State Champ Radio Grammys
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The Recording Academy has extended membership invitations to more than 3,900 music professionals spanning diverse backgrounds, genres and disciplines, underscoring the academy’s commitment to inclusivity and representation. This year’s 2024 class of invitees is 45% women, 57% people of color and 47% under the age of 40.
“There’s no better way to kick off Grammy season than by inviting thousands of diverse and talented music creators and professionals to join our Recording Academy family,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Our members are the heart of the Academy, driving our mission to make lasting, positive impacts on the music community and shape music history. We are hopeful that all 3,900+ invitees join us in serving, celebrating and championing the voices of music creators year-round.”
Among this year’s invitees are Teddy Swims, whose first Hot 100 single, “Lose Control,” reached No. 1 in March; Tanner Adell, who is featured on Beyoncé’s Billboard 200-topping Cowboy Carter; as well as Ashnikko, Grupo Frontera, 310babii, Flavour, Flyana Boss, GAWD, girl in red, Jay Wheeler, Kaash Paige, Raja Kumari, Charm La’Donna, Al Sherrod, Xavier Omär, Sech, Leon Thomas and two group members: Ronnie Winter of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Frank Iero of L.S. Dunes and My Chemical Romance. (Here’s a link to a page of quotes, supplied by the Recording Academy, from these invitees.)
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Invitations must be formally accepted by July 31 for recipients to become Recording Academy members and participate in the online entry process for the upcoming Grammy Awards.
The academy has invited thousands of new voting members in recent years in a bid to diversify its membership. Last year, it invited 2,800 new voting members. In 2022, it invited more than 2,000 new voting members – as well as more than 600 professional, non-voting members.
The academy announced its invitations for the new member class one day after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced its own invited class of 487 individuals. That means the Recording Academy invited slightly more than eight times as many people to join its ranks as the film academy did.
A comprehensive report on the Recording Academy’s 2024 new member class, along with a detailed breakdown of the overall membership demographics and crafts, will be released later this year following the deadline for 2024 invitees to join the academy.
Last year’s breakdown of the 2023 new member class was released on Nov. 30, 2023. A record-breaking 2,400-plus diverse music creators were part of last year’s class, with the academy reporting that 50% of the new class were people of color, 46% were under the age of 40 and 37% were women.
The Recording Academy’s membership model is community-driven and peer-reviewed to create a more diverse and engaged membership base.
The academy also revealed on Nov. 30 that, since implementing the new member model in 2019, membership among people of color has jumped significantly, from 24% to 38%, and that the percentage of women members has also increased, albeit at a slower rate, from 26% to 30%. The academy further noted that it was 98% of the way to reaching its goal of adding 2,500 women voting members by 2025 and is set to achieve that milestone a year ahead of schedule, in 2024.
The Recording Academy offers three types of membership: voting membership for music creators, professional membership for music business professionals and GRAMMY U for those aspiring to a career in the music industry. (GRAMMY U follows a distinct application process.)
Each year, interested musicians and professionals must apply for membership by March 1. Their submissions are reviewed in the spring by a peer review panel comprised of existing Recording Academy members active in the music industry. If approved, candidates are invited to join the Recording Academy.
Recording Academy voting members — artists, songwriters, producers, engineers and others active in the music industry — are eligible to vote for the annual Grammy Awards. In addition, members can submit product for Grammy Awards consideration, propose amendments to Grammy Awards rules, run for a Recording Academy board position or committee, vote in chapter elections, support fellow musicians through advocacy efforts and MusiCares, and engage with the academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing, Songwriters & Composers Wing, Black Music Collective and more.
The first-round voting period for the 67th Grammy Awards opens on Oct. 4 and closes on Oct. 15. The telecast is set for Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Sabrina Carpenter has a lot to look forward to in the coming months – the release of her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, on Aug. 23, and the announcement of the Grammy nominations on Nov. 8. Carpenter could be nominated in each of the Big Four categories – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist.
How, you might ask, can an artist be nominated for best new artist when they’re on their sixth album? The Recording Academy bases eligibility on when an artist “achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness,” not on the number of releases they have had.
The rules and guidelines booklet for the upcoming 67th Grammy Awards notes: “While there will be no specified maximum number of releases, the Screening Committee will be charged with determining whether the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence prior to the eligibility year. Such a determination would result in disqualification.”
