Grammys
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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.
Mark Ronson has five nominations heading into Sunday’s Grammy Awards, all stemming from his work on the soundtrack and score for the Barbie film, including a Big Four nod for song of the year for co-writing Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night.” The wildest Grammy category he’s competing in has to be best song written for visual media, where four of the five nominees are all from Barbie.
It speaks to just how Greta Gerwig’s film dominated pop culture this past year. And on the new Grammy preview episode of the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we inform Ronson that it’s actually the first time a single project has landed four songs in that category since its inception in 1988.
“I think my mom Googled that the day nominations came out. She was very proud,” Ronson tells the Pop Shop with a laugh (listen to his full interview below). “I didn’t know that, and the other thing is that the Grammy category is for film and TV, you know? And there’s so many great songs from TV shows, like I think of all the Only Murders in the Building songs and everything else — there was some real moments for songs. So yeah, it’s crazy that Barbie took up so many.”
The lone non-Barbie song in the category is Rihanna’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ballad “Lift Me Up.” “Rihanna can do anything she wants, so we can’t take anything for granted,” Ronson notes of their formidable competition on Sunday night.
Below, find highlights from our chat with Ronson, who’s also up for best original song at the Oscars on March 10 for “I’m Just Ken” with co-writer Andrew Wyatt — a prize Ronson won alongside Lady Gaga in 2019 for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born — and is already a seven-time Grammy winner, starting with his 2008 wins for producing Amy Winehouse’s landmark album Back to Black.
On being recognized at the Oscars again:
“Obviously in our field of music, we’d have to say the Grammys is the highest honor. What’s so crazy is that there’s this award [the Oscar] that’s sort of the most prestigious award in the world that gives out one award for music, so it’s so crazy. I don’t believe that it means that your song is better than somebody else’s song or any of that stuff, but of course it is amazing. We worked so hard on this film and for a long time and also on the score and everything because we loved it, not because we were like, ‘OK, we better get an Oscar nomination!’ But it is nice to be recognized for the work, for sure.”
On the Oscar rules allowing just two songs from a single film in the song category, so “I’m Just Ken” and Billie Eilish and Finneas’ “What Was I Made For” made the cut, but Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” and others were left out:
“I don’t know how they even pick what the two are, but it is [bittersweet] because Dua’s song is still the biggest song from the soundtrack and Dua was really the first artist of anywhere near her stature that committed to the film. So it was almost like once we knew that we had a Dua song that was going to be in this big thing, it really set the bar for what the whole soundtrack could be. Dua … being like, ‘I’m down with this’ and writing this incredible song was what got us all excited, like, ‘Wow, this really could be something where this feels like this superstar level of musicians and singers and pop stars on it.’ So Dua definitely deserves all the credit for that, and you know it would have been lovely to have her as well. So it’s, you know, it is a shame.”
How Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World” accomplished the goal of including both Nicki and Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” on the soundtrack:
“We knew that with Nicki and her fans being called the Barbz and everything, as soon as I had been brought in for the soundtrack, I was like, ‘There’s no way in hell that we can have this soundtrack without a Nicki song on it.’ And then the fact that Ice [Spice] just became, like, her meteoric rise the entire time that we were even just working on the soundtrack from when we first got her involved, so yeah, it’s everywhere. … The two thoughts are like, ‘There’s no world in which we can’t have Nicki and that we can’t have some version of Aqua,’ you know? So we were always thinking, is it a cover? Is it an interesting flip? And then the Nicki and Ice [song] just came through with Riot[USA]’s beat and just handled the whole thing for us.”
On making the Christmas version of “I’m Just Ken” and whether he might make more music with Ryan Gosling:
“We definitely had a lot of fun, especially making the Christmas version that we did, because we had made that record and then I, the first one, I recorded a vocal with him. And then I probably hadn’t spoken to him for about a year till the movie was wrapping up. And I was like, ‘Hey, we finished the version actually, Slash is playing on it, I just want to make sure you’re happy with it before we mix it’. And he really loved it. And then we started to talk over the past couple of months, and we’re just talking about different kinds of music and things that he loved and [British singer/songwriter] Scott Walker and this stuff, and I was like, ‘Well, we should do a version of “Ken” that just does something a little different, like a different arrangement.’ Because, you know, there was a lot of talk like the ’80s power ballad and this, and I mean, it has all those things, but I think some of my pride as a songwriter, I wanted to prove that it wasn’t just that. So Ryan … he’s got amazing taste and great ideas, and he’s an extremely funny and talented musician and singer. So we made this version and then we started to hang, and definitely, I would love to make more music. You know, I think it would be great. And we’ve talked about it a little bit.”
