Grammys
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Media reports today that Taylor Swift won’t perform on the 2024 Grammy telecast, which is set for Sunday (Feb. 4), are a big blow to the Recording Academy, CBS and Swift’s many fans. Swift’s apparent decision also runs counter to the usual pattern when an artist dominates a year the way Swift owned 2023. Swift […]
Mariah Carey received the Recording Academy’s Global Impact Award at the 2024 Black Music Collective on Thursday night (Feb. 1), and the elusive chanteuse poked some fun at the Grammys during her speech. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Is this a real Grammy? I haven’t seen […]
The country contingent of this year’s Grammy Awards may be the closest that Nashville ever gets to time travel.
This year’s crop of nominees for the Feb. 4 ceremony includes best new artist candidates Jelly Roll and The War and Treaty, a Dierks Bentley collaboration with Billy Strings, best country album finalists Lainey Wilson and Zach Bryan, and Luke Combs’ remake of “Fast Car.”
Each of those nominations – and most of the other country contenders, too – manage to move in two different directions on the time continuum, pushing the genre into the future while still hanging onto something out of the past.
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The Grammys, according to John Carter Cash, are drawn to performances that are both “forward-thinking and connecting with the roots.” He should know: He’s nominated as an arranger on a new version of “Folsom Prison Blues” – most closely associated with his father, Johnny Cash – recorded by String Revolution featuring Tommy Emmanuel. The performance is an adventurous instrumental piece that wraps “Folsom” in folk and jazz ideals, absolutely widening the footprint of the song. Yet it remains significantly old-school: the original melody is intact during much of the recording, and it employs guitars that belonged to the Man in Black and his original guitarist, Luther Perkins.
The Grammys come under criticism every year among some country executives and broadcasters because the nominations don’t particularly line up with the biggest current projects in the genre. But that was never the intent of the awards, which are voted on by the creative class, rather than marketers and managers. Those creatives – including musicians, songwriters and producers – tend to reward the craft as much as the commerce, and the slate typically recognizes performances that build on bedrock influences while making a new statement. Sometimes, as in Bryan’s Kacey Musgraves Billboard Hot 100-topping collaboration “I Remember Everything,” that includes some of the most popular current music. But in others, such as Brandy Clark’s twice-nominated “Buried,” that means elevating music from outside the mainstream.
The nominations tend to honor artists and performances that respect the past without being bound by it. That is, to be sure, how the most original artists operate. “If you love country music, and you’re trying to do it, you love the old stuff,” Bentley notes. But “you can’t just go back and redo the old stuff. It’s already been done.”
There are exceptions. Combs’ revision of “Fast Car,” up for best country solo performance, is a faithful update of a classic, though the current circumstances are different: male singer Combs renders it from a different perspective than female originator Tracy Chapman, and it re-emerged in country instead of the folk/pop arena where she introduced it. Solo competitor Dolly Parton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind” is a reworking of a song she first cut with duet partner Porter Wagoner in 1967. And Vince Gill is a best country duo/group finalist with steel guitarist Paul Franklin for bringing attention to “Kissing Your Picture (Is So Cold),” an obscure Ray Price song re-recorded for a tribute album.
“When I first heard Vince Gill, I thought, ‘Whoa, this is so cool, so new,’ and it was, of course,” Bentley remembers. “Listening to Vince now, that’s nothing but traditional country music, but the way he did it, it felt new. It’s the same thing with Morgan Wallen now. A lot of his songs are super country. My daughter listens to him, she goes, ‘Oh my god, this is so cool and new and different.’ I’m like, ‘That’s pretty country: dobro, and Bryan Sutton on the acoustic.’ So you kind of kind of trick everyone a little bit.”
Carly Pearce’s ability to walk the line between old and new is one of the reasons her Chris Stapleton collaboration “We Don’t Fight Anymore” secured a best country duo/group performance nomination. The spare, acoustic arrangement builds on the genre’s origins, as does its mature lyrical portrait of a debilitated relationship. But the melody and the phrasing are notably modern.
“They’re looking for artistic expression,” Pearce suggests. “That song is one of the most authentic to me, so I think it resonates, obviously, in a commercial way, but more in an artistic way, which is what I love about the Grammys. They see the whole vision of an artist and not just what’s played on the radio. For it to have that marriage together is really [key].”
Even Kelsea Ballerini’s best country album entry Rolling Up the Welcome Mat has that forward-thinking, roots-respecting aura. Compiled as a series of songs that documents her emotional journey following a divorce from Morgan Evans, it mostly features a boundary-testing, pop-leaning sound, though mining her inner world for her art is very much an old-school Hank Williams kind of approach.