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The eligibility year for the upcoming Grammys began on Sept. 16, 2023. At that point, Carpenter had reached the Billboard Hot 100 with two singles – “Skin,” which debuted and peaked at No. 48 in February 2021, and “Nonsense,” which peaked at No. 56 in February 2023.
While Carpenter had never climbed above a so-so No. 48 on the Hot 100 prior to this eligibility year, she has been on fire in recent months, with her current single, “Please Please Please,” debuting at No. 2 last week and moving up to No. 1 this week.
As of that same date – the start date for this Grammy eligibility year – Carpenter had cracked the Billboard 200 with five albums or EPs, three of which made the top half of the chart – Eyes Wide Open, which debuted and peaked at No. 43 in May 2015; Evolution, which debuted and peaked at No. 28 in November 2016; and Emails I Can’t Send, which debuted and peaked at No. 23 in July 2022. None of these titles had been certified gold by the RIAA by Sept. 16, 2023. Emails went gold on March 1, 2024, amid her current breakthrough.
It’s always been hard to come up with hard-and-fast rules governing best new artist, which is probably why the description of the category in the rules and guidelines booklet is easily twice as long as the descriptions of album, record and song of the year, combined.
Carpenter has not been previously nominated for a Grammy, which generally results in disqualification from best new artist. And she has not been entered in the best new artist competition three times, which is an automatic disqualifier. Tate McRae has been entered three times (the last three years), so she is not eligible to be entered again. Carpenter has been entered twice – in 2017 and 2024, so she does not run afoul of that rule.
It will be up to the aforementioned Screening Committee to weigh all these factors and decide if Carpenter should be allowed to compete for best new artist. The key criteria: “This category recognizes an artist whose eligibility-year release(s) achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and notably impacted the musical landscape.”
The Academy can’t confirm what will or won’t be on the ballot until the screening process is completed. They don’t want to box themselves into a position, when it’s really the prerogative of the screening committee to make those decisions.
But that committee does generally seem to look for ways to include, rather than exclude artists in this category. They seem to recognize that new artists develop and break through at their own pace.
Shelby Lynne won the award in 2001 on the strength of her sixth album, I Am Shelby Lynne.
British singer-songwriter David Gray was on his fifth album when he was nominated the following year. Meghan Trainor had three self-released albums prior to her first studio album for Epic, for which she won in 2016. Maren Morris had released three albums for smaller labels prior to her Columbia Nashville debut, for which she was nominated in 2017.
Rapper Tobe Nwigwe, Brazilian singer Anitta, bluegrass artist Molly Tuttle, country/Americana duo The War and Treaty and country sensation Jelly Roll had also all released numerous projects prior to the breakthrough sets that brought them Grammy nods for best new artist.
The Academy was not always so welcoming to artists who took awhile to break though. There was a time in the 1980s when the Academy’s committee was too strict and disqualified some new artists who would have been worthy nominees or winners. Whitney Houston was disqualified from the new artist category because she had released a pair of duets with Teddy Pendergrass and Kashif prior to the release of her blockbuster 1985 debut. Richard Marx was disqualified because he had recorded a song (“Burning of the Heart”) on the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks/Jackie Gleason film Nothing in Common prior to his 1987 debut album. Today, such relatively minor pre-debut activities would probably not result in disqualification.
In other years, the Academy erred in being too lenient. Lauryn Hill won best new artist in 1999 even though she had won two Grammys as a member of Fugees two years previously. The trio had even performed a song from their album of the year nominee The Score on the 1997 Grammy telecast. (The rules have since been tightened up so such a thing could not occur again. From the rulebook: “Not eligible: Any artist with a previous Grammy nomination as a performer, including a nomination as an established member of a nominated group.”)
If the screening committee does accept Carpenter, they may be more apt to also allow two other “borderline” cases, Megan Moroney and Chappell Roan.
Moroney, 26, was passed over for a best new artist nod two years ago, when “Tennessee Orange” became a top 30 hit on the Hot 100. But she has continued to build. Her sophomore album, Am I Okay?, is due July 12. Moroney was nominated for the CMA Awards’ new artist of the year prize last year and won the ACM’s new female artist of the year prize (on her second try) in May.
