Grammys
Page: 38
Michael Kushner, Atlantic Records’ executive vp of business & legal affairs/general counsel, will receive the 2024 Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Service Award, which is given each year to an attorney who has demonstrated a commitment to advancing and supporting the music community through service.
The award will be presented at the Recording Academy Entertainment Law Initiative event at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, two days before the 66th annual Grammy Awards. Michelle Jubelirer, Capitol Music Group chair/CEO, will deliver the keynote address.
“Michael’s dedication to the music industry and his service to the Academy’s Entertainment Law Initiative make him an exceptionally deserving recipient of the ELI Service Award,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “We look forward to celebrating his accomplishments at the 26th Annual ELI Grammy Week event, and hosting Michelle — a trailblazing woman in music — as the keynote speaker as we gather with the professionals and students making an impact in entertainment law.”
The recipient of the Service Award is selected each year by ELI’s executive committee.
Peter T. Paterno was the Service Award honoree earlier this year. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, then newly inaugurated, gave the keynote address.
The ELI event will also celebrate the winner and two runners-up of the Entertainment Law Initiative writing competition, co-sponsored by the American Bar Association (ABA), which challenges students in Juris Doctorate (JD) and Master of Laws (LLM) programs at U.S. law schools to research a pressing legal issue facing the modern music industry and outline a proposed solution in a 3,000-word essay. A $10,000 scholarship is awarded to the author of the winning paper, and a $2,500 scholarship is awarded to two runners-up. The winning paper will be published in the ABA’s journal, Entertainment & Sports Lawyer.
The winner will also receive travel and tickets to Los Angeles to attend the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, MusiCares Person of the Year and the ELI event. The contest is open to JD and LLM candidates at U.S. law schools. Students have until Jan. 3, 2024, to enter the contest. See official rules, detailed prize packages and deadlines at recordingacademy.com/eli.
Individual tickets and a limited number of discounted student tickets to the ELI event will go on sale later this month.
11/14/2023
We’ll find out on Feb. 4, 2024.
11/14/2023
Bobbi Storm came under fire this past weekend after she shared a video of herself performing on a Delta flight after finding out that she is nominated for two Grammy Awards. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In the clip posted to Instagram on Friday (Nov. 10), […]
In addition to being Grammy-nominated for album of the year for her own album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, Lana Del Rey is featured on two albums that are competing with her album in that category – Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Jon Batiste’s World Music Radio.
Likewise, in addition to being nominated as a member of boygenius for the record, Phoebe Bridgers is featured on SZA’s SOS.
In all but a few years since 2006, this would have meant that Del Rey and Bridgers would have multiple album of the year nods this year. But this year, the Recording Academy added a baseline for receiving an album of the year nomination. Participants must contribute to 20% of an album’s playing time. This applies to featured artists as well as songwriters, producers, engineers, mixers and mastering engineers.
Six of this year’s eight album of the year nominees have featured artists, but none of the featured artists met that 20% requirement. So, these featured artists won’t be in line to win a Grammy even if the album wins, but they will get a certificate and might get a shout-out in the winner’s acceptance speech.
(Nigerian musician Sean Kuti, the youngest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, is featured on two of the 14 tracks on Janelle Monáe’s The Age of Pleasure, but that didn’t quite meet the standard.)
This year’s two other two album of the year nominees – boygenius’ The Record and Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts – had no featured artists.
Here’s how the Grammy rules in this category have changed over the years. From 2006-16, all credited featured artists on the winning album won Grammys. From 2017-20, the baseline requirement was 33% of an album’s playing time, which some thought was too restrictive. From 2021-22, all featured artists were again eligible to win. This year, a baseline was re-added, but one that was more liberal than the previous one – 20%.
During the years when there was no baseline requirement, the featured artists on Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters, Swift’s Fearless, Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and Batiste’s We Are all won Grammys.
Here are the featured artists on this year’s six album of the year nominees that had featured artists.
Jon Batiste’s World Music Radio
Taylor Swift performed her weekend shows in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on an awards season high following the news she’d received six Grammy nominations for her album Midnights — something she cheerfully celebrated onstage with the thousands of fans at Estadio River Plate.
