Grammys
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Barbra Streisand is among the top contenders for a Grammy nomination for best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording category for the audiobook of her long-awaited memoir, My Name Is Barbra. That was also the title of her first TV special in 1965, for which she won a Primetime Emmy (outstanding individual achievements in entertainment – actors and performers), and a companion album for which she won a Grammy (best vocal performance, female).
Streisand received a life achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Feb. 24, one of many such awards she has won. At the Grammys, she is one of just two women (Aretha Franklin is the other) to have won both a lifetime achievement award and a Grammy legend award.
This category usually yields one of most eclectic groups of nominees on the Grammy ballot – and so it will likely be again this year. The two most certain nominees would appear to be former president Jimmy Carter’s Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration and Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. On Oct. 1, Carter became the first U.S. president in history to reach the age of 100. Perry died in October 2023 at age 54 after a long struggle with drug dependency – “the big terrible thing” in the title of his memoir.
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This would be Carter’s 10th nomination in the category, which would extend his record as the person with the most nods in the history of the category (which dates to the first Grammy ceremony in 1959). Should he win, it would be his fourth win in the category, which would enable him to break out of a tie with poet Maya Angelou as the person with the most wins in the category. Carter previously won for Our Endangered Values (2007), A Full Life: Reflections at 90 (2016) and Faith: A Journey for All (2019).
Perry received five Primetime Emmy nominations – including one for his iconic role as Chandler Bing on Friends.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a good chance at a nomination for The Art of Power. She would become the first current or former House Speaker to be nominated in this category. Grammy voters lean Democratic and this would give them a chance to salute the longtime leader, who was the first woman elected as House Speaker. She served from 2007-11 and again from 2019-23.
Questlove is a strong contender with Hip-Hop Is History. The hip-hop icon has been nominated twice in this category, with Creative Quest (2019) and Music Is History (2023). Questlove won both an Oscar and a Grammy for directing the acclaimed documentary, Summer of Soul.
And that’s how fast five slots fill up. There are many other strong contenders on the entry list of 145 entries should any of these presumed front-runners fall short.
Jill Biden‘s Willow the White House Cat could easily make it. Former first ladies Hillary Rodham Clinton (as she was known when she won) and Michelle Obama each won in this category. (Obama won twice.) Many Grammy voters will want to salute the Bidens as Joe Biden’s presidency winds down. But this particular audiobook may seem a little slight. Some voters may prefer to wait for the audiobook of her expected memoir chronicling her life in the public eye.
Dolly Parton’s Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones could also make the grade. The country queen was nominated in at least one category in 36 of the Grammys’ first 66 years, a remarkable show of sustained voter appeal. She has been nominated in each of the last five years. But she has yet to be nominated in this category.
Three past winners in this category are on this year’s entry list. In addition to former president Carter, they are TV hosts Rachel Maddow and Stephen Colbert. Maddow is entered with Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism; Colbert with Life, a collab with Father John Quigley.
Maddow won in this category in 2021 with Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rouge State Russia and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth. (It didn’t win for Snappiest Title.) Colbert won in 2014 for America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t, from the period when he was parodying a right-wing, blowhard commentator on The Colbert Report.
Mariah Carey’s A Portrait of a Portrait could be a contender, though Carey hasn’t been nominated in any category since 2008.
Britney Spears didn’t narrate the audiobook for her best-selling memoir The Woman in Me. Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams did, and is entered here. Fun Fact: The Woman in Me topped the New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction best-seller list, blocking My Name Is Barbra from reaching the top spot.
My Name Is Barbra isn’t the only case where a music star repurposed one of their old titles. Michael McDonald is entered with his audiobook What a Fool Believes, which he titled after The Doobie Brothers’ classic, which won Grammys for record and song of the year in 1979.
Many other titles by musicians are on the list, including George Clinton’s …And Your Ass Will Follow; Willow Smith’s Black Shield Maiden; gospel star Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s Do It Anyway: Don’t Give Up Before It Gets Good; Geddy Lee’s My Effin’ Life; Thurston Moore’s Sonic Life; Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Romy Ashby & Dennis Bousikaris’s Under a Rock; Tegan and Sara’s Under My Control; Jeff Tweedy’s World Within a Song: Music That Changes My Life and Life That Changed My Music; Jessie Reyez’s Words of a Goat Princess; John McEuen’s The Newsman: A Man of Record; Geri Halliwell-Horner’s Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen; and Jim Wilson’s Tuned In: Memoirs of a Piano Man – Behind-The-Scenes with Music Legends and Finding the Artist Within.
There are a number of titles by people from the worlds of politics and media on the list, including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life; Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s One Way Back; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s True Gretch; Doris Kearns Goodwin & Bryan Cranston’s An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s and Ali Velshi’s Small Acts of Courage.