Roan, also 26, was dropped by Atlantic Records following the release of a 2017 EP, School Nights. Her smash debut album was released through Island Records.
Other likely best new artist nominees include Benson Boone, Reneé Rapp, Sexyy Red, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims.
Other artists hoping for nominations should any of these presumed front-runners falter (or be ruled ineligible) include The Beaches, Dasha, Djo, Knox, October London, Tommy Richman, Nate Smith and Tigirlily Gold.
Last week, the Recording Academy unveiled a flurry of rule tweaks that will be implemented at the 2025 awards. Among these 10 changes, three are directly related to the dance/electronic categories and a fourth also affects the dance/electronic categories.
One of the changes involves an award that was introduced to the Grammys just this year, with the “best pop dance recording” category now being called “best dance pop recording.” This tweak is not just a matter of aesthetics, but meant to make the category more accurately reflect the well-established style of dance pop music it was created to showcase.
The proposal for this name change, reviewed by Billboard, stated that “last year we conceded with Recording Academy staff to amend the award name to ‘Pop Dance’ rather than ‘Dance Pop’ for the purposes of classifying and defining: ‘what kind of Dance’. However, the result of this decision has been one of regular confusion and clarification. Numerous articles in mainstream media would either ‘correct’ or get ‘confused’ or ‘incorrectly label’ the Grammy Award.
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“The confusion,” the proposal continues, “has also led some people to question if this is a Pop category award, or a Dance category award. It is of extreme importance to the Dance/Electronic community, and the driving intention of the invention of the award, that it be recognized in the Dance category, albeit for the most Pop-leaning sounds of Dance music.”
With this new category functioning as intended during its debut this year, this new change is likely to only help the category establish itself as a home for electronic music with a pop lean, allowing space in the best dance/electronic recording category for more traditional electronic tracks and generally creating more space for dance/electronic music at the Grammys.
The next rule change involves the best remixed recording category, which has long focused on dance/electronic artists but was never an official dance/electronic category.
That changes in 2025, with this category being moved from the production, engineering, composition & arrangement field into the pop & dance/electronic field, a shift that makes sense given how deeply remixing is embedded in and largely synonymous with the dance/electronic realm.
To wit, the 2024 nominees in this category included tech house titan Dom Dolla and longstanding producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, with winners since the award was introduced in 1998 having included genre legends like Frankie Knuckles, Deep Dish, Roger Sanchez, Louie Vega, Justice, David Guetta, Skrillex and Tiësto.
The next tweak changes the name of the “best dance/electronic music album” to “best dance/electronic album.” The title change was made given that the word “music” was more or less considered unnecessary.
More crucially, this change also amends the definition of the category, which now states that “albums must be made up of at least 50% dance/electronic recordings to qualify.” This change is quite likely a result of the nomination of and subsequent win for Beyoncè’s Renaissance in 2023. Given that the album is not composed entirely of dance/electronic music, Renaissance‘s inclusion in the dance/electronic album category was the cause of major debate within the electronic music community.
Many felt it wasn’t a purely dance/electronic album, while others embraced it not only for its music but for how it shined a light on the Black and LGBTQ origins of the genre music itself. Given this definition change, however, it’s possible a similar album might be included in the dance/electronic album category going forward.
And while the final change is one that affects many categories, it’s especially significant for dance music. The tweak states that all eligibly credited featured artists with under 50% playtime will now be awarded a winners’ certificate for all genre album categories. These certificates previously went only to producers and engineers with less than 50% playing time; mastering engineers (if they weren’t also the artist) and immersive producers and immersive engineer/mixers.
“Most often,” the proposal for this change stated, “a Featured Artist would be a Vocalist that performed on one or multiple songs on the record, but didn’t achieve 50% playtime as a whole (otherwise they would be a Grammy winner).”
While featured artists could still previously get a certificate, this certificate did not come automatically, and many featured artists were unaware that they were eligible to apply for a certificate, which also previously cost $150. This was different from the process for contributors like engineers and producers, who received certificates automatically and didn’t have to pay the fee.
The Rules and Guidelines booklet for the upcoming 67th annual Grammy Awards sheds some light on certificates: “Individuals on a Grammy-winning recording whose roles are listed under Certificate receive a Winners Certificate from the Academy after the telecast but are not Grammy nominees or Grammy winners. These individuals can say they ‘worked on a Grammy winning project’ but are not ‘Grammy winners.’
