Grammys
Page: 13
The 2025 Grammys are still set for Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena, the Recording Academy announced on Monday (Jan. 13). There was some question whether the show would go on as scheduled, given the wildfires that have devastated many neighborhoods in the greater Los Angeles area in the past week.
Other Grammy Week events, such as the MusiCares Person of the Year event and the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Awards, are up in the air at this point.
In a statement, Recording Academy and MusiCares CEO Harvey Mason Jr. addressed the trauma that has befallen the region since the first fires broke out on Tuesday Jan. 7, whipped by ferocious Santa Ana winds. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. This city is our home, and we mourn the loss of life and destruction that have come to it in recent days.
“In close coordination with local authorities to ensure public safety and responsible use of area resources, the 67th Grammy Awards telecast on CBS on Feb. 2 will proceed as planned. This year’s show, however, will carry a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honoring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours.”
Those local authorities reportedly include the office of Mayor Karen Bass, public safety agencies and fire marshals. “In challenging times, music has the power to heal, comfort, and unite like nothing else,” Mason added. “The Grammys will not only honor the artistry and achievements of our music community but also serve as a platform to amplify the spirit of resilience that defines this great city of Los Angeles.”
The show will be produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for the Recording Academy for the fifth consecutive year. Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor and Jesse Collins are executive producers. The show will be broadcast live on CBS from 8 to 11:30 p.m. ET/5 to 8:30 p.m. PT, and will be available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+.
Winston, Kapoor and Collins will have the very difficult task of somehow combining an awards show, which is a joyous celebration of achievement, with something far more serious and sobering.
Not everyone thinks it can, or should, be done. A major ancillary Grammy event, the Milk & Honey party, was canceled on Jan. 12 with a pointed message on founder Lucas Keller’s Instagram Story. “I regret that we will be canceling our annual award season pre-Grammy event in partnership with Reservoir and others. … It would be tone deaf to celebrate and I hope all other companies will follow suit,” he wrote. “Don’t come to town for the Grammy’s and take up hotels that people need desperately. Release your hotel blocks or donate them. In the meantime, if you can, please give money to MusiCares at this link to support wildlife relief. Everything counts.”
The Recording Academy and MusiCares launched the Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort last week with an initial $1 million donation to support music creatives and professionals. “Thanks to additional contributions, we have already distributed over $2 million in emergency aid to those most in need – and we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing ongoing assistance,” Mason and Hurt said in their statement. This is the third time in the last five years that the Grammy telecast has been impacted by outside events. The 2021 and 2022 shows were both postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 show was bumped from Jan. 31 to March 14. The 2022 ceremony was pushed all the way from Jan. 31 to April 3, and its location was moved to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, due to scheduling conflicts with the Crypto.com Arena.
The Recording Academy has yet to announce the host of this year’s Grammys. The announcement was expected last week, but has been delayed to avoid stepping on the main news about whether the show was going to proceed or not. The announcement is expected soon.
Beyoncé is the top nominee for the 67th annual Grammy Awards with 11 nods, followed by Charli XCX and Post Malone with eight nods each, and Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar with seven nods each. Final-round voting closed on Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. PT.
The wildfires that have been devouring multiple neighborhoods in the greater Los Angeles area for the last five days have caused so much misery and heartbreak for so many that it may seem trifling to point out the impact they have had on awards season. But it’s not. Awards shows aren’t just about privileged celebrities, but also about the thousands of everyday people who make their livings in support roles — caterers, bartenders, limo drivers, hairstylists, make-up artists and many more.
The latest show to be affected by the fires is the Producers Guild of America Awards. The nominations were set to be announced on Sunday (Jan. 12) at noon PT, but have been pushed to next week. “Out of care and concern for those being affected by the fires, we will be holding the announcement of the PGA award nominees until next week,” the guild said in a statement on Sunday.
The big question is whether the Grammys will go forward on Feb. 2, which is just three weeks away. Billboard has reached out to the Recording Academy; an answer is expected this week.