Three past winners for best comedy album are on the entry list here. In addition to Colbert, they are Tiffany Haddish and Whoopi Goldberg. Haddish is entered with I Curse You With Joy. Goldberg has two entries on the list, Bits and Pieces and Camino Ghosts.
Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo is entered with Children of Anguish and Anarchy. Charlamagne tha God, who was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of The Breakfast Club, is entered with Get Honest or Die Lying. Nicole Avant, a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas (and the daughter of Clarence and Jacqueline Avant), is entered with Think You’ll Be Happy.
Works by TV stars on the list include Henry Winkler’s Being Henry; Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude; Michael Richards’ Entrances and Exits; Julianne Hough’s Everything We Never Knew; RuPaul’s The House of Hidden Meanings; John Stamos’ If You Would Have Told Me; Mo Rocca’s Roctogenarians; Dr. Phil’s We’ve Got Issues (he’s listed as Phillip C. McGraw, PHD); Bill Maher’s What This Comedian Said Will Shock You; Patrick Stewart’s Making It So: A Memoir; and George Takei’s My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story.
Three-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney is entered with Summer, 1976, a collab with Jessica Hecht. Other works by film stars on the list include Billy Dee Williams’ What Have We Here?: Portraits of a Life and Rebel Wilson’s Rebel Rising: A Memoir.
Sports figures on the list include Andia Winslow with Brittney Griner’s Coming Home and Deion Sanders’ Elevate and Dominate: 21 Ways to Win On and Off the Field.
And did we mention that novelist Salman Rushdie is on the list with Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder? We told you the list was eclectic.
Our Fearless Forecast
So, which five titles have the best chance to be nominated? Here’s my prediction (alphabetically by title): Nancy Pelosi’s The Art of Power, Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Questlove’s Hip-Hop Is History, Jimmy Carter’s Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration, Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra.
All Grammys count the same toward someone’s career Grammy total, but we all know they’re not really on an equal footing. Every media outlet on Earth will report the winners of album of the year and record of the year next Feb. 2, but good luck trying to find out who won best regional roots music album (we’ll have it, of course).
Some categories are far more competitive than others. There are 20 times as many entries in this year’s most populated category, song of the year (978), as in this year’s least populated categories, best traditional blues album and best gospel album, both of which have just 53 entries.
Since final-round voting for the 67th Grammy Awards opened Friday (Oct. 4), Grammy voters have been conscientiously poring over the entry lists for 89 of the 94 Grammy categories (or so Recording Academy leaders fervently hope). The nominees in the other five categories are determined by committees.
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The number of entries in five of the six categories in the General Field increased compared to last year. There are 780 entries for record of the year (up from 615 last year); 707 for album of the year (up from 476); 978 for song of the year (up from 642); 61 for songwriter of the year, non-classical (up from 58); and 200 for producer of the year, non-classical (up from 195).
The only General Field category that saw a drop in entries compared to last year is best new artist. There were 323 entries this year, down from 405 last year. That’s the smallest number of entries in this category in five years.
Note that the number of entries for songwriter of the year, non-classical, which is in its third year, is only about one-third of the number of entries for producer of the year, non-classical, which was introduced in 1974. That’s probably because of the newer category’s restrictive rules, which were intended to put the focus on songwriters who are not also artists or producers.
My main takeaway from this annual exercise – these categories are highly competitive. As noted, there are 978 songs vying for just eight slots in song of the year. When somebody says “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” they’re not just being polite. Okay, maybe they are, but it really is an honor. 970 eligible and entered songs this year will not be nominated for song of the year.
If you’re curious, the five categories where the nominations are determined by committees, rather than by voters at large, are best recording package, best boxed/special/limited edition package, best album notes, best historical album, best remixed recording and best immersive audio album. (The nominations in a sixth category, best remixed recording, were decided by committee last year, but this year the voters will make the determination.)
First-round voting for the 67th annual Grammy Awards opened on Friday (Oct. 4). Voters have until Oct. 15 to make their choices. Nominations will be announced on Nov. 8. Final-round voting runs from Dec. 12 through Jan. 3. The winners will be revealed on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Here are the 16 categories with most entries this year, and the 16 categories with the fewest. (Ties prompted us to bump up from 15 to 16 in both cases.)
Categories with the most entries
(in descending order)
Song of the year, 978
Record of the year, 780
Album of the Year, 707
Best music video, 637
Best global music performance, 456
Best engineered album, non-classical, 456
Best arrangement, instruments and vocals, 444
Best jazz performance, 420
Best instrumental composition, 395
Best American roots song, 373
Best alternative music performance, 331
Best new artist, 323
Best pop solo performance, 314
Best American roots performance, 310
Best Americana performance, 290
Best arrangement, instrumental or acapella, 290
Categories with the fewest entries
(in descending order)
Best contemporary blues album, 73
Best Latin jazz album, 73
Best music film, 72
Best R&B album, 70
Best choral performance, 67
Best classical solo vocal album, 64
Best large jazz ensemble album, 63
Songwriter of the year, non-classical, 61
Best bluegrass album, 61
Best regional roots music album, 61
Best roots gospel album, 60
Best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media, 59
Best musical theater album, 59
Best compilation soundtrack for visual media, 58
Best traditional blues album, 53
Best gospel album, 53
Milli Vanilli made Grammy history in 1990, becoming the first (and still the only) act to have a Grammy revoked. Their best new artist award was stripped from them after it became known that the duo hadn’t sung on their smash debut album Girl You Know It’s True.