“Additionally, those who worked in certain roles on Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated projects but are not nominees, winners or recipients of Winners Certificates can order a Participation Certificate. These can be ordered for a fee from the Academy website.”
The proposal, introduced by members of the electronic music community, argued that in dance, this difference “disproportionately affects female creators or people of color,” stating that “vocalists in the Dance/Electronic community are predominantly people of color and female.” The last four winning albums in dance/electronic category (Fred again’s Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022), Beyoncè’s Renaissance, Black Coffee’s Subconciously and Kaytranada’s Bubba) included 27 featured artists, 14 of whom are women and 21 of whom are people of color.
Given that the dance/electronic categories have had a dicey history in terms of representing women and people of color, this change opens up the category to recognize a more diverse group of artists. The change was co-proposed by Aluna, who last year expressed frustration about the number of white men nominated in the categories.
“You can say awards are bullshit but they ARE career builders,” the producer/writer/singer and label founder wrote upon the announcement of the new rule tweaks. “Today I got word that a change I fought for was implemented at the Grammys and I want to explain why it’s MASSIVE! As a Black woman in Dance music you get the message loud and clear; your value is as the Featured Artist not the main act. Labels, managers, leading (white male) artists in the field, festival bookers and media all tell us that our voices are incredibly valuable but investing in us as artists is rarely on the table.
“Now, while I can’t change this culture overnight with my label Noir Fever,” the statement continues, “I saw that while being featured artists is our bread and butter, it’s someone else’s Grammy award so there’s a simple shift that could be made; Featured artists need the credit they deserve when contributing to Albums. In the past if you poured your heart into a song on another artists’ Album that won you still went home with nothing. Now I’m proud to share that every featured artist who has sung on a Grammy winning album will get a certificate.”
Miley Cyrus was a ride-or-die pal of Beyoncé‘s long before their “II Most Wanted” collaboration dropped on the latter’s Cowboy Carter earlier this year.
And in her new W Magazine cover story published Monday (June 3), the “Flowers” singer opened up about how her yearslong friendship with Queen Bey indirectly inspired their decision to team up on the country-Western duet. “I wrote that song, like, two and a half years ago,” she said of “II Most Wanted,” which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April. “When Beyoncé reached out to me about music, I thought of it right away because it really encompasses our relationship.”
“I told her, ‘We don’t have to get country; we are country. We’ve been country,’” she continued. “Getting to write a song, not just sing, for Beyoncé was a dream come true.”
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Cyrus added that she’s been tight with the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer since they both participated in a 2008 performance for Stand Up to Cancer alongside Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and more female stars. “I was sandwiched between Beyoncé and Rihanna,” she recalled, noting that she was just 14 at the time. “They were protective of me.”
The Hannah Montana alum added that she often chats with Bey over text, sometimes discussing the similarities between their moms. “I think it’s a really cute part of our relationship, because over the past couple of years, I’ve really locked down on my privacy and on what I share with the public,” Cyrus told the publication. “She’s the same way. Part of our relationship is the safety between us.”
Both women were present at the 2024 Grammys in February, where Cyrus won awards for the first time, thanks to “Flowers” nabbing both best pop solo performance and record of the year. In the interview, the “Wrecking Ball” musician was candid about the milestone, revealing that she feels as though the recognition was long overdue.
“No shade, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is my first time actually being taken seriously at the Grammys,” she said. “I’ve had a hard time figuring out what the measurement is there, because if we want to talk stats and numbers, then where the f–k was I? And if you want to talk, like, impact on culture, then where the f–k was I? This is not about arrogance. I am proud of myself.”
See Cyrus’ W cover, plus photos from the shoot, below.
Miley Cyrus Covers W Magazine’s Volume 3, The Pop Issue
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Miley Cyrus
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Miley Cyrus
Alasdair McLellan/W Magazine
Nineteen people have been elected or re-elected to the Recording Academy’s 42-member board of trustees, including Taylor Hanson, a member of the brother trio Hanson, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 with “MMMBop”; Sara Gazarek, who won her first Grammy on Feb. 4 for helping to arrange a new version of the classic “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”; and publishing veteran Mike Knobloch, president of music and publishing at NBCUniversal. Their terms took effect on Saturday (June 1).