“In my brain, it’s like I made a movie,” she says. “It’s solely focusing and zooming in on the songwriting and the storytelling, and to me, that is honoring the genre that I dig my heels into every day. The sonic elements that accompany it, to me, don’t hold as much weight as the story that you’re telling.”
Even personal history can influence the artistic time-machine effect. Songwriter of the year nominee Jessie Jo Dillon (“Memory Lane,” “Halfway To Hell”) compares Jelly Roll’s rise from a prison background and drug abuse to Johnny Cash’s messages about forgiveness. And Wilson sees Jelly Roll’s willingness to mine his experiences as a major influence on the format moving forward.
“Everybody’s past and everything – none of that matters,” she says. “We’ve all done things, we’ve all messed up. It’s about what’s on the inside, and Jelly Roll is nothing but good.”
Ultimately, the creatives who vote for the Grammys all draw from the same musical past as the nominees, and the country finalists list is a qualitative statement about how the genre can continue to evolve.
“It’s very, very difficult to know where you’re going if you don’t know where you come from,” says The War and Treaty’s Michael Trotter Jr. “We like to pay respect, homage, pay a nod to the past — because it’s still our present.”
At the Grammys, that past dictates how country moves into its future.
The 2024 Grammys are almost upon us, which will provide the answer to this year’s biggest Grammy-related question — and we don’t mean whether Taylor Swift will make history as the first artist to win album of the year four times. We mean: Can you make it through the whole thing?
The telecast is scheduled to run three and a half hours, from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. ET, but veteran Grammy watchers know that the day actually begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with what the Recording Academy rather grandly calls the Premiere Ceremony, but what you probably call the pre-telecast awards. More than 80 of the 94 Grammy categories are announced on that show, which will stream on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com.
If you manage to make it through both shows, that’s eight hours – assuming the telecast doesn’t run over (which it often does). So, it’s not only Music’s Biggest Night, it’s Music’s Longest Day and Night.
As always, the telecast will have something for everybody. Performers range from 20-year-old superstar Olivia Rodrigo to music legend Joni Mitchell, who is still adding to her considerable legacy at 80.
The show will be held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, where it has been held for 21 of the past 25 years. U2 is set to take the stage from Sphere just outside Las Vegas, where the band’s acclaimed U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere show is playing. It will be the first live broadcast from the venue.
Billy Joel will perform his just-released single “Turn the Lights Back On.”
Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman will team to perform “Fast Car,” which Combs revived last year. His version, a pop and country smash, is nominated for best country solo vocal performance. Chapman’s original version won 35 years ago for best pop vocal performance, female. Chapman performed the song to close the 1989 telecast.
Other expected collaborations are Burna Boy (with 21 Savage and Brandy) and Mitchell (with Brandi Carlile).
Trevor Noah will host the Grammys for the fourth consecutive year. He received a nod for best comedy album for I Wish You Would, and is vying to become only the second Grammy host to win a Grammy that same night. The first was Kenny Rogers, who won best country vocal performance, male for “The Gambler” in 1980, when he hosted the show for the first of two times.
It is unknown whether Taylor Swift will perform, though CBS has promoted the fact that she will be “in the building” to accept any awards she may win. Any additional performers will be added to this report as they are announced.
Songwriter Justin Tranter will host the Premiere Ceremony live from Peacock Theater, which is adjacent to Crypto. Tranter is nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical in recognition of their work with such artists as Miley Cyrus, Måneskin and Reneé Rapp. This is just the second year that that award has been presented and the first since the category was bumped up to the General Field, which also includes the Big Four categories – album, record and song of the year plus best new artist.
Producer of the year, non-classical was also bumped up to the General Field this year. Jack Antonoff is vying to become the first producer to take that award three years running since Babyface, who won it three in a row from 1996 to 1998.
Presenters on the main telecast include Samara Joy, last year’s surprise winner for best new artist, and Meryl Streep, who is nominated for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording for Big Tree. If she wins, it will be her first Grammy, after seven nominations. Streep has won three Oscars and three Primetime Emmys.
Performers on the Premiere Ceremony will include Harvey Mason (not the CEO of the Recording Academy – that’s Harvey Mason Jr.). The elder Mason, a highly regarded drummer, amassed 10 Grammy nominations between 1975 and 2009.
The 66th annual Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 4, live on both coasts beginning at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, and will stream live and on-demand on Paramount+. The show 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.
The Premiere Ceremony will stream live that same day, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com. This year’s Premiere Ceremony is produced by Branden Chapman, Ruby Marchand, Chantel Sausedo, and Rex Supa on behalf of the Recording Academy. Greg V. Fera is executive producer and Cheche Alara is music producer and music director.