But Milli Vanilli’s Grammy saga may not be over. The acclaimed documentary Milli Vanilli is among 72 films vying for a Grammy nomination for best music film. The award is given for concert/performance films or music documentaries. Awards are generally presented to the artist, video director and video producer, though we’ll have to wait for the announcement of the nominations on Nov. 8 to see exactly who is being nominated in each case this year. The entry list, from which voting members vote in the first-round of voting, shows the name of the artist in each case for identification purposes, but includes no director or producer credits.
Three past winners in the category are represented. The Beatles, who won for The Beatles Anthology (and had two subsequent titles also win in the category, though they didn’t personally win for those), are entered with Now and Then – The Last Beatles Song (Short Film). Michael Jackson, who won for Making Michael Jackson’s Thriller, is entered with Thriller 40. U2, which won for Zoo TV: Live From Sydney, is entered with Kiss the Future.
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Coldplay, who have been nominated three times in the category (though they have yet to win), is entered with Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate. The band’s Music of the Spheres album was nominated for album of the year and best pop vocal album last year.
Three past nominees in the category are entered again this year. The Beach Boys are entered with The Beach Boys; Bon Jovi with Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story; and Travis Tritt with Country Chapel. Jon Bon Jovi received the MusiCares Person of the Year honor on Feb. 2.
Taylor Swift/The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) is also entered. The doc documents one of the most successful concert tours of all time. Taylor Swift is the only four-time Grammy winner for album of the year and is almost certain to be back in the running in that category this year with The Tortured Poets Department.
The Greatest Night in Pop, which tells the story of the recording of the 1985 smash “We Are the World,” is entered. The film received a Primetime Emmy nomination for outstanding documentary or non-fiction special, but lost to Jim Henson Idea Man. Among the producers of the film: Lionel Richie, who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson, and Harriet Sternberg, a close associate of the late Ken Kragen, who spearheaded the project.
Jon Batiste’s American Symphony, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award for best documentary feature film late last year (though it wasn’t ultimately nominated), is also entered here. Meanwhile, Céline Dion, who performed on the Eiffel Tower in Paris at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics on July 26, is entered with I Am: Céline Dion.
Several films that are linked to albums that have received Grammy nominations in the past are still in the running. We’ve already told you about Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate. In addition, Lady Gaga, who was nominated for best pop vocal album four years ago for Chromatica, is entered with Gaga Chromatica Ball, and Lil Nas X, who was nominated for album of the year three years ago for Montero, is entered for Long Live Montero.
The list also features numerous films by or about musicians who have died. In addition to Jackson, they include Chet Atkins (The Making of We Still Can’t Say Goodbye – A Musicians’ Tribute to Chet Atkins and His Legacy Remembered); Syd Barrett (Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd); James Brown (James Brown: Say It Loud); June Carter Cash (June); Roy Hargrove (Hargrove); Jerry Lee Lewis (Trouble in My Mind); and Ryuichi Sakamoto (Ryuichi Sakamoto/Opus). A previous film about Brown, Mr Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown, was nominated in 2016.
Willie Nelson, who has always been prolific, is the only artist with two films on the entry list — Willie Nelson & Family and Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday Celebration.
Thriller 40 isn’t the only anniversary release on the ballot. Weezer’s The Blue Album LIVE/Spotify THIRTY – the 30th Anniversary is also listed.
Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. is entered. A previous film about the fabled record company, Great Performances: Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story, was nominated in 2009.
Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, which was made amid the star’s rekindled romance with Ben Affleck, is on the entry list, even though the couple separated in April and Lopez filed for divorce in August.
Other films of note on the entry list include Sheryl Crow & Jason Isbell featuring Don Isbell’s The Art of Music; Melissa Etheridge’s I’m Not Broken; The Kid LAROI’s Kids Are Growing Up: A Story About a Kid Named LAROI; Cyndi Lauper’s Let the Canary Sing; Kacey Musgraves’ Apple Live Music Live: Kacey Musgraves; Run DMC’s Kings From Queens; Paul Simon’s In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon; and, Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza.