Trending on Billboard
If the show is postponed, this will be the third time in the past five years that Music’s Biggest Night has been pushed back due to outside events. The 2021 and 2022 shows were both postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 show was bumped from Jan. 31 to March 14. The 2022 ceremony was pushed all the way from Jan. 31 to April 3.
The Oscars are set for March 2, which gives the Motion Picture Academy and the show’s producers more breathing room. The fires have already impacted the Oscars voting schedule. Academy CEO Bill Kramer wrote a letter to all Academy members on Wednesday (Jan. 8), one day after the first fires exploded.
“Given the fire situation, we want to share some updates regarding an extension to the Oscars nominations voting window… Nominations voting for the 97th Oscars opened this morning at 9 a.m. PT. We will be extending the voting window by two days to give members more time to cast their ballots. Voting will now close on Tuesday, January 14 at 5 p.m. PT. As such, our Oscars Nominations Announcement will move from Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19.”
Other shows have also been impacted. The Critics Choice Awards, which were set to air live on E! tonight, were postponed to Jan. 26. (It is unknown if they will be able to proceed on that date.) The show was to be held at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., which is located just a few miles from Pacific Palisades, where the fires originated.
In retrospect, the Golden Globes, held one week ago at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, were extremely lucky. The show concluded just 38 hours before L.A.’s wind and fire nightmare began.
Songwriters Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon and RAYE will not be attending or performing at Spotify’s Songwriter of the Year Grammy party slated for Jan. 28, with Allen and Dillon citing Spotify’s treatment of songwriters as the reason for their absence. As a result, four out of five nominees in the Songwriter of the Year category at this year’s Grammys will be opting out of the event. (A representative for the fifth, Edgar Barrera, has not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment.)
Representatives for Allen (“Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Adore You” by Harry Styles and “greedy” by Tate McRae) and Dillon (“10,000 Hours” by Dan + Shay, “Lies Lies Lies” by Morgan Wallen and “Am I Okay?” by Megan Moroney) confirmed to Billboard that they both made the decision not to attend due to Spotify cutting royalty rates on premium streams for songwriters and publishers in April of last year, which Billboard estimated will lead to a $150 million decrease in royalties over 12 months compared to how much they would have made had the royalty rate not been reconfigured.
Trending on Billboard
Spotify believes it qualifies for a lower mechanical royalty rate for songwriters and publishers because it has added audiobooks to its premium subscription tiers and reclassified those services as “bundles,” with multiple services included in one price. Now, the royalty originally intended for songwriters and publishers alone is split between paying for music and audiobooks.
“After some thought, I couldn’t in good conscience support this initiative given their approach to bundling royalties,” said Dillon in a statement to Billboard. “It is very nice to be individually honored, but it is better for me and my entire songwriter community to be paid fairly for our art. There are no songs without songwriters.”
A representative for RAYE (“Escapism.” by RAYE, “Dancing With a Stranger” by Sam Smith & Normani, “Secrets” by One Republic) says the singer/songwriter never committed to attending or performing at this event, so “there’s nothing for her to back out of at present,” but adds that RAYE has been “an outspoken advocate on behalf of songwriters’ rights igniting an industry-wide dialogue on the topic.” A representative for Alexander (“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” by Luke Combs, “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus, “You, Me and Whiskey” by Justin Moore & Priscilla Block) confirmed to Billboard that she will not be attending the event but did not provide a reason for dropping out.
A representative for Spotify declined Billboard’s request for comment.
Spotify started its Songwriter of the Year Grammy event to celebrate the nominees for the prestigious writing award, which the Recording Academy established in 2023. Each Songwriter of the Year nominee has been invited to take the stage at Spotify party and sing the songs they wrote for other artists in a room full of their peers.