Main Telecast
Host
Trevor Noah
Performers
Burna Boy (with 21 Savage and Brandy)
Luke Combs (with Tracy Chapman)
Billie Eilish
Billy Joel
Dua Lipa
Joni Mitchell (with Brandi Carlile)
Olivia Rodrigo
Travis Scott
SZA
U2
Presenters
Christina Aguilera
Samara Joy
Lenny Kravitz
Maluma
Lionel Richie
Mark Ronson
Meryl Streep
Taylor Tomlinson
Oprah Winfrey
Premiere Ceremony (pre-telecast awards)
Host
Justin Tranter
Performers
Adam Blackstone
Brandy Clark
Bob James
Gaby Moreno
Harvey Mason
J. Ivy, Larkin Poe, Pentatonix, Sheila E., Jordin Sparks (opening number)
Kirk Franklin
Laufey
Robert Glasper
Terrace Martin
Presenters
Carly Pearce
Jimmy Jam
Molly Tuttle
Natalia Lafourcade
Patti Austin
Rufus Wainwright
Justin Tranter is in the midst of a massive week. The renowned hitmaker is up for the songwriter of the year award at this Sunday’s Grammy Awards and will also host the Premiere Ceremony prior to the 2024 Grammys, live from Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
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Ahead of Grammys week, Billboard‘s senior music correspondent Katie Bain sat down with Tranter to talk about why the Grammys’ addition of the songwriter award is so important. 2024 marks the second year the songwriter of the year Grammy is being awarded and marks Tranter’s first nomination in the category. (They were previously nominated for song of the year in 2018 for Julia Michaels’ “Issues.”)
Tranter says they found out they were nominated when when they were out walking the dog and suddenly, 300 congratulatory texts came through.
“I think it’s important because we almost always get the short end of the stick in this business,” Tranter says of the Grammys acknowledging songwriters with the new-as-of-last-year songwriters category. “We’re always kind of thought of last; we’re always treated the worst, and I do think it is intentional because we are so powerful, that if we are allowed to recognize our power and flex our power, we would run the industry, and people don’t want that.
“So I think that this award is very important,” they continue, “because it lends visibility to songwriters, and without visibility we have no power, because we live in a world where if you can’t see something, you can’t hear something, it doesn’t exist.”
Tranter also shares stories of working on each of the songs they were nominated for in 2024, including Reneé Rapp‘s “Gemini Moon” (“She was mentioning her moon is in Gemini, and I’m a Gemini…and we Googled and that day the moon was also in gemini…”), Maneskin (“I DM’d them on Instagram when they won Eurovision and said ‘you are the coolest band I’ve seen since my band, we should work together’”), and Miley Cyrus (“we had one day together, and she was in the beginning of a new relationship and was feeling really sexy and fabulous and wanted to write something, in her words, pretty f—ing filthy and sexy”).
Tranter has worked with some the biggest superstars in modern pop music, and says building rapport with artists like Justin Bieber and Cardi B during the writing process is about sharing part of themselves.
“I can’t be afraid to ask slightly more personal questions than you’d usually ask someone you met an hour ago,” Tranter says. “But I think if you ask them with respect and also share at least a little bit about my life, then it feels like we are in this together. And I am very lucky too that I was just born pretty confident, and so I think me being a very femme queer person who is also very confident creates a space that’s [like] ‘if I can be confident in this, then you can be confident in what you’re in, what you’re living through.’”
The 2024 Grammy Awards are just days away, and opinions about who should win each of the categories are all over the map. That especially goes for the so-called “Big Four” categories: album of the year, record of the year, best new artist and, of course, song of the year. That final category in particular […]
Five people are headed to the 2024 Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 4) as both current nominees and trustees of the Recording Academy. One of them, Michael Romanowski, has a stunning four of the five nominations for best immersive audio album.
Romanowski served as the immersive mastering engineer on Ryan Ulyate’s Act 3 (Immersive Edition), George Strait’s Blue Clear Sky, Alicia Keys’ The Diary of Alicia Keys and Bear McCreary’s God of War Ragnarök (Original Soundtrack). Romanowski has won four Grammys since 2021, including two in this category.
The other four people who will attending the Grammys both as trustees and current nominees are Chuck Ainlay, J. Ivy, PJ Morton and Marcus Baylor.
Ainlay is nominated alongside Romanowski for best immersive audio album for this edition of Strait’s 1996 album Blue Clear Sky. Ainlay served as immersive mix engineer and immersive producer to Romanowski’s immersive mastering engineer. Ainlay has won four Grammys since 2006, including one when this category was known as best surround sound album.
Ivy is nominated for best spoken word poetry album for The Light Inside. Ivy won in that category last year – the first year it was presented – for The Poet Who Sat by the Door. Ivy won a second Grammy last year for best roots gospel album for The Urban Hymnal.