First-round voting opened Friday (Oct. 4). Voters have until Oct. 15 to make their choices. Nominations will be announced on Nov. 8. Final-round voting runs from Dec. 12 through Jan. 3. The winners will be revealed on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The Grammy screening committee, which has the final say on where albums best fit in the Grammy process, placed Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion in the best country album category. They are competing with 77 other albums for just five slots on the final ballot. Nominations will be announced on Nov. 8.
Both have a good chance of making it. Post was widely praised for coming to Nashville and getting to know the city’s people and its ways. Beyoncé didn’t do that, as Luke Bryan, HARDY and others have pointed out, but her album put a bright spotlight on the contributions Black artists have made to country music – contributions that have too often been overlooked.
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Beyoncé is vying to become only the second Black artist to be nominated for best country album. Mickey Guyton was nominated in 2022 for her debut studio album, Remember Her Name. (Important note: The Grammys didn’t have this category in the 1970s, when Charley Pride was at his peak.)
Beyoncé didn’t receive any CMA nominations, but that doesn’t doom her album’s chances here. The Chicks were nominated for (and won) five Grammys for their 2006 album Taking the Long Way, even though they, likewise, had been shut out in that year’s CMA nominations. (The Chicks were nominated for vocal group of the year at the CMAs the following year, a period that encompassed their Grammy sweep.)
Beyoncé’s shutout in the CMA nominations received a lot of attention. Some Grammy voters may embrace her in part to make up for that perceived snub. (“Make-up voting” is real thing. Many believe Ben Affleck’s failure to land an Oscar nomination for best director for Argo helped that 2012 film win best picture.)
Four of the five albums that were nominated for the CMA award for album of the year are eligible here: Luke Combs’ Fathers & Sons, Cody Johnson’s Leather, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well and Chris Stapleton’s Higher.
Stapleton and Musgraves are both repeat winners of the Grammy for best country album. Stapleton has won the award three times; Musgraves has won it twice. Fun fact: If Stapleton wins once more, he’ll move into a tie as the act with the most wins in the history of the category. And who will he tie? The Chicks.
Combs has yet to win the Grammy for best country album, but he was nominated for a previous album, Growin’ Up. Johnson has yet to be nominated in the category.
The fifth CMA nominee for album of the year, Jelly Roll’s Whitsitt Chapel, vied for a Grammy nod for best country album last year, but it ultimately wasn’t nominated. (It of course is not Grammy-eligible again this year.)
That’s six albums that have an excellent shot at a nomination, which is one more than the number of available slots. (The Grammys expand the field beyond five only in the event of ties. Since 2000, there have been six nominees twice – in 2004 and 2012.)
And there more “can’t-miss” albums, so clearly some won’t make it.
Like F-1 Trillion, Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind came out too late for this year’s CMAs, but it is eligible here. Wilson’s previous album, Bell Bottom Country, won the Grammy for best country album and was voted album of the year at both the CMA and ACM Awards.
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene would have been a strong contender – his previous album, Zach Bryan, was nominated in this category last year – but the unconventional star didn’t submit it for Grammy consideration.
Shaboozey’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going may not be a “can’t-miss,” but it’s a strong contender. It houses the smash “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” which has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks, longer than any other single so far this year. More importantly in the context of its chances here, it topped Country Airplay for seven weeks.
Megan Moroney’s Am I Okay? also has a shot. Moroney is also vying for a nomination as best new artist. Other albums by best new artist hopefuls on the best country album eligibility list include Dasha’s What Happens Now? and Nate Smith’s Through the Smoke.
Several other albums by past Grammy nominees for best country album are in the running – Jason Aldean’s Highway Desperado, Kenny Chesney’s Born, Tim McGraw’s Poet’s Resume, Willie Nelson’s The Border, Thomas Rhett’s About a Woman and Sturgill Simpson (Johnny Blue Skies)’s Passage Du Desir.
Various Artists albums are rarely nominated in this category, but there are two notable contenders this year – Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty and A Tribute to The Judds. Only two Various Artists albums have been nominated in this category; both won. Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute won in 2002. Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers won in 2004.
Another high-profile Various Artists album, Twisters: The Album, isn’t in the running here. It’s vying for a nomination for best compilation soundtrack for visual media.
Our Fearless Forecast
So, which five albums have the best chance to be nominated in this Grammy category? This is tough, but here’s my prediction (alphabetically by artist): Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well, Chris Stapleton’s Higher and Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind.
The Grammys often talk about honoring an artist’s intent. Their screening committee did just that in at least two cases this year, allowing Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter to compete for best country album, and Dolly Parton’s Rockstar to compete for best rock album. Both albums could have been slotted in the best pop vocal album category, but the Grammys went along with the artists’ intentions.
Albums often wind up right on the border between two or more genres. That’s bound to happen more and more as artists increasingly cross genre lines. In those cases, the Recording Academy’s screening committee endeavors to put it in the most suitable category.
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Here are more albums whose placement was less-than-certain.
