Grammys
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For years, Recording Academy members who were fortunate enough to land Grammy nominations were given a pair of free tickets to the show. Now, the Academy is making members who are nominated buy their companion ticket.
The policy change, announced quietly in November, has drawn criticism. Rhiannon Giddens, a two-time Grammy winner in the folk field, wrote a thoughtful post on Facebook in which she expressed her disappointment with the new policy, and put it in the context of life getting harder for working-class musicians.
Early in her post, she talked about the experience of going to the Grammys for the first time in February 2011, when her band Carolina Chocolate Drops was nominated for best traditional folk album for Genuine Negro Jig. Spoiler alert: They won.
“People might not know this, but it’s expensive to go to the GRAMMYs – if you are nominated, you pay for your flight, hotel, hair, makeup, dress, food, what have you, yourself. All nominees receive a plus one to the ceremony and after party, and for a lot of non-mainstream folks, win or lose, it’s a moment of a lifetime.”
Then she dealt with the Academy’s recent announcement about charging nominated members for their +1 tickets.
“The onslaught on the working class musician was taken up a notch this year. I am not going to the GRAMMYs for various reasons in February but I have just heard that the companion ticket is no longer free but costs 1200 dollars.
“For all the big names that’s easy, and for middle class musicians like me, its doable, if super annoying. For the folks who are just making ends meet, harder than ever in a world that is systematically erasing every avenue the musician used to have to actually make money from their music, from Spotify to closed venues to digitized orchestras, it’s a slap in the face.
“There are folks within the GRAMMY ranks who really love music and are trying to change things for the better. I get that. The afternoon ceremony has slowly been upgraded and is now even livestreamed! But honestly, this is a really bad look – and it makes it ever more obvious who is valued, and more specifically what (that would be lots of money, for the folks in the back).
Giddens attached a photo of her at the Grammys in 2011 and noted, “This picture wouldn’t exist if the policy then was what it is now, and that makes me sad.
“Music is art. Family. Empathy. Love. We’ve made it about money, and that’s a tragedy bigger than we know.”
Asked to comment, the Academy provided this statement to Billboard: “The recent adjustment affects only nominated members of the Recording Academy, which now brings them in line with all other nominees who already pay this cost for a companion seat. We acknowledge tickets to our show can be expensive, but the additional revenue raised from this small subset of our membership allows the Recording Academy, a not-for-profit organization, to serve many thousands of music people by helping to fund our educational initiatives, advocacy efforts, curated programming, and direct assistance extended to music people facing challenges. As with everything we do, the Recording Academy will continue to work to improve and evolve how we serve our music community.”
Giddens’ statement that Grammy tickets cost $1,200 was a little off. Tickets were made available this year at both higher and lower price points. (Tickets at all pricing tiers are now sold out.) Platinum tickets went for $2,000 each, Gold tickets for $1,000 each, Silver tickets for $562.50 each, and Bronze tickets for $375 each. Members may purchase two tickets within any of these pricing tiers and may also purchase two additional Bronze tickets, though additional Bronze tickets are $500, not $375. All of these pricing tiers include the Premiere Ceremony (a.k.a the pre-telecast awards). None of the tiers include the after-party.
An Academy spokesman said that this policy change of charging nominated members for their +1 tickets is true for all nominees, in marquee categories as well as the lower-profile categories that are presented at the Premiere Ceremony.
(Each year, all but about 11 awards are presented at the Premiere Ceremony, which is livestreamed on Grammy.com. These include some high-profile categories, though the biggest awards – including the vaunted Big Four — album, record and song of the year plus best new artist – are presented on the live telecast.)
This isn’t the only money-tightening change the Academy has instituted recently. On July 10, it announced that it was raising annual membership dues from $100 to $150, its first dues increase since 2000. The increase took effect on Aug. 1.
The Academy sought to justify the dues increase in an email to voting members. “It is important to highlight the significant accomplishments we have achieved together since the last dues increase in 2000. We have organized over 650 events across 12 Chapters, celebrated and recognized countless GRAMMY Award nominees and winners, provided $110 million in aid through MusiCares, and actively supported the passage of numerous bills at both the state and federal level to protect creators’ rights.”