Morton is nominated for best traditional R&B performance for “Good Morning” (featuring Susan Carol). Morton has won four Grammys since 2019, including one in this category.
Baylor is nominated for best jazz performance for his featured role on Adam Blackstone’s “Vulnerable (Live).” The track features The Baylor Project & Russell Ferranté. Baylor has received 10 nominations since 2003, but has yet to win.
The Academy wants to have people on its board of trustees who are current, active and successful in their careers. But their nominations, while they are serving as trustees, raise a question of whether being a current trustee gives them an unfair advantage in the voting.
Billboard has reached out to the Academy for comment.
The current 41-member board of trustees (counting four officers) includes six other people who are past Grammy winners, but are not nominated this year. They are EGOT recipient John Legend, who has amassed 12 Grammys since 2006; Angélique Kidjo (five Grammys since 2008), Yolanda Adams (four Grammys since 2000), Natalia Ramirez (three Grammys since 2020), Jonathan Yip (two Grammys in 2018) and Ledisi (one Grammy in 2021).
Other current trustees who have been nominated in years past (but did not win) are Terry Jones, Mike Knobloch, Paul Wall and Thom “TK” Kidd.
Adrian Quesada and Eric Burton of the Black Pumas sat down with Hannah Karp, Billboard‘s editorial director. The duo opened up about their 2024 Grammy nomination, writing process, use of live recordings, the success of “Colors” and more!
Eric Burton:This guy, I think he just started DJing, and so it’s been cool to see, like, him picking up a bunch of, like, singles. I don’t even want to know how much money.
Adrian Quesada:Yeah, it’s an expensive rabbit hole.
Hannah Karp:Do you have a separate DJ name?
Adrian Quesada:No, no people have, like, messed with me about coming up, but I think I’m too old for a DJ name.
Eric Burton:Hey, this is Eric Burton and Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas, and this is Billboard News.
Hannah Karp:Hi, everyone. I’m Hannah Karp and I’m absolutely thrilled to be here today with this dynamic duo that has just scored their seventh Grammy nomination, Black Pumas.
Welcome to New York! What brings you here from your sunny hometown of Austin, Texas?
Adrian Quesada:We are performing at Radio City Music Hall, the iconic Radio City Music Hall, on Friday. So just thrilled to be here. It’s been a while since we played in New York, and the magnitude of playing in a place like that is kind of special.
Hannah Karp:What can fans expect at that show?
Eric Burton:The new project, a lot of the new project. They can expect a more developed and evolved unit. We’ve had a lot of fun making the music and I think that one of our strongest qualities as a band is the live performative. And I think this time in conclusion, we’ve had a lot of fun coming together to curate the show, you know, like the the second chapter of what it means to be a Black Puma and/or a part of the Pum Pack. So it’s exciting. It’s a new thing.Watch the full video above!
With the Super Bowl coming just one week after the Grammy Awards, Travis Kelce won’t be able to fly out to Los Angeles to support his girlfriend Taylor Swift. “I wish I could go support Taylor at the Grammys and watch her win every single award that she’s nominated for,” Kelce said in a Pat […]
Christina Aguilera, Samara Joy, Lenny Kravitz, Maluma, Lionel Richie, Mark Ronson, Meryl Streep, Taylor Tomlinson and Oprah Winfrey are set to present on the 2024 Grammy Awards, set for Sunday, Feb. 4.
Joy was the surprise winner of last year’s award for best new artist. Aguilera won in that same category 24 years ago.
Ronson, a seven-time Grammy-winner, received five nominations this year for his work on Barbie.
Streep is nominated for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording for Big Tree.
Richie won album of the year 39 years ago for Can’t Slow Down. He won song of the year the year after that for “We Are the World,” which he co-wrote with Michael Jackson.
Kravitz has been announced as the first of three 2024 Recording Academy Global Impact Award honorees. The award will be presented at the third annual Recording Academy Honors presented by the Black Music Collective. The event will take place on Thursday (Feb. 1) at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
Previously announced Grammy performers are Burna Boy, Luke Combs, Billie Eilish, Billy Joel, Dua Lipa, Joni Mitchell, Olivia Rodrigo, Travis Scott, SZA, and U2. Additional performers will be announced in the coming days. The current list of performers can be found here.
U2 is set to take the stage from Sphere in Las Vegas, where the band’s acclaimed U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere show is playing.
Additional performers for the Grammy telecast will be announced. Whether Swift will perform is still unknown.
Trevor Noah will host the Grammys for the fourth consecutive year. He received a nod for best comedy album for I Wish You Would, and is the first Grammy host to be nominated for a Grammy that same year since Queen Latifah in 2005.
The 66th annual Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 4, live on both coasts beginning at 8 p.m. ET 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.