Jimmy Buffett’s last studio album, Equal Strain on All Parts, is entered for best Americana album, rather than best pop vocal album. Buffett died in September 2023.
Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, brat, is entered for best dance/electronic album rather than best pop vocal album.
Doja Cat’s Scarlet 2 Claude, a reissue of her fourth studio album, Scarlet, is entered for best rap album rather than best pop vocal album.
Twisters: The Album is entered for best compilation soundtrack for visual media rather than best country album.
All three Latin albums that made the top 10 on the Billboard 200 in the eligibility period are entered in different categories. Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana is entered for best música urbana album. Kali Uchis’ Orquídeas is entered for best Latin pop album. Peso Pluma’s Éxodo is entered for best música Mexicana album (including Tejano).
Several top 10 albums weren’t entered at all, including Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene, Drake’s For All the Dogs and Ed Sheeran’s Autumn Variations.
Travis Scott’s Days Before Rodeo wasn’t eligible. The mixtape was released independently on his SoundCloud account in August 2014.
In other news, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones could be headed for their first Grammy showdown. The two legendary groups are both entered for best rock performance – The Beatles for “Now and Then” and The Stones for “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” (featuring Lady Gaga). If both groups are nominated, it will be the first time they have ever faced off on a Grammy ballot. The Grammys were resistant to rock in the years the bands were at their peak. The Beatles, being the world-shakers they were, were often nominated, but The Stones weren’t nominated in any category until 1978, when Some Girls was up for album of the year.
First-round voting opened Friday (Oct. 4). Voters have until Oct. 15 to make their first-round choices. Nominations will be announced on Nov. 8. Final-round voting runs from Dec. 12 through Jan. 3. The winners will be revealed on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
One of the very best problems an artist can have is having to decide which of their many hits to enter in the Grammy competition for record of the year. (They can enter them all, but most artists and their camps are aware that it’s a far better strategy to select what you think is your strongest entry, rather than running the very real risk of splitting your votes.)
Sabrina Carpenter had three strong choices – “Espresso,” her breakthrough smash; “Please Please Please,” her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; and “Taste,” her current smash. Her camp went with “Espresso.”
Billie Eilish had two top five hits on the Hot 100 during the eligibility year – the sexually provocative “Lunch” and the pretty ballad “Birds of a Feather.” Her camp went with “Birds of a Feather.” Eilish has a strong history in this category. She won record of the year two years running 2020-21 with “bad guy” and “Everything I Wanted.” She is one of only three acts in Grammy history (following Roberta Flack and U2) to win in that high-profile category two years in a row. This would be Eilish’s fifth nomination in this category.
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Taylor Swift had many hits during the year, but there was little question that her camp would select “Fortnight,” her collab with Post Malone that entered the Hot 100 at No. 1 in May, becoming her 12th No. 1 hit. And that is indeed her pick. It’s vying to become Swift’s sixth nomination in this category (a category she has yet to win).
It’s also not surprising that Ariana Grande’s camp went with “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” rather than her previous hit, “Yes, And?” Both singles entered the Hot 100 at No. 1, becoming her eighth and ninth No. 1 hits, but “We Can’t Be Friends” sustained on the chart longer. This is vying to become Grande’s second nomination in this category, following “7 Rings.”
Nor is it surprising that Beyoncé went with “Texas Hold ’Em” rather than “II Most Wanted,” her collab with Miley Cyrus, or “Jolene.” “Texas Hold Em” became her ninth No. hit on the Hot 100. It’s vying to become Bey’s ninth nomination in this category (a category she, like Swift, has yet to win).
Here are the records other artists who had multiple top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chose to represent them in the Grammy record of the year competition:
Future: “Like That,” his Hot 100-topping collab with Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar.
21 Savage: “Redrum.”
There were a few surprises in the record of the year submissions. Megan Thee Stallion is entered for “Mamushi” (featuring Yuki Chiba) rather than her No. 1 smash “Hiss.” J. Cole is entered with “H.Y.B.” (featuring Bas and Central Cee) rather than his top 10 hit “7 Minute Drill.”
Teddy Swims is entered with an alternate version of his No. 1 smash “Lose Control,” because the original version was released prior to this eligibility year. He is entered with “Lose Control (The Village Sessions).”
A few artists who had top 10 hits during the year aren’t entered in the category at all, including Zach Bryan (“Pink Skies”), Drake (“Family Matters”) and Cardi B (“Enough (Miami)”).
It was a historic trip to the Grammy stage for Taylor Swift on Feb. 4, when she accepted her second and final award of the evening: album of the year, for her 2022 blockbuster set, Midnights. The win was her fourth in the category, breaking her out of a four-way tie and leaving her alone in the record books as the performing artist with the most album of the year wins in Grammy history. But by that point in the evening, Swift had already ensured that her fans were thinking more about the future — and perhaps AOTY trophy No. 5.