Other songwriters have taken to social media to express their dismay about Spotify’s upcoming event after receiving Save the Dates from the streamer. Songwriter Ross Golan said, via an Instagram Story, “If you are a songwriter, you cannot go to this. Do not let Spotify f— you on bundling and then give you free booze.” A 2023 Grammy Songwriter of the Year nominee Laura Veltz said in her own Instagram Story, “Spotify is robbing you. Songwriters: do not fall for this horse s—.”
In April 2024, Spotify officially added audiobooks as an offering to its premium tiers (which include premium, family and duo plans). By adding audiobooks, the streaming service claimed it now qualifies to pay a discounted so-called “bundle” rate to songwriters for premium, duo and family tier streams.
At the time, a Spotify representative said that “changes in our product portfolio mean that we are paying out in different ways based on terms agreed to by both streaming services and publishers” and called its decision to reclassify premium tiers as bundles as “consistent” with “multiple [other] DSPs.” Other competitors like Apple Music and Amazon Music do have bundled offerings — including Amazon bundling Prime and Amazon Music and Apple bundling Apple Music and Apple News — but Spotify’s move to make its popular premium tiers into bundles has a much larger impact than its competitors, given that Spotify is the most popular streaming service in the U.S. and the premium tiers are a widely used offering.
“Spotify is on track to pay publishers and societies more in 2024 than in 2023,” the Spotify representative added at the time, citing the company’s Loud and Clear report that says the streamer has paid nearly $4 billion to publishers, PROs and collection societies in the last two years.
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), and various songwriters did not take the news lightly. The MLC filed a lawsuit against Spotify in May, claiming the streamer “improperly” classified its premium tiers as bundles. The NMPA’s CEO/president David Israelite said Spotify had “declare[d] war” on songwriters and launched a multi-faceted attack that included sending a cease-and-desist for unlicensed lyrics, video and podcast content; unveiling a legislative proposal; and filing complaints with the FTC and nine other consumer trade groups.
Israelite has also voiced his disapproval over Spotify’s Songwriter of the Year party, saying in an Instagram post: “Is this a joke? Spotify declares war on songwriters. Is attempting to gut what they pay them. Is being sued by the MLC. And they think they can throw a party honoring songwriters? I’m at a loss for words. Actually, I’m not. Hubris. Audacity. Crassness. Hypocritical. Cynical. Forward this and add your own word.”
Sabrina Carpenter‘s road to Grammy-nominated pop star wasn’t short — but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been sweet. In a new interview with People published Wednesday (Jan. 8), the 25-year-old pop star opened up about the long road she had to take before she was ever considered for best new artist by the Recording Academy, […]
Nominees: André3000’s New Blue Sun, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, Charli XCX’s BRAT, Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department
Analysis: All of these contenders were nominated in their “genre album” categories except for Collier’s album, which was passed over for a nod for best pop vocal album. That’s not a good sign: No album has won album of the year without at least being nominated in its genre album category since the introduction of genre album categories in the mid-1990s.
Cowboy Carter, which is nominated for best country album, would be the first country album to win album of the year since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour six years ago. BRAT, nominated for best dance/electronic album, would be the first album from that genre to win album of the year since Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories in 2014. New Blue Sun, nominated for best alternative jazz album, would be the first jazz album to win album of the year since Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters in 2008.
Swift has won four times in this category. She won most recently just last year for Midnights. If she wins again, she’ll become the first five-time winner in this category and just the third act in Grammy history to win back-to-back awards in this category, following Frank Sinatra (1966-67) and Stevie Wonder (1974-75).
Eilish and André 3000 have each won once in this category, André 3000 as a member of OutKast. If he wins, he’ll become the third former member of a group or duo to win for a solo debut album, following George Michael (Faith, 1989) and Lauryn Hill (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, 1999).
Roan would be the first artist to win for their first studio album since Billie Eilish won five years ago for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Cowboy Carter features a large and diverse cast of featured artists, including pop legends Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder and country greats Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. Other artists featured on the album include Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Shaboozey, Jon Batiste, Gary Clark Jr., The-Dream, Rhiannon Giddens, Pharrell, Nile Rodgers and Raphael Saadiq. If those artists, and people in their camps, vote for Cowboy Carter, that could help make the difference in a close race.