On his first time at the Grammys:
“I was a seat filler [as a teenager] because I wanted to write about it. I wrote and reviewed concerts for my high school paper. My mom would only let me go to shows … if I could convince her it was something to do with school, so I got this job writing for the paper who definitely didn’t need a music reviewer. [Laughs] But I convinced them, and it was this paper called City News that was for high school kids, a bunch of different schools. So I got into the Grammys by being a seat filler. And I remember you’re sitting all over the place. At one point I was in front of Vanilla Ice. The other moment I was sitting next to that singer Alannah Myles who won that year for ‘Black Velvet.’ And then I went with my friend Rhymefest, a rapper who co-wrote [Kanye West’s] ‘Jesus Walks.’ I went with him as his plus-one in like 2003 or whenever that was, and then next time I went was for Amy.”
On his whirlwind first Grammys as a nominee in 2008 — and his Zoolander moment in the crowd:
“I remember it really well. I took my mom and I remember when they read my name for producer of the year, it was such a blur that it was like a movie. My friend Rich, my best friend, was nudging me and going, ‘They said your name! Go!’ I went up, and it was just so surreal. … Me and my mom were behind Tony Bennett at the main ceremony, and I think I was actually a little bit hungover because I was enjoying myself that weekend, my first time at the rodeo. And they came up to me before they announced record of the year, the cameras, they want to make sure, like, ‘Are you Mark Ronson?’ Just in case you win, they’ve got the camera on you. And so when they said, you know, ‘And the Grammy for record of the year goes to… “Rehab” for Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse!’ And so I got up to walk towards the stage, because I figured like, ‘So that’s why the guy’s filming me.’ And as I start to walk up the first few steps, this giant screen starts to get lowered and it’s Amy live from Camden to accept the award. And I suddenly realized like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna look like such an idiot just standing there next to this screen.’ So I try to like subtly as possible reverse-step down the stairs in front of everybody in the Staples Center, and I kind of fell backwards and I just sat like at the feet of Amber Rose and Kanye for like 10 minutes while Amy spoke, and I just said, ‘Sorry, guys, I’ll be out of your hair in a minute.’ But it was, like, a very Zoolander moment.”
On writing a book about DJing at hip-hop clubs in the ’90s and how it’s inspiring his follow-up album to 2019’s Late Night Feelings:
“I’ve been writing a book about DJing, specifically about DJing in hip-hop clubs in the ’90s in New York City. And it’s a little bit about that time. It’s a mini-memoir, but it’s also about the art of DJing. And maybe some of that art is a little bit bygone now, because you don’t walk into places and see turntables and mixers everywhere. So it’s a bit about all those things, and just about a really great time, because it was this moment where Jay-Z and Biggie and Puff started to come out in downtown New York. And that suddenly changed the whole thing of where people wanted to be and where people wanted to hang out. And because I was their DJ, I had a front-row seat to it all in some ways. So I’m writing that book, and then I’m sure that the book will influence this record a little bit. I’m sure it’ll a little bit remind me of that era. But yeah, that’s where I’m at with it.”
Also on the podcast, we’ve got chart news on how Green Day scores its 12th top 10 charting album on the Billboard 200 with Saviors, nearly 30 years to the week after the band made their Billboard chart debut in 1994. Plus, how Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” makes a beautiful start on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and how Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez and Sophie Ellis-Bextor all debut on the Pop Airplay chart with their latest hits. And since it’s our special Grammy Awards preview episode, we’re also reviewing the nominees in the six general field categories and highlighting who our very own awards editor, Paul Grein, along with his crack team of advisers on staff at Billboard, thinks will win in each of the categories.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s executive digital director, West Coast, Katie Atkinson and Billboard’s managing director, charts and data operations, Keith Caulfield every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
After producing for Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Travis Scott and more for over a decade, Hit-Boy has solidified his stance as one of the best rap producers in the game.
The three-time Grammy winner is up for producer of the year, non-classical this year, and it’s the second time he’s been nominated in the category. “I didn’t have no label budget. Everything is funded by me, music by me, engineered by me, studio time by me, like literally coming out of my pocket. I feel like I already won for real,” he told Billboard News‘ Tetris Kelly. “I don’t have no big powerful manager like the rest of the producers. I’m thuggin’ this sh– by myself with a couple of my homies.”