“I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years — which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19,” Swift had revealed two hours earlier while accepting her first award of the night (best pop vocal album). “It’s called The Tortured Poets Department.”
A year after that announcement, Swift may indeed end up making more treks to the Crypto.com Arena stage thanks to the record-breaking Poets. While Midnights bowed with a jaw-dropping 1.6 million first-week units upon its October 2022 release (according to Luminate) and topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks — setting off the historic, globe-trotting Year of Taylor that followed in 2023 — it paled in comparison with Poets, which debuted with over 2.6 million units and spent a whopping 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200. Given that Swift has secured AOTY nominations for each of her three brand-new albums released this decade (including two wins, for Midnights and 2020’s folklore, of her four career total), Poets seems a lock for one of the eight AOTY slots at the 2025 ceremony.
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Whether Swift will win, however, is another question entirely — in part because of a remarkably strong and high-profile slate of likely competitors, including one particularly legendary perennial AOTY bridesmaid. But perhaps the most interesting question of all: After four AOTY wins, already unmatched in Grammy history, how much more does Swift really have to gain by adding another such statue to her collection?
While Swift has already triumphed among some strong fields this decade, it’s likely that the category’s 2025 slate of nominees — with its expected mix of huge critical and commercial successes from veteran A-listers and emergent superstars — will be the most formidable she has faced yet. Alex Tear, vp of music programming at SiriusXM and Pandora, mentions Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft), Chappell Roan (The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess) and Sabrina Carpenter (Short n’ Sweet) as strong contenders for the marquee award, calling Carpenter “a force” in particular. “It’s really going to be a highly competitive year,” he says.
Still, the narrative surrounding the AOTY race will likely boil down to two names: Swift and Beyoncé, whose Billboard 200-topping country and Americana pivot, Cowboy Carter, will almost certainly also vie for the prize. Cowboy did only a fraction of Poets’ flabbergasting first-week numbers — though at press time, it still had the year’s second-highest debut total, at 375,000 units — but it received widespread acclaim, as well as immense media attention for its genre explorations and for the music history Beyoncé illuminated on it.
And of course, Carter’s candidacy comes with extra intrigue, given that Beyoncé — one of the most celebrated album artists of her era — has still never won album of the year, despite her four career nods for it (and record 32 total Grammy wins).
One longtime Recording Academy member who considers both Swift’s and Beyoncé’s new albums worthy contenders calls the latter “the prohibitive favorite” due to her careerlong shutout in the category. “I think that there’s a feeling in the industry, which was certainly encouraged via last year’s Grammys” — when her husband, Jay-Z, called attention to her AOTY shutout in a televised speech — “that [Beyoncé] has been overlooked for too long,” the member says.
Swift may well have less at stake in this year’s AOTY race than her storied competitor. In fact, because Swift is at the overall height of her career success and exposure (and therefore at risk of generating a backlash), it’s worth considering whether she stands to lose more than she does to gain by netting a fifth trophy, especially over a competitor with such a strong case — and such a strong sentimental pull for so many.
And public perception about a potential Swift victory could be colored by her own philosophy about the Grammys and awards shows in general. “She looks at record-making as a competitive sport in a way that other artists don’t,” the academy member says. “Other artists are competitive and would like to win Grammys, but she really, like, thinks about that stuff going in [to recording her albums].”
Swift has admitted as much over the years. In 2015, she explained in a Grammy Pro interview that when her Red lost AOTY in 2014 (to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories), it set in motion her plan to make a more cohesive pop album with 1989, which won the award two years later: “You have a few options when you don’t win an award — you can decide, ‘Oh, they’re wrong…’ [or] you can say, ‘Maybe they’re right,’ ” she said. Similarly, her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, captured her reaction when her 1989 follow-up, 2017’s Reputation, failed to garner even a nomination in the category: “I just need to make a better record.” (Two albums later, she would win the category again in 2021 for the stylistic left turn folklore.)
Competitiveness, of course, doesn’t equate to outright making Grammy bait, Tear points out — noting that it seems to have inspired Swift to grow artistically, while at the same time, “we’ve grown into her evolving as a person and the choices that she wants to make as an artist… The projects of late are not chasing where the puck is going — it’s already there.”
And though the Recording Academy member gives Beyoncé the edge in this particular race, it simply makes sense to them that the biggest pop star on the planet should be one of the favorites every time she’s in the mix.
“Look, [Swift] is the most popular recording artist on earth, and therefore she’s likely to win more often than not,” the member says, citing the famous Muhammad Ali quote, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.” And Swift “can do it, God bless her. She should keep doing it. Maybe she’ll win album of the year several more times.”
This story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.
“Let ’Em In,” the title of a Wings hit from 1976, also seemed to be the Grammy Screening Committee’s guiding principle in deciding who to allow to compete for best new artist this year. Sabrina Carpenter, who is on her sixth album, was ruled eligible, as was Megan Moroney, who had a No. 30 hit on the Hot 100 in May 2023 with “Tennessee Orange.”