“I’m honored to welcome this amazing group of creatives to our board of trustees,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Our board’s expertise and dedication to helping music people everywhere has been essential to all we have achieved at the Academy. However, the work never stops, and I look forward to working alongside our new and current trustees on ways we can continue to provide guidance for our music community.”
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Of the 42 trustees that serve on the national board, 30 are elected by the chapter board of governors (15 each year) and eight are elected directly by voting and professional members of the Academy (four each year). The remaining four seats are comprised of the national trustee officers, who are elected by the board of trustees once every two years. The current national trustee officers, who are all currently midterm, are Tammy Hurt (chair), Dr. Chelsey Green (vice chair), Gebre Waddell (secretary/treasurer) and Christine Albert (chair emeritus).
“Welcoming our newly elected trustees is always such an exciting time at the Academy,” Hurt said in a statement. “With new ideas to contribute to our board and the eagerness to helping change music, I have no doubt that together this year’s board of trustees will continue our commitment to fostering a diverse and representative music industry.”
The 2024-25 board includes six Grammy winners, including two who just won prizes at the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 4. Those newly-minted winners are J. Ivy, who won best spoken word poetry album for the second year in a row for The Light Inside, and Gazarek, who won best arrangement, instruments and vocals for the aforementioned new version of “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” by säje featuring Jacob Collier.
The four other Grammy winners on the current board are Angélique Kidjo, who won her fifth Grammy two years ago, for best global music album for Mother Nature; songwriter Jonathan Yip, who won two Grammys six years ago for co-writing the Bruno Mars smash “That’s What I Like”; Ledisi, who won best traditional R&B performance three years ago for “Anything for You”; and Cheche Alara, who won best Latin pop album five years ago for Sincera.
Three members of the current board of trustees served on the Recording Academy’s all-important television committee for the 66th Grammy Awards: Alara, Hurt and Knobloch.
All positions on the board of trustees are subject to two, two-year term limits.
These newly elected or re-elected trustees joined the Academy’s midterm trustees to uphold the Academy’s mission, which the Academy says is “to serve and represent the music community at-large through its commitment to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, fight for creators’ rights, protect music people in need, preserve music’s history, and invest in its future.”
You can find the full list of the Academy’s board of trustees, chapter officers and bylaws here.
The full list of the Academy’s board of trustees is shown below. An asterisk signifies that they were elected or re-elected this year.
Cheche Alara*
Christine Albert
Marcella Araica
Julio Bagué
Nikisha Bailey*
Larry Batiste
Marcus Baylor
Jennifer Blakeman*
Evan Bogart
Torae Carr*
Dani Deahl*
Maria Egan*
Fletcher Foster*
Anna Frick
EJ Gaines*
Kennard Garrett
Sara Gazarek*
Tracy Gershon
Dr. Chelsey Green
Dave Gross*
Jennifer Hanson
Taylor Hanson*
Justin “Henny” Henderson*
Tammy Hurt
J. Ivy
Terry Jones*
Angelique Kidjo
Mike Knobloch*
Ledisi
Eric Lilavois
Susan Marshall
Riggs Morales
Donn Thompson Morelli “Donn T”
Ms. Meka Nism*
Ashley Shabankareh*
Ken Shepherd*
Jessica Thompson*
Gebre Waddell
Paul Wall
Wayna
Tamara Wellons*
Jonathan Yip
The early returns are excellent for Billie Eilish’s third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft. The album enters the Billboard 200 at No. 2 with 339,000 equivalent album units — Eilish’s largest week to date by units earned. Of that sum, 191,000 are traditional album sales — her best sales week yet. Critical response has […]
The 67th annual Grammy Awards are set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Crypto.com Arena, formerly known as Staples Center, has hosted all but four Grammy telecasts since 2000. First-round voting, to determine the nominations, will be conducted from Oct. 4 to Oct. 15. Nominations will be […]
Controversy over winners and losers has been part of the Grammy experience since the very first presentations, which took place on May 4, 1959 — 65 years ago today. The biggest controversy that year had to do with a disappointing showing by Frank Sinatra, who was coming off one of the biggest years of his long career. He had two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in 1958 — Come Fly with Me and Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely.