Sitting at her moss-covered piano during the Evermore set of her ongoing Eras Tour, the 33-year-old pop star took a moment to thank Swifties for rallying so hard around her 2022 album. “I started off my morning by getting the extraordinary news that because of you, and because of the way you’ve supported my album Midnights, it just got nominated for six Grammys!” she told the crowd.
Swift went on to do an adorable happy dance to convey how she feels about the half-dozen nods, holding up six fingers and pumping her fists in triumph.
Midnights, which spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200 and became the first album to occupy all 10 of the top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, received Grammy nominations for album of the year and best pop vocal album in the Friday (Nov. 10) announcement. Its lead single, “Anti-Hero,” is also up for record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance, while “Karma” featuring Ice Spice is in the running for best duo/group performance.
Swift set a couple Grammy records this year, becoming the first songwriter in history to earn seven nods for song of the year — although she still hasn’t won in the category — while also tying Barbra Streisand for the most album of the year nominations for a female artist, Midnights marking her sixth AOTY candidate. In addition to the Grammys, the pop superstar is also the top finalist with 20 nods for the 2023 Billboard Music Awards, which will stream on Sunday, Nov. 19. (The BBMAs will stream from BBMAs.watch, as well as Billboard and the BBMAs social channels.)
The Grammy recognition was far from the only newsworthy thing about Swift’s Argentina shows, however. Not only did the singer perform her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) chart-topper “Is It Over Now?” for the first time at the Saturday (Nov. 11) show, but she also changed up the lyrics to “Karma” to give her new beau Travis Kelce a special shoutout: “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me.”
Kelce and Swift were spotted kissing after the show, with the musician running into the Kansas City tight end’s arms.
Watch Swift react to her Grammy nominations onstage below:
Jon Batiste got some very good news on Friday (Nov. 10). World Music Radio, his follow-up to We Are, which won album of the year at the Grammy Awards two years ago, was nominated in that same category.
The victory for We Are two years ago surprised most observers, as did the nomination this year for World Music Radio. The album has so far peaked at No. 104 on the Billboard 200.
In the Grammys’ 66-year history, 20 follow-ups to album of the year winners have been nominated for that same award. Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Adele each did it multiple times.
The follow-ups to several other recent album of the year winners have been nominated in their own right, including Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, her follow-up to When We All Asleep, Where Do We Go?, and Taylor Swift’s evermore, her follow-up to Folklore. (The fact that the number of nominees in each of the Big Four categories expanded from five to eight in 2018, and went as high as 10 before dropping back to eight again this year, is one of the reasons for this, along with Grammy voters’ longtime tendency to stick with a familiar favorite.)
Note: Before 1970, artists often released multiple albums in the same Grammy eligibility year. In some cases, the albums we show were not the artists’ direct follow-up albums, but they were released in the following eligibility year. For example, Barbra Streisand‘s follow-up to the Grammy-winning The Barbra Streisand Album was The Second Barbra Streisand Album, which was released in the same eligibility year (1963). In the following eligibility year, she released The Third Album, followed by People. The latter got an album of the year nod. Since it was the very next year after she won, we’re counting it. It doesn’t seem fair to leave artists out of the conversation just because at that time, albums were released at what we would now consider a torrid pace.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the follow-up albums to three album of the year winners – Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.
Here are all the follow-ups (or following year releases) to album of the year Grammy winners that were nominated in that same category. We show the title of the follow-up that was nominated in this category, mention the Grammy winner for album of the year that it followed, and reveal how this follow-up did in the category.
Henry Mancini’s More Music From Peter Gunn (1959)
Lana Del Rey checked in from Nashville to share her reaction to the five nominations she received for the 2024 Grammy Awards. Although she’s been nominated for a six Grammys previously, she apparently only personally became aware of the process of submitting material for consideration this year.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“I woke up so surprised,” Del Rey said with a giggle in a black-and-white clip posted on Instagram Friday (Nov. 10). “Very excited about these Grammy nominations. Five!”