A third example of upping fees is that the Academy used to allow members to enter an unlimited number of entries in the Grammy process. Since 2022, all professional and voting members of the Recording Academy receive five “courtesy entries” per year. If they choose to enter more than five entries, they must pay. Last year, the fee was $40 for entries made between July 17-31, $75 for entries made between Aug. 1-23 and $125 for entries made between Aug. 24-31.
The Academy justifies charging a fee for any member making more than five entries by saying, “The per-entry fee structure encourages entrants to consider the value of each entry and make mindful decisions to put forward work that they truly believe is Grammy-worthy.”
Gidden is nominated for two Grammys at this year’s ceremony, which is set for Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles – best Americana album for You’re the One and best American roots performance for a track from that album, “You Louisiana Man.”
It’s her first nod for best Americana album; her third for best American roots performance.
Gidden received her second of two Grammy Awards two years ago – best folk album for They’re Calling Me Home, with Francesco Turrisi.
Gidden won a Pulitzer Prize for Music last year for Omar, a collaboration with Michael Abels. That’s the same award that Kendrick Lamar won five years ago for Damn. Gidden has also been honored at the International Folk Music Awards and Americana Music Honors & Awards, among others.
Six female solo artists and an all-female group account for all but one of the 2024 Grammy nominations for album of the year. Only Jon Batiste’s World Music Radio kept male artists from being shut out in the top category this year. This is the 12th time that female artists have dominated the album of […]
Six days after announcing Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo as the first performers set for the 2024 Grammy Awards, CBS announced three more performers: Travis Scott, Luke Combs and Burna Boy. These bookings bring gender, genre and racial diversity to Music’s Biggest Night.
The announcement was made during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s NFL football game (Kansas City vs. Buffalo), just as last week’s performer announcement was made during the fourth quarter of the AFC wild-card game. Both games were broadcast on CBS, which has aired the Grammys since 1973.
All three of the newly-added performers are current Grammy nominees. Scott is nominated for best rap album for Utopia. He was also nominated in that category for his previous studio album, Astroworld. Scott has amassed 10 nominations. He has yet to win.
Combs is nominated for best country solo performance for his version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Chapman performed the song as the final performance of the night on the Grammy telecast in February 1989, so there may be reason to hope the Grammys can land a collaborative performance on this year’s show. This is Combs’ seventh nomination. He too has yet to win. He was nominated for best new artist five years ago, but lost to Lipa. (Both artists have done exceptionally well in the ensuing five years.)
Burna Boy is nominated in four categories – best global music album (I Told Them…), best African music performance (“City Boys”), best global music performance (“Alone”), and best melodic rap performance (“Sittin’ on Top of the World”). He won best global music album three years ago for Twice as Tall.
Additional performers will be announced in the two weeks leading up to the Feb. 4 ceremony.
Trevor Noah will host the Grammys for the fourth consecutive year. He too is a Grammy nominee. He is up for best comedy album for I Wish You Would. He’s the first Grammy host to be nominated for a Grammy that same year since Queen Latifah in 2005. Noah won a Primetime Emmy last week for outstanding talk series for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
The 66th annual Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 4 from 8:00-11:30 p.m. live ET/5:00-8:30 p.m. live PT on CBS and will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).
The telecast will be produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for the Recording Academy for the fourth consecutive year. Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor and Jesse Collins are executive producers.
Spotify‘s annual best new artist party is returning for Grammy Week 2024.
On Thursday, Feb. 1, the streamer will showcase live performances from Grammys best new artist nominees Noah Kahan, Gracie Abrams, Victoria Monet and Jelly Roll, among others, at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The event kicks off at 7 p.m.
“2024 marks eight years since launching Spotify’s Best New Artist campaign and seven years that we have hosted the party to honor the nominees,” says Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s global head of music, in a statement. “Our mission is to support new artists and artist development, and BNA is a moment to honor the best of the best. It’s been incredible to celebrate with the artists and their teams and see this event grow to what it has become today.”
“Our team has been working for months to bring this event to life,” added Joe Hadley, Spotify’s global head of music partnerships & audience. “Not only do we get to celebrate the artists, but we also get to lift up our partners on the labels, publishers, management and industry teams who we work with day in and day out. Spotify prides itself on being the premiere partner for artists of all stages and their teams. It’s a privilege to not only showcase the incredible art being made but also bring opportunities to artists that help propel careers to the next level.”