On Christmas Day, midway through the final-round voting period (Dec. 12-Jan. 3), Bey headlined the halftime show at a Texans-Ravens NFL game in her hometown of Houston, Texas. This marked the first time she had performed songs from Cowboy Carter in front of a live audience. Millions watched the performance live on Netflix and millions more streamed it afterwards.
This is the second time Swift and Beyoncé have gone head-to-head in this category. In 2010, Swift’s Fearless beat Bey’s I Am…Sasha Fierce. For the record, Bey’s subsequent losses in this category were to Beck, Adele and Harry Styles.
Few consider Cowboy Carter to be Beyoncé’s best album, but she’s overdue for a win in this category. Many would howl if Swift won a record-extending fifth award in this category before Beyoncé won her first. It would probably be in Swift’s best interest to lose this year and to be seen graciously applauding and cheering for Beyoncé. Eight years ago, Adele probably would have been better just off winning record and song of the year for “Hello” (as she did) and losing album of the year to Beyoncé’s Lemonade. When she swept all three awards for the second time, while Bey was passed over for album of the year for the third time, it was an uncomfortable moment – though Adele’s graciousness and generosity in that moment was heartening to see.
If Swift loses on Feb. 2, she just might have dodged a bullet. Would a record-extending fifth win be worth the aggravation of a thousand pieces saying “Beyoncé was robbed – again”?
Prediction: Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter
The Recording Academy made Beatlemaniacs happy on Nov. 8, when The Fab Four’s “Now and Then” was nominated for two awards – record of the year and best rock performance. But only the two living Beatles — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — are nominated for those awards. John Lennon, who died in 1980, and George Harrison, who died in 2001, are not.
Because Lennon and Harrison have each been dead for more than five years, they cannot meet the Grammy test for “new recordings” – “material that has been recorded within five years of the release date.” There is precedent for this. Nat “King” Cole was not nominated when daughter Natalie Cole won record of the year and best traditional pop performance in 1992 for their studio-created duet “Unforgettable.” He had died in 1965.
Trending on Billboard
Lennon’s last Grammy nomination was at the 1985 ceremony – best spoken word or non-musical recording for Heart Play (Unfinished Dialogue), a collab with Yoko Ono. The album, which reached No. 94 on the Billboard 200, consisted of excerpts from a Playboy magazine interview done shortly before Lennon’s death.
Harrison’s last Grammy nominations were at the 2004 ceremony, where Brainwashed, his posthumously released 12th and final studio album, was nominated for best pop vocal album. Two tracks from the album were also honored. “Marwa Blues” won best pop instrumental performance, while “Any Road” was nominated for best male pop vocal performance.
McCartney co-produced “Now and Then” with Giles Martin, the son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin, who produced the band’s four previous record of the year nominees, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be.” Martin also produced McCartney’s one post-Beatles record of the year nominee, “Ebony and Ivory,” a 1982 collab with Stevie Wonder.
Both McCartney and Giles Martin are nominated for record of the year as producers of the single, as are eight engineer/mixers and a mastering engineer – but not John and George.
Bonus factoid: If “Now and Then” wins record of the year, McCartney will complete his sweep of the Big Four awards, though it will have taken him longer to do so than any other act in Grammy history. He won best new artist in 1965 (with The Beatles), song of the year in 1967 for “Michelle” (in tandem with Lennon) and album of the year in 1968 for The Beatles’ landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Even before his death on Sunday (Dec. 29) at age 100, Jimmy Carter already seemed a shoo-in to win his fourth Grammy at the 67th Grammy Awards on Feb. 2. But with his death, his victory seems even more certain. Final-round Grammy voting continues through Friday (Jan. 3).