Del Rey is nominated for album of the year and best alternative album for Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; song of the year and best alternative music performance for “A&W,” and best pop duo/group performance for “Candy Necklace” feat. Jon Batiste.“And we’re singing on I think two of the other albums that are nominated, with Jon and Taylor,” she added, referencing her contributions to Jon Batiste‘s World Live Radio (“Life Lesson”) and Taylor Swift‘s Midnights (“Snow on the Beach”).
Plus, Jack Antonoff is nominated for producer of the year for his work on Del Rey’s Did You Know…, Swift’s Midnights, as well as The 1975‘s Being Funny in a Foreign Language.
Smiling in the Instagram clip, Del Rey said, “It’s just such a fun day. It’s really just about how excited everybody else is, and everybody calling, getting in touch and saying hi. All about the process and just one more exciting thing that’s happening.”
Adding that she was “genuinely touched” by the nominations and support on Friday, Del Rey said, “I in fact only learned this year that you have to submit your own album if you want to be nominated. Even that was out of my wheelhouse, but I did do that.”
Recording Academy members and record companies submit work released during the eligibility period that they believe is worthy of recognition by the Grammys; the submissions for the 2024 awards ceremony had to be released between Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 15, 2023. The Academy’s voting members then participate in the nominating process that determines finalists in each category, and later the final voting process that determines winners.
If Del Rey takes home an award at the 2024 ceremony, it will be her first Grammy win.
Del Rey was in Nashville hanging out with Beth and Luke Laird and Nikki Lane, and earlier this week appeared on The Ryman stage to sing backup for Lukas Nelson on “Find Yourself.”
See the Grammys reaction clip from Lana Del Rey’s Instagram below.
Jelly Roll was overwhelmed with emotion after receiving his first Grammy nominations.
On Friday (Nov. 10), the country star shared a tearful video on social media after learning about his nods for best new artist and best country duo/group performance for the remix of “Save Me” with Lainey Wilson at the upcoming 66th annual Grammy Awards.
“I’m not sure if I should post this or not because I’m so emotional, but the greatest honor an artist can ever hear is that they’ve been nominated for a Grammy,” Jelly Roll said while weeping in a clip on Instagram. “I got to hear that this morning.”
The rising star — who took home new artist of the year award at the 2023 CMA Awards on Nov. 8 — noted that he attempted to record the video seven times.
“I haven’t cried like this since my daddy died,” he said. “I love you all, man, so f—ing much.”
Jelly Roll wrote in the caption that he was “embarrassed” to share the clip but that his wife, Bunnie XO, encouraged him post it because his “honesty and rawness” are two traits he’s known for among fans. “I’ll post a more complete thought about this when I get my head together, he wrote. “I just never would’ve imagined.”
The intimate post received congratulatory messages in the comments from numerous other stars, including Wynonna Judd, Wiz Khalifa, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson, Flavor Flav, Tamar Braxton, Carly Pearce and others.
“YOU DESERVE IT ALL!!!!!!! We are so happy for you!!!!!!! Congratulations my sweet friend,” wrote Judd, who performed her hit “Need a Favor” with the rapper-turned-country singer at the 2023 CMAs.
“Jelly, I love ya. Your energy is contagious. See ya at the GRAMMYs,” Wilson added.
Click here for a full list of nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards, set for Feb. 4, 2024, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
See Jelly Roll’s reaction on Instagram below.
What constitutes a new artist? It’s a question that’s likely on the minds of many who have pored over the list of best new artist nominees at next year’s Grammys.
Indeed, this year’s crop — announced along with the rest of the nominees on Friday (Nov. 10) — includes several acts with notably deep discographies. Jelly Roll — one of 2023’s biggest breakthroughs — started releasing a long string of albums more than a decade ago. Victoria Monét put out her debut EP way back in 2015. And prior to releasing this year’s Lover’s Game, Americana duo The War and Treaty already had three albums under their belt and years of experience outside the band before that.
This is far from a new phenomenon. Chance the Rapper, who won best new artist in 2017, had released three albums prior to winning the award. Lizzo had also put out three full-lengths, including her breakthrough smash Cuz I Love You, prior to her 2020 nomination in the category. And the category’s 2011 winner, Esperanza Spalding, had likewise put out a trio of albums prior to taking home the award.