The year’s other best new artist nominees are Fred again.., Ice Spice, Coco Jones and The War and Treaty.
Spotify first hosted its best new artist Grammy party in 2017, when it showcased performances by two nominees: The Chainsmokers and Maren Morris. Last year, the party featured performances from all 10 best new artist nominees — Anitta, Omar Apollo, Domi & JD Beck, Muni Long, Latto, Måneskin, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle, Wet Leg and eventual winner Samara Joy — at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottom Blues has been an awards magnet in the past year. The collection won album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 11 and at the Country Music Awards on Nov. 8. On Feb. 4, we’ll find out if it becomes the eighth album to complete country […]
The 66th annual Grammy Awards are almost here, and before Music’s Biggest Night takes over the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday (Feb. 4), this year’s top talent, nominees and more will be spending the week celebrating their achievements at countless parties and events. SZA leads this year’s pack of nominees with nine nods — including […]
Diddy will not be attending the 2024 Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, despite his nomination for best progressive R&B album for his The Love Album: Off the Grid, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The news comes amid a series of sexual assault accusations against the musician and entrepreneur. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news […]
The Grammy Awards have had genre-specific categories from the very start, but the line-up looks a lot different today than when the first Grammys were presented in May 1959.
Back then, when there were 28 categories, there were six categories reserved for classical music, two for jazz and one each for country & western and rhythm & blues.
That meant some records were shoehorned into categories where they didn’t quite fit. Because there was no category for folk, The Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley” wound up winning best country & western performance. Because there was no category for rock and roll, The Champs’ “Tequila” won best rhythm & blues performance.
That first year, there were also no categories specifically earmarked for eventual staple Grammy genres like pop (though the awards for best vocal performance, male and female tended to go to pop artists), dance music (unless you count best performance by a dance band, won by Count Basie), blues, gospel or Latin — or such later-emerging genres as rock, metal, alternative, rap, Americana, Contemporary Christian or Global.
The addition of these and other categories has made the number of categories swell to 94 by the time of the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, which will be presented on Feb. 4. That’s more than three times as many as at the first Grammy ceremony, but down from the all-time high of 110 categories that were presented in 2008 and 2009.
There was a major streamlining in 2012, when the number of categories plummeted from 109 to 78. In a recent interview with Billboard, Academy CEO Harvey Mason, jr. referred to it as “the great consolidation.” Two factors were responsible for the reduction: Many felt that the glut of categories devalued the award. Also, The Grammys opted for gender-neutral categories, which reduced the number of categories needed.
Ahead of this year’s ceremony, we put together a guide to the history of 20 genres that are recognized on the big night, listed in the order they were first introduced on the Grammy ballot. We also rounded up some of the discontinued Grammy categories that have been lost to time.
This story is part of Billboard’s Genre Now package, highlighting the artists pushing their musical genres forward — and even creating their own new ones.
A few notes first: many categories have had name changes over the years. At the Grammy Awards presented in 1969, country & western was shortened to country; rhythm & blues was abbreviated R&B. More recently, best urban contemporary album was renamed best progressive R&B album because some took umbrage at the term “urban.” Best world music album was renamed best global music album to get away from “connotations of colonialism, folk, and ‘non-American’ that the former term embodied,” according to an Academy statement. Best rap/sung collaboration became best rap/sung performance (it no longer had to be a collaboration); it is now best melodic rap performance.
Some category names were changed because they were just too unwieldly. Best soundtrack album or recording of original cast from a motion picture or television, as the category was known in 1961-62, is now known by the much simpler best score soundtrack for visual media. Even when the original names weren’t that clunky, the new shorter versions are catchier, as when best long-form music video became best music film and best short-form music video became best music video.
Read on for a brief, selective history of genre at the Grammys – the years shown are the years of the award presentations each genre first appeared.
Rock (1962)
On Wednesday, Jan. 31, the Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing will come together with its Songwriters & Composers Wing at the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A. to host “A Celebration of Craft.” The event will honor Leslie Ann Jones, a seven-time Grammy winner and the first woman chair of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees (1999-2001), who has been a top recording and mixing engineer and record producer for more than four decades.