Moroney is nominated for new artist of the year the CMA Awards for the second year in a row. HARDY, who was nominated in that category at the CMAs in both 2021 and 2022, is also eligible this year. So is Cody Johnson, who was nominated in that category at the CMAs in both 2019 and 2022.
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How can an artist who has released six albums be eligible for best new artist? Because, while the Grammys set a minimum number of releases an artist must have to qualify in this category (five singles/tracks or one album), there is no maximum. Instead, the Grammys’ rules and guidelines booklet says nominations for the honor hinge on when “the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence” — and it delegates that determination to a screening committee.
So Carpenter’s eligibility came down to whether the screening committee thought she had achieved prominence as of Sept. 15, 2023, the last day of the previous eligibility year. At that point, the highest she had ever climbed on the Billboard Hot 100 was a decidedly decaf No. 48, for “Skin” in February 2021. The committee decided that so-so showing did not constitute prominence, and that she made her big breakthrough in this eligibility year.
As for the other artists mentioned, the committee likewise decided that this was the year they achieved a breakthrough or prominence. The committee’s oft-stated aim is to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and they demonstrated that this year.
Many of the eligible artists have been nominated for new artist awards at other awards shows in the past year. Chappell Roan, who many see as this year’s Grammy front-runner in this category, won best new artist at the VMAs in September. Benson Boone, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims were on the initial list of nominees at the VMAs but they didn’t make the final three. They’re all eligible here.
Moroney, Shaboozey and Nate Smith are all nominees for new artist of the year at the CMAs on Nov. 20. They are eligible here.
4Batz, Bossman Dlow, October London and Sexxy Red were nominated for best new artist at the BET Awards and are eligible here. Bossman Dlow, Sexyy Red and Tommy Richman are nominated for best new artist at the upcoming BET Hip Hop Awards and are eligible here.
The Red Clay Strays won emerging act of the year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards in September. They’re also eligible here and will likely do well with Grammy voters.
RAYE, who won best new artist and swept many other awards at the Brit Awards in March, is likewise eligible here.
Other buzzy artists on the eligibility list, not already mentioned, include Artemas, Ateez, Barry Can’t Swim, beabadoobee, Central Cee, Ivan Cornejo, Dasha, Djo, Doechii, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Feid, Fireboy DML, Fletcher, Flo Milli, 42 Dugg, Grupo Frontera, Kate Hudson, Knox, David Kushner, The Last Dinner Party, Le Sserafim, Carin Leon, LISA, Mannequin Pussy, Lizzy McAlpine, Michael Marcagi, Reneé Rapp, Rema, Maggie Rose, Royel Otis, Jojo Siwa, Myles Smith, Brittney Spencer, Tigirlily Gold, Myke Towers, Waxahatchee, Koe Wetzel, Remi Wolf and Young Miko.
Artists are allowed to appear on the entry list for best new artist three times, after which they are ruled ineligible for future consideration. That rule came into play this year with Tate McRae, who had been entered three previous times and thus could not compete again.
As it turns out, almost every artist who pundits thought might be eligible made the list. Two who did not are GloRilla and Anne Wilson, both of whom had previous Grammy nominations. That almost always results in disqualification.
The rules in this category have changed over the years as the Recording Academy has struggled to strike just the right balance: not too strict, not too lenient. In the past, the academy has sometimes disqualified artists for reasons that may now seem petty; take Whitney Houston, who had recorded a couple of duets prior to releasing her debut album and was therefore deemed ineligible, or singer-songwriter Richard Marx, who had contributed a song to a soundtrack. Other times, the academy has leaned too far in the other direction. Robert Goulet won in 1963, two years after he became a star in the Broadway musical Camelot. When Alessia Cara claimed the prize in 2018, it was nearly two years after her ballad “Here” hit the top five on the Hot 100.
Three past winners for best new artist — Crosby, Stills & Nash (who won in 1970), Jody Watley (1988) and Lauryn Hill (1999) — wouldn’t be eligible under today’s rules. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were all already known for their work in previous groups, as were Watley (in Shalamar) and Hill (Fugees).
A total 323 artists are eligible for best new artist this year, down from 405 last year. This year’s tally is the lowest in this category in five years.
By allowing Carpenter to compete for best new artist this year, the Recording Academy has made the race more competitive and unpredictable. What might have been a shoo-in for Chappell Roan will now be a more spirited contest. Place your bets.