But Hit-Boy isn’t always solo in the studio. In the last three years, Hit-Boy has executive produced six albums for Nas, with three King’s Disease and three Magic albums. Nas won his first-ever Grammy in 2021 in the best rap album category with the first King’s Disease installation.
“Nas empowers me to be the best producer I can and allows me to grow through my production process. When he comes [to] lay two, three verses and a hook, and [he’s] like, ‘Yo, do what you do.’ I’m doing breakdowns, I’m adding additional keys, I’m doing things to just keep the production interesting. And when he comes back to the studio, he like, ‘Yo! I didn’t expect this. My mind is blown. What made you think to put this sound and it matches what I’m saying?’” he says. “We got mutual, super respect. He allows me to be me and grow through this, and I allow him to be him. He’s one of the greatest, period. I just try to keep my ear open, my eyes open. That’s how you got 80 songs in three years — you got to leave ego out the room.”
The 36-year-old producer hitmaker (real name Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr.) recently worked with another superstar, Jennifer Lopez, on her first single of the year, “Can’t Get Enough.” The song, which Latto recently hopped on for the remix, arrives ahead of J.Lo’s ninth studio album This Is Me… Now, due Feb. 16 via Nuyorican Productions and BMG. And it’s not the first time Hit-Boy has ever worked with her: His first official beat placement was on Lopez’s “Forever” from her 2007 album Brave.
But the most special collaborator he’s ever worked with is his father Big Hit, who recently finished serving nine years of a 12 year-sentence after being found guilty and convicted of a hit-and-run in L.A. resulting in great bodily injury in 2014. After being released from prison, Big Hit went straight to the studio and started getting back to work. The father-son duo released Surf or Down, Vol. 2 just in time for Father’s Day last year. Then Hit-Boy executive produced his father’s highly anticipated debut album The Truth Is In My Eyes, which was released on December 16, 2023, exclusively on Big Hit’s Bandcamp. Two weeks later, at the top of this year, Hit-Boy, Big Hit and The Game joined forces on the 9-track project Paisley Dreams.
“It’s a dream come true…. Sitting and just laying in the bunker in the cell, surrounded by all the concrete and all the noise, all the bullsh–, trying to block it out, I just told myself, ‘One day, I’mma be in the mansion. I’ll focus on the vision.’ And I stayed focused,” said Big Hit. And that focus doesn’t go unnoticed by his own son. “[I’m] getting to know different parts of myself through him and seeing his work ethic. Since I was a teenager, people be like, ‘All you do is work. You locked in all the time.’ I got that hustle in my blood, you know what I mean? Seeing him record 300 songs in seven months, I’m trying to keep up with him now!” Hit-Boy added.
Watch Hit-Boy’s full Billboard News interview above.
Hit-Boy reacts to his Grammy nomination, talks about self-releasing music, what sets him apart from other producers, and working with artists such as Nas and Jennifer Lopez. His father, Big Hit, joins in on the conversation and talks about navigating the music industry after spending 12 years in prison, what his life was like while serving his sentence and what their relationship is like now that he is out.Big Hit:Guess I’m to blame, busting that superstar DNA. Big Hit came. Hit-Boy came. Hit-Boy came, C III came. The best is yet to come.
Hit-Boy:Yo, yo. It’s Hit-Boy.
Big Hit:It’s Big Hit.
Hit-Boy & Big Hit: You’re watching Billboard News.
Tetris Kelly:Hey, it’s Tetris with Billboard News, and I have the honor of being with a man that has so many hits, it’s his name. Hit-Boy, man. What’s up? How’s it going?
Hit-Boy:I’m good, man.Tetris Kelly:Let’s talk about this Grammy nomination. Your 11th nomination — producer of the year non-classical. Does it hit any different on your 11th time?
Hit-Boy:Oh, man. It’s crazy because I didn’t expect to … I mean I don’t have no expectations when it comes to, like, awards and stuff like that. But just even being in the nominations, it just hit me this year just because this whole year, I’ve been kind of focusing on things that I can control, which was my own projects, working with my dad, put out a project with Musiq Soulchild, so everything that you know was under me being nominated was mostly stuff that, you know, I really put my heart and soul into, so it did hit different.
Tetris Kelly:And then, I mean, you’ve worked on so many projects this year like you said. How do you feel you stack up when you’re like looking at “I’m going up against Jack Antonoff, you know, my homie from Georgia, Metro Boomin,” like, what do you feel sets you apart as a producer?Watch the full video above!