The celebration — a first joint Grammy Week event for the Academy’s craft wings — will kick off the Academy’s official events in the lead-up to the 66th annual Grammy Awards.
The event will also shine a light on this year’s nominees for songwriter of the year, non-classical.
“I’m so excited for our Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings to come together for A Celebration of Craft later this month,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “I look forward to joining with music people from both of these communities to kick off our Grammy Week celebrations.”
Maureen Droney, vp of the Producers & Engineers Wing, added in a statement: “From her decades-spanning recording career to her work as former chair of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees, a co-chair of the P&E Wing, and much more, Leslie Ann Jones has always been committed to the music community and to excellence in recording.”
In her statement, Susan Stewart, MD of the Songwriters & Composers Wing, said: “A Celebration of Craft will mark the first Grammy Week event for the Songwriters & Composers Wing since our Wing was founded in 2021, and we could not be more enthusiastic to come together with our community for an evening dedicated to celebrating their creativity.”
Jones has held staff positions at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the Automatt Recording Studios in San Francisco, Capitol Studios in Hollywood, and now Skywalker Sound, where she records and mixes music for records, films, video games and TV and produces records, primarily in the classical genre.
Jones, the daughter of famed comedy recording star Spike Jones, serves on the advisory board of Institute for the Musical Arts and on the board of directors of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.). She is also an artistic advisor to the Technology and Applied Composition degree program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Jones was inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019 and was the recipient of the 2022 G.A.N.G. Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also a member of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.
Grammy Week culminates with the 66th annual Grammy Awards at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 4. The ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT.
The 2024 Grammys are coming up on Feb. 4, but the Recording Academy is already looking ahead to the 2025 awards. The Academy announced today that the eligibility period for the 67th annual Grammy Awards will be Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024.
“This timeline gives us the time to thoroughly process all entries and uphold the integrity of the awards process,” the Academy’s awards team noted in an email to voting members. “It also improves the Online Entry Process [OEP] by aligning the end of the eligibility period with the end of our OEP period.”
You may recall that the Academy announced on March 1, 2023 that they were advancing the close of the eligibility year to Aug. 31 last year, but relented five weeks later amid criticism that this was insufficient notice for such a major change. Instead, they split the difference and advanced the close of the eligibility year to Sept. 15, 2023.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Academy’s CEO, announced that middle-ground compromise in a message to members on April 6, 2023, which shed light on the reasons the Academy is pushing for an earlier close: “A few weeks ago, we communicated a change to the eligibility period for the 66th Grammy Awards. This change benefits our awards process and grants us flexibility throughout Grammy season – specifically related to our nominations announcement timeline and the booking of the Grammy telecast, Premiere Ceremony, Recording Academy Honors Presented by the Black Music Collective, and other important celebrations throughout Grammy Week.
“After listening to concerns from some members of the music community, we have decided to amend the end date of the previously-announced eligibility period. The eligibility deadline for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards will be extended by two weeks, to Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.
“We care about the impact of this date change on our community and make this adjustment in the spirit of partnership and collaboration.”
The Academy made the announcement of the earlier closing nearly two months earlier this year than it did last year to give artists and their labels more time to plan around it.
The Grammy eligibility year extended from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 every year for decades – from the 20th annual Grammy Awards (which covered the period from Oct. 1, 1976, through Sept. 30, 1977) through the 51st annual Grammy Awards (Oct. 1, 2007, through Sept. 30, 2008).
The schedule has been more irregular since then. Here are the outliers:
52nd annual Grammy Awards: Oct. 1, 2008 through Aug. 31, 2009 (11 months)
53rd annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010 (13 months)
62nd annual Grammy Awards: Oct. 1, 2018 through Aug. 31, 2019 (11 months)
63rd annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 1, 2019 through Aug. 31, 2020 (12 months)
64th annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 1, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2021 (13 months)
66th annual Grammy Awards: Oct. 1, 2020 through Sept. 15, 2023 (11-1/2 months)
67th annual Grammy Awards: Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 (11-1/2 months)