third nod – Frank Sinatra (who received two nods in the Grammys’ first year), The Beatles, Whitney Houston, Steely Dan, Ray Charles, Dixie Chicks and Beck.
If Beyoncé finally wins, Sting, Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar will remain as the only artists to go 0-4 as lead artists for album of the year. Sting’s tally includes the final studio album by The Police. Gaga’s includes her second collab album with Tony Bennett. The tallies for West and Lamar include just solo studio albums. (Lamar’s tally does not count the Black Panther soundtrack, which was also nominated, but on which he was credited as a featured artist, not the lead artist.)
Why has Beyoncé’s 0-4 track record in this category attracted so much more attention than these four other artists’ identical records? Discuss amongst yourselves.
As Jay-Z pointed out at the Grammys in February, Beyoncé has been nominated for album of the year four times but has never won — despite the fact that she’s the awards show’s winningest artist of all time, taking home 32 trophies from 88 nominations. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast (listen below), Katie […]