After years of stagnancy, women are gaining ground on the charts and at the Grammys.
A report on gender equality in the music industry by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative — which was supported by Spotify and is the latest in an annual series released by the groups — assessed 12 years and 1,200 songs from the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts, looking at artists, songwriters and producers.
The study, Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender & Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers across 1,100 Popular Songs from 2012 to 2022, is out Tuesday (Jan. 30.)
The study’s key takeaway is that women’s participation in music creation, which has historically lagged, has improved across several metrics.
On the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts, the percentage of women artists reached 35%, a 12-year high. The study attributes this change to the fact that 40.6% of spots on these charts in 2023 were occupied by individual women artists, an increase over 2022 when the number was 34.8%. Improvements were less significant for women-led bands or duos.
The number of women songwriters also increased, from 14.1% in 2022 to 19.5% in 2023. The study notes that this change was due “almost exclusively to the number of women of color credited as songwriters in 2023.” The reports cites 55 women of color receiving a songwriting credit in 2023, a jump from 33 women of color 2022 and 14 in 2012.
Fifty-six percent of songs in 2023 included at least one woman songwriter — an increase from 2022 and the highest percentage in 12 years.
“The changes for songwriters are doubtlessly due to the work of numerous groups working to support women in music,” Dr. Smith says in a statement. “Whether She Is The Music, Spotify Equal, Moving the Needle, Women’s Audio Mission, Be the Change, Keychange, Girls Make Beats, or others, there has been a groundswell of support for women across the last several years. This advocacy and activism is propelling change in the industry. While there is work to be done, these groups are well-positioned to keep fighting for change.”
In the producing realm, fourteen, or 6.5%, of the producers credited in 2023 were women. This surpassed the previous record of 4.9% in 2019. Nearly half, or six, of the women producers in 2023 were women of color. But, over the nine years the study has assessed gender equality in production, 94% of the evaluated songs did not include a single woman producer. Across nine years, there have been 29.8 men to every one woman working as a producer.
The race/ethnicity of artists is also a focus of the report. In 2023, 61% of the artists on the Hot 100 Year-End Charts were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group, while 39% were white. This was a 12-year high and an increase from 2022, when the number was 50.6%, but not significantly greater than the percentage of underrepresented artists in 2020, when the number was 59%.
The study also assessed the six major Grammy categories: record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, best new artist, producer of the year and songwriter of the year.
The study found that nearly a quarter (24%) of nominations across these six categories went to women in 2024 — a jump from 15.5% in 2023. This overall change was reflected in four categories: record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, and best new artist. This year, nominees in these categories include Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, SZA, Miley Cryus, boygenius, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. In each of these categories, the percentage of women nominees increased significantly from 2023 to 2024 and from the first year the awards were evaluated in 2013.
For the fifth year in a row, no women were nominated for producer of the year.
“Awards like the Grammys show us how women’s contributions to the industry are received,” Dr. Smith says. “The increases in nominations this year are a positive step in recognizing the creative work that women did last year in competitive fields. The Recording Academy has clearly taken inclusion seriously and worked to increase the diversity of its membership, particularly its voting members.”
But, she continues, “There is still too little recognition for women producers and songwriters in those categories, and there are too few women of color nominated for their work. For music industry honors to truly reflect the creative workforce and the audience they serve, there must be a place for women and particularly women of color in these awards.”
Other key findings:
• In 2023, 164 artists appeared on the Hot 100 Billboard Year-End Chart. Of these, 64.6% were men, 34.8% were women, and 0.6% were gender non-binary.
• Across the 12-year sample, women artists were the most likely to work in pop (34.7%) and least likely in alternative (14.4%) and hip-hop (14.9%).
• Across 12 years, Drake had the most credits as a solo artist, appearing 52 times, double that of Justin Bieber, who appears on 25 songs. Nicki Minaj was the woman with the highest number of credits, appearing 25 times, while Ariana Grande followed with 23 songs and Rihanna with 22.
• The percentage of underrepresented women on the charts in 2023 was 65%, with this number the same as 2022 and and almost doubling since 2012, when it was 33.3%. “Put differently,” the study says, “women of color continue to dominate the charts.”
• In terms of genre, across 12 years, women were most likely to write pop (20.1%) and dance/electronic (19.6%) songs, and least likely to write hip-hop and rap (7.5%) and country (9.9%) songs. Even in pop music, where women songwriters most often appear, they were outnumbered by male songwriter by a ratio of 4 to 1.