Some of this is the result of The Recording Academy changing the eligibility criteria over the last decade-and-a-half. After Lady Gaga was deemed ineligible for best new artist in 2010 because she’d been nominated for a Grammy for best dance recording the year prior, the academy updated its rules to allow previous nominees to be nominated for best new artist — just as long as they hadn’t actually won a Grammy, or released an entire album.
Six years after that, the academy again updated the eligibility requirements “to remove the album barrier given current trends in how new music and developing artists are released and promoted.” It also required artists to have “released a minimum of five singles/tracks or one album, but no more than 30 singles/tracks or three albums” in order to qualify.
In 2020, the academy updated the requirements once more by declining to specify the “maximum number of releases” an artist could put out before being deemed ineligible. Instead, it stated that “screening committees will determine whether the artist had attained a breakthrough or prominence prior to the eligibility year.” Today, the academy officially describes the category as recognizing “an artist whose eligibility-year release(s) achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and notably impacted the musical landscape.” In sum, the definition of “new” has become more open-ended than ever.
That may be why this year’s group of nominees is arguably one of the most head-scratching in Grammys history. Below, we take a look at just how “new” this year’s best new artist nominees really are.
The 2024 Grammy Awards ceremony will be telecast live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 4.
Gracie Abrams
Image Credit: Danielle Neu
“There’s a party going on here this morning,” a laughing Robert Glasper tells Billboard after learning about his nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards. Glasper received two nods this go-round — best R&B performance and best R&B song — both for the track “Back to Love,” featuring SiR and Alex Isley.
To date, Glasper has won five Grammys and earned 12 nominations, claiming his first career Grammy for best R&B album for Black Radio back in 2012. But the artist/songwriter/producer/pianist says receiving a Grammy nomination never gets old.
“It feels new every time,” he explains, “no matter how many times I’ve won or been nominated. Because there are so many new artists and producers out here; so much music. So for me to get selected down to only five is always an honor and always, to be honest, kind of unexpected for me. When I say that, people always say what you do you mean?. But like I said there are so many great artists out here that I never take it for granted or never think I’ll be a shoo-in.”
The genesis of “Back to Love” stems from Glasper’s scoring of the Starz original series Run the World: Season 2. Last October, he got a call from the show’s team asking if he could pull off writing and recording a song needed for a specific scene in the season’s last episode. However, there was a catch: The deadline was under two weeks. But it also gave him the chance to work with SiR and Alex Isley, each of whom he’s worked with separately on other projects.
“I’ve always been a fan of SiR and Alex,” says Glasper. “They’re both so effortless in their writing with something original to say that it just made sense to call them. And they got it done so fast. They also have such unique voices. So the fact that we worked on this together means everything. It was just a match made in heaven.”
The artists/songwriters that Glasper is vying against in the best R&B performance and best R&B song categories include SZA, Halle Bailey, Chris Brown, Coco Jones and Victoria Monét. “Everyone in those categories is great. It’s always amazing to be mentioned in that kind of company,” says Glasper. That includes Brown, who earlier this year queried on social media “Who da f-k is this?” after his album Breezy (Deluxe) lost to Glasper’s Black Radio III for best R&B album at the 65th Grammy ceremony. Brown later apologized.
“As a talent, I hold Chris Brown in the highest regard,” notes Glasper. “He’s a great singer and performer. I’ve never had anything negative to say about Chris.”
Glasper’s across-the-aisle genre work with other nominees in the aforementioned categories, including Bailey and Jones, also symbolizes his own version of the six degrees of separation theory.
“I remember going to Chloe x Halle’s first major performance in Los Angeles,” shares Houston native Glasper. “I went to high school with Beyoncé as well as the A&R head at Parkwood. He asked me back then if I’d mind coming to their first show. So to see them [sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey] both blossom has been amazing to watch. I’m so proud of them.
“And that goes for Coco as well,” Glasper adds. He got the chance to work with Jones when he and Terrace Martin scored the first season of last year’s Bel-Air, the reimagined version of the popular ’90s series TheFresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the reboot, Jones played the character Hilary Banks. “I’ve been putting music to her talking for a long time,” says Glasper with another laugh.