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Sinatra was the year’s top Grammy nominee, with six nods, including two for album of the year (the aforementioned albums) and two for best vocal performance, male (Come Fly with Me and “Witchcraft”). The star wound up winning just one award — and it wasn’t even for his singing. He took best album cover for his art direction of Only the Lonely.
Sinatra attended the event, which was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. — now best known for hosting the Golden Globes every year. (There was a simultaneous event in New York City for East Coast denizens.) Other attendees at the Beverly Hilton included Sinatra’s fellow Rat Pack members Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, as well as fellow nominees Henry Mancini and Peggy Lee. Comedian Mort Sahl served as MC.
Sinatra’s two nods for album of the year no doubt worked against him in that category. (The rules have since been changed so an artist can only have one nomination as a lead artist in most categories.) The award went to Mancini for The Music from Peter Gunn. The album featured music from a weekly TV detective series that debuted in September 1958 and ran for three seasons. (Mancini’s album was released after the Dec. 31, 1958 eligibility cut-off for the 1958 awards. It’s a mystery how it was nominated in the first place. It was probably just a goof that slipped by the small staff at the fledgling Recording Academy. The many tools that people use today to quickly check facts didn’t exist back then, an era of rotary phones and 3 x 5 cards.)
In addition to album of the year, Mancini won best arrangement for that same album. Mancini went on to win 20 Grammys, which was, for many years, the most won by any artist. (That title is currently held by Beyoncé with 33 awards.)
Perry Como‘s silky “Catch a Falling Star” won best vocal performance, male, beating the two Sinatra entries. “Witchcraft” and “Catch a Falling Star” were both nominated for record of the year, but lost to Domenico Modugno‘s lounge music staple “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare).”
In addition to record of the year, Modugno took song of the year for “Volare,” which is, to this day, the only foreign-language song to win record or song of the year. “Volare” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks in 1958, though Modugno landed just one more Hot 100 entry, a song that peaked at No. 97.
There were just 28 categories at the first Grammys, the lowest number ever. There were five double winners — Mancini, Modugno, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Ross Bagdasarian Sr., the creator of The Chipmunks.
Fitzgerald won two awards for different installments of her celebrated Song Book series, a fitting tribute to this versatile singer. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book won best vocal performance, female. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book took best jazz performance, individual.
Count Basie won awards in different genres for the same album (something that couldn’t happen today). He took best performance by a dance band and best jazz performance, group, both for Basie.
Bagdasarian won best comedy performance and best recording for children, both for “The Chipmunk Song,” which was a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. The smash was also nominated for record of the year. It is, to this day, the only children’s or comedy recording to be nominated in that category.
The Grammys were the last of the four EGOT-level awards shows to get underway, arriving a little more than a decade after the third of the four, the Emmys, rolled out. The first Oscars were presented on May 16, 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The first Tony Awards were presented on April 6, 1947 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The first Primetime Emmys were presented on Jan. 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
The first Grammys were a black-tie affair. “The Grammy Awards were a formal event from the beginning and very much in keeping with the times,” Christine Farnon, who was instrumental in organizing the first show, was quoted as saying in the 2007 coffee table book, And the Grammy Goes To… The Official Story of Music’s Most Coveted Award, written by David Wild. “As I recall, no one objected to dressing black-tie back then, though like so much else, that would change eventually.” Farnon went on to be the academy’s executive vice president. She ran the academy for 35 years until her retirement in 1992 — an undersung pioneer for powerful women in the music industry.
Sinatra didn’t let his disappointing showing at the 1st annual Grammy Awards keep him down for long. He landed three more nominations the following year, and this time won album of the year for Come Dance with Me! He would win that award two more times, for September of My Years (1966) and A Man and His Music (1967). This made him the first two-time winner and also the first three-time winner. On Feb. 4, 2024, Taylor Swift became the first four-time winner.
Now that Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 and smashed sales records, thoughts turn to its next big test – how it will fare with Grammy voters.
If it is nominated for album of the year, Swift will become the first woman to receive seven album of the year nods, breaking out of a tie with Barbra Streisand, who received six nods from 1964-87. (All years in this story refer to the year of the Grammy ceremony.)
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Swift would be the sixth artist to land seven or more album of the year nominations – and just the second artist to reach that mark strictly with solo albums.
Paul McCartney is the leader with nine album of the year nods – five with The Beatles, one (Band on the Run) with Paul McCartney & Wings and three as a solo artist.