But one thing has changed with the former president’s death. Carter had seemed likely to set a new record as the oldest Grammy winner in history. Now, if he wins, the award will be posthumous. Technically, the oldest recipient will continue to be blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, who was 97 years and 221 days old on Feb. 13, 2011 when he won best traditional blues album for Joined at the Hip, a collab with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, a blues harmonica player. (Perkins died about six weeks later, on March 21, 2011.)
Carter is nominated for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording for Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration. The other nominees in the category are All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words (Guy Oldfield, producer), George Clinton’s …And Your Ass Will Follow, Dolly Parton’s Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones and Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra. (Oldfield, 55, is the only nominee in this category who’s under 75. Parton is 78, Streisand is 82 and Clinton is 83.)
Trending on Billboard
This will likely be Carter’s fourth win in this category, which will enable him to break out of a tie with poet Maya Angelou for the most wins in the category. Carter won in 2007 for Our Endangered Values, in 2016 for A Full Life: Reflections at 90 and in 2019 for Faith: A Journey for All. Angelou won in 1994 for On the Pulse of Morning, in 1996 for Phenomenal Woman and in 2003 for A Song Flung Up to Heaven.
Carter will also likely extend his record as the U.S. president with the most Grammy wins. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have each won two Grammys.
Carter was a late-comer to Grammy glory. He was 82 when he won his first Grammy. He had lost on his first three tries.
If you’re curious, the second-oldest person ever to win a Grammy is Tony Bennett, who was 95 years and 243 days old in 2022 when he won for best traditional pop vocal album for Love for Sale, a collab with Lady Gaga. (He died in 2023.) Third-oldest is comedian George Burns, who was 95 years and 31 days old in 1991 when he won best spoken word or non-musical recording album for Gracie: A Love Story, a salute to his wife and comedy partner Grace Allen. (He died in 1996.) Fourth-oldest is Carter, who was 94 and 132 days old in 2019 when he won best spoken word album for Faith: A Journey for All.
Kendrick Lamar was rap’s undoubted MVP of 2024 and Billboard‘s Greatest Pop Star of the Year, and Eminem thinks his epic run is going to continue into 2025. While Em and Lamar will be facing off in the best rap performance category at the 2025 Grammy Awards, Eminem believes that K. Dot is going to […]
In this, the last week of 2024, CBS will air two Grammy Greats specials, both co-hosted by CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King. Both shows will also stream on Paramount+. Here are details.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Grammy Greats: The Stories Behind the Songs
Air date: Friday, Dec. 27, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Co-hosted by King and four-time Grammy nominee Mickey Guyton, this two-hour special dives into the stories behind the winners of the Grammy for song of the year. The show will feature newly recorded interviews, previously aired performances and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.
Trending on Billboard
Featured songwriters and songs include Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald – “What a Fool Believes” (the 1980 winner), Sting’s “Every Breath You Take” (1984), Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’” (2002), John Mayer’s “Daughters” (2005), Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” (2008), Adele’s “Hello” (2017, co-written with Greg Kurstin), Billie Eilish and Finneas’ “Bad Guy” (2020) and Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” (2023).
Grammy Greats: The Most Memorable Moments
Air date: Sunday, Dec. 29, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Co-hosted by King and five-time Grammy winner Jimmy Jam, this two-hour special celebrates some of the most memorable moments in Grammy history. The show combines newly recorded interviews and previously aired performances and promises “a behind-the-scenes look at how the Grammy team responds to unexpected events.”
Featured artists include Brandi Carlile, Dua Lipa, Keith Urban, St. Vincent and Chris Martin.
The 67th annual Grammy Awards are set to air/stream on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+.
Charli XCX and Post Malone each received an additional nomination for the 2025 Grammys as art directors of their albums Brat and F-1 Trillion, respectively, on Friday (Dec. 20). The albums were included in the best recording package category when the nominations were announced on Nov. 8, but the artists weren’t credited as art directors. […]