This year, acclaimed producer Jack Antonoff has had a direct hand in abetting artistic evolution at different levels of stardom — helping a longtime collaborator, Taylor Swift, shape-shift while staying on top of the pop world, as well as a rising artist, Sabrina Carpenter, secure her place on the A-list. For the latter, Antonoff produced […]
“People call it Brat Summer — it should be called ‘artist development summer,’ ” Jack Antonoff jokes on a mid-September afternoon, sitting on the rooftop of New York’s Electric Lady Studios and reflecting on the past few months in pop music. Charli XCX, whose brat album helped define the season, is an old friend of Antonoff’s — they co-headlined a 2015 tour called Charli and Jack Do America — and he points out that her 2024 success speaks to a larger movement of artists creating their own mainstream niches instead of latching on to trends.
“Sabrina [Carpenter], Charli and Chappell Roan — the three of them have had this shared experience of artists who have been crystallizing, and that’s where you get gems,” Antonoff says of a trio of pop talents who have dominated recent cultural discourse. “And that’s the story of being an artist. That’s true artist development. And it doesn’t matter where we are in tech or streaming or anything — the only way to win is to create your own language.”
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This year, Antonoff has had a direct hand in abetting artistic evolution at different levels of stardom — helping a longtime collaborator, Taylor Swift, shape-shift while staying on top of the pop world, as well as a rising artist, Carpenter, secure her place on the A-list. For the latter, Antonoff produced and co-wrote four songs on Carpenter’s new album, Short n’ Sweet — including her first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, “Please Please Please” — allowing the pop singer’s sardonic tics to shine on her way to arena-headliner status.
“No one deserves it more,” Antonoff says of the former Disney Channel star, who has released six albums by the age of 25. “Sabrina’s been quietly growing, and her albums have been getting more awesome, and she’s been honing her sound and performances. It’s not like she just popped onto the scene — this has been a decade of grinding toward it.”
During the week that Short n’ Sweet was released in August, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department — on which Antonoff contributed to 16 songs across both of its volumes — spent its 15th week atop the Billboard 200, the longest run at No. 1 of any Swift project. Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department on the night of the 2024 Grammys, where previous full-length Midnights was awarded album of the year and she set the record for the most career wins in the category.
Amy Lombard
This year, Antonoff’s work with Swift and Carpenter — along with the self-titled fourth album from his long-running band, Bleachers, which arrived in March — could help him notch his sixth consecutive Grammy nomination for a producer of the year, non-classical, a category that he has won the past three years. If Antonoff takes home the trophy at the 2025 ceremony, he would set a record as the only four-peat in the 50-year history of the award.
“It would be a really [nice] resolve to a really special period,” says Antonoff’s manager, Jamie Oborne. “If it’s based on the work alone and the broad spectrum of work, I can’t imagine anyone else winning.”
Instead of functioning as a victory lap for Swift, The Tortured Poets Department was emotionally unguarded and knowingly messy, dividing critics and inspiring immediate fan devotion on its way to the biggest first-week debut of her career. “The best bodies of work are when people drill into the most personal, the most if-you-know-you-know kind of stuff,” Antonoff says. “I think the depth of [Tortured Poets Department] was surprising to people because I think people are constantly surprised when artists continue to be artists. You see so many people take the wrong turn and pander and become terrified of what they could lose. That’s the recipe for all the worst music, and I can only relate to people who don’t give a f–k. That next body of work — it doesn’t matter how big your audience is, it either comes from the depths of you or it doesn’t. And I love that album so much because the whole thing is so remarkably vulnerable.”
That ethos helps explain why, in the midst of a record-setting run as a pop studio whiz, Antonoff keeps pushing his creativity into unfamiliar areas. After producing the April soundtrack to the Apple TV+ fashion drama The New Look, which included Antonoff pals like Lana Del Rey and The 1975 covering early-20th-century songs, he also signed on to provide original music for a Broadway revival of Romeo + Juliet, which began previews in late September. More recently, he unveiled early plans for his Public Studios initiative, which, with the help of The Ally Coalition, will build studios in LGBTQ+ youth shelters and create a network of engineers to help train those interested in production — free of charge.
Jack Antonoff photographed September 10, 2024 at Electric Lady Studios in New York.
Amy Lombard
Antonoff also deconstructed the first Bleachers album, 2014’s Strange Desire, for a 10th-anniversary rework dubbed A Stranger Desired, released in September. And amid all of the projects, he foremost describes 2024 as “a touring year,” having led Bleachers on a global trek that will culminate with a headlining gig at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 4.
He admits that he gets asked about his schedule by the people around him — friends curious about his balancing act and why he hasn’t zeroed in on the more successful pieces of his artistry. “My hunger to make things hasn’t changed since I was like 14,” Antonoff says with a chuckle, “but the context for people has changed.” When asked about the idea of winning four consecutive Grammys for producer of the year, Antonoff returns to the idea of artist development — that even when he’s receiving what he describes as “a huge honor,” his priority remains “protecting that zone” that allows him to grow as an artist and person.
“I really don’t let anything get in the way of that,” Antonoff says. “I keep my head down and I go back to work.”
This story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.