Frank Sinatra and George Harrison are next in line with eight album of the year nods. Sinatra scored with seven solo albums and one collab, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. Harrison scored with five Beatles albums; a solo album (All Things Must Pass); an all-star live album, The Concert for Bangla Desh, which was credited to George Harrison & Friends; and a Traveling Wilburys album (Volume One) on which he teamed with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.
Paul Simon follows with seven album of the year nods –- two with Simon & Garfunkel (Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water) and five on his own. Swift, if nominated, would pull into a tie with Simon for third place.
Swift’s last three studio albums, not counting her Taylor’s Versions re-recordings, were nominated for album of the year, though one of them just barely made it. The Recording Academy confirmed the accuracy of a New York Times report that Evermore placed ninth or 10th in the voting and was nominated only because, at the eleventh hour, the Academy expanded the field of nominees in each of the Big Four categories from eight to 10 that year (2022). After keeping the number of nominees at 10 the following year, the Academy returned to eight nominees in each of those categories for the telecast in February and will presumably hold it at that number for next year’s telecast, so Tortured Poets will have to do better than Evermore to be nominated. (Fittingly, that was a rather “tortured” explanation.)
If Tortured Poets is nominated, Swift will become the first artist to receive album of the year nominations with four consecutive official solo studio LPs since Kendrick Lamar (Swift’s colleague on “Bad Blood,” a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100) scored with good kid, m.A.A.d city, To Pimp a Butterfly, DAMN. and Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. The last artist before Lamar to achieve this feat was Billy Joel, who scored with 52nd Street, Glass Houses, The Nylon Curtain and An Innocent Man.
It’s of course way too early to know with any certainty if Swift will be nominated. Compared to Swift’s recent releases, the new album has drawn somewhat mixed reviews. The album has a 76 rating on Metacritic.com, the review aggregation site. That’s a bit below the marks registered by her four previous studio albums (excluding Taylor’s Version albums). Lover had a 79, folklore an 88, and evermore and Midnights, both an 85. (An expanded version of the new album, dubbed The Anthology, has a lower rating, 69.)
Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz took stock of Swift’s album in a thoughtful review headlined, “Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Is Messy, Unguarded and Undeniably Triumphant: Critic’s Take.” Here are the first four paragraphs from Lipshutz’s review, which posted on April 19, the day the album was released.
“One of the constants of Taylor Swift’s storied career has been the chances she’s taken at the precise moment when taking a chance wasn’t necessary. She was a country superstar who didn’t need to go pop; she was less than a year removed from a major pop album and didn’t need to take an indie-folk detour; she was in the middle of a blockbuster run of new albums and didn’t need to re-record her old ones.
“Time and again, Swift has identified artistic opportunities that other stars would have blanched at (or at the very least, set aside for a different time, so as to not muck up any professional momentum), and she has leapt into them fearlessly, always coming out on top.
“So right now — in the middle of a mega-selling stadium tour, after a record-breaking fourth album of the year Grammy win, in a high-profile new romance and at the commercial zenith of an already all-time career — is, naturally, the time Swift has chosen to release a knowingly messy, wildly unguarded breakup album.
“She didn’t have to do this! But then again, making an album like The Tortured Poets Department is exactly what separates Swift from her more careful peers. Challenging herself to shape-shift, to accomplish something new at the moment anyone else would rest on their laurels, is what makes her so fascinating.”
Other albums that are seen as front-runners for album of the year nominations include Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine and Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manana. Upcoming albums that are seen as likely prospects include Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism (due May 3) and Billie Eilish’s Hurt Me Hard & Soft (due May 17). The eligibility period ends Sept. 15.
If both Beyoncé and Swift are nominated, this will be the second time the two superstars have faced off in this category. In 2010, Swift’s Fearless beat Bey’s I Am…Sasha Fierce.
Could Swift possibly win her record-extending fifth award in the category? I have learned to never say never, especially when it concerns Swift at the Grammys. But more than a few Grammy watchers would howl if Swift won a fifth album of the year award before Beyoncé won her first in the category.
It would probably be better for Swift if she lost the big one and was seen leading the cheers for Beyoncé. If that does happen – and at this moment, it seems the likeliest scenario – this would be the third time in Grammy history that there has been a reversal of fortune in the top category, where there was a different outcome in a rematch.
At the first Grammy Awards in May 1959, Henry Mancini won album of the year for The Music From Peter Gunn, his jazzy score to the TV detective series of the same name. It beat a pair of Frank Sinatra albums, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and Come Fly With Me. (Did the double nominations cause Sinatra to “split his votes”? We’ll never know for sure, but the rules have since been changed so that an artist can be nominated with only one album as the lead artist in any one year.)
Mancini and Sinatra competed again at the second Grammy Awards in November 1959 (yes, there were two ceremonies that year) with the opposite result. Sinatra’s Come Dance With Me! beat More Music From Peter Gunn, a sequel to Mancini’s album.
Sinatra and The Beatles competed for album of the year three years in a row, 1966-68. Sinatra’s highly regarded thematic album September of My Years (which contained the classic “It Was a Very Good Year”) won the award in 1966, beating The Beatles’ Help! soundtrack. Sinatra’s A Man and His Music, a two-disc career retrospective, won the award in 1967, beating The Beatles’ Revolver. (That victory by Ol’ Blue Eyes is harder to defend, since his album was a career recap, and Revolver was another step forward by a group that was growing by leaps and bounds.) In 1968, The Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band beat Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, the singer’s widely admired collab with the architect of the bossa nova sound.
Swift co-produced her new album with Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner and Patrik Berger. Antonoff has been nominated for producer of the year, non-classical the last five years running – and has won the last three years in a row.
If Antonoff is nominated again this year, he’ll be the first producer or production team to be nominated six years in a row since Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who were nominated each year from 2001-2006. Moreover, if he is nominated again, Antonoff will become one of just five producers or production teams to land six or more producer of the year nods (whether consecutive or nod). He will join Jam & Lewis (11 total nods), Quincy Jones (eight), David Foster (eight) and Babyface (six).
If Antonoff wins in that category again early next year, he’ll become the first producer to ever win four years in a row. Babyface is the only producer to win four times – in 1993 (with L.A. Reid) and then on his own from 1996-98.
Celine Dion is opening up about her surprise appearance at the Grammys earlier this year, which marked the singer’s first appearance since being diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder Stiff Persons Syndrome in late 2022.
In a video with Vogue France, in which Dion recounts memories she associates with some of her favorite fashion moments of her career (including singing “My Heart Will Go On” at the Academy Awards and performing at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards), she also recalls her experience at the Grammys in February.
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“It was very nerve-racking, but at the same time, a big honor,” Dion told the outlet. “That magic, that excitement. To see the fans, to see the crowd, to see show business again.” She added: “It took a lot, a lot out of me. But my son, René Charles, RC, came and gave me his support.”
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Dion also addressed one of the most-talked-about moments from the evening, when Dion presented Taylor Swift the Grammy for album of the year for Midnights. Swift drew criticism for seemingly ignoring Dion while accepting her Grammy onstage.
“To present the award, the album of the year, to Taylor Swift, it was an honor because she’s having the time of her life and I’m the one who’s presenting it to her. But it’s always very, very touching when you have a standing ovation,” Dion said.
Though Swift garnered backlash in the moment, photos from backstage seemed to tell a different story, as one image depicted Swift and Dion posing together and smiling, with Swift hugging Dion.
In Dion’s Vogue France cover story, the five-time Grammy winner noted that she was honored to be in the spotlight for Vogue France at age 55.
“I’m very proud that, at 55, I’ve been asked to reveal my beauty,” Dion said. “But what is beauty? Beauty is you, it’s me, it’s what’s inside, it’s our dreams, it’s today. Today, I’m a woman who is feeling strong and positive about the future. One day at a time.”
Dion previously had to postpone her tour dates for 2023 due to her diagnosis, and says her plans for returning to performing are vague at the moment.
“I’ve been saying to myself that I’m not going back, that I’m ready, that I’m not ready,” Dion said. “As things stand, I can’t stand here and say to you: ‘Yes, in four months.’ I don’t know. … My body will tell me. On the other hand, I don’t just want to wait. It’s morally hard to live from day to day. It’s hard, I’m working very hard, and tomorrow will be even harder. Tomorrow is another day, but there’s one thing that will never stop, and that’s the will. It’s the passion. It’s the dream. It’s the determination.”
