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In the two years that the Recording Academy has presented a Grammy for songwriter of the year, non-classical, four women have been nominated for the award. Amy Allen, Nija Charles and Laura Veltz were nominated in the category’s inaugural year. Jessie Jo Dillon was nominated at the ceremony in February.
Men won both years. Tobias Jesso Jr. won in 2023 for writing songs by such artists as Harry Styles, Adele and FKA Twigs. Theron Thomas won earlier this year for writing songs by such artists as Lil Durk featuring J. Cole, Tyla and Chlöe.
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The list of 61 songwriters vying for nominations in that category this year includes 20 women, one of whom may make history as the first woman to win in the category.
The list includes two women who have already won Grammys – Allen, who won album of the year in 2023 for her songwriting contributions to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, and Diane Warren, who won best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television in 1997 for “Because You Loved Me” from the Michelle Pfeiffer film Up Close and Personal.
This year’s entry list also includes eight women who have been nominated for one or more Grammys, but have yet to win – Dillon, Sarah Aarons, Caroline Ailin, Jessi Alexander, Brittany Amaradio (aka Delacey), Ink (Atia Boggs), Ali Tamposi and Emily Warren.
The list also includes 10 women who are vying for their first Grammy nomination – Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Jessie Early, Julia Gargano, Sarah Hudson, Lauren Lee Hungate, Steph Jones, Kayla Morrison, RAYE, Sasha Alex Sloan and Betsy Walter.
You may be surprised to see RAYE on the list, due to the academy’s focus in this category on non-artists. To qualify for the award, writers “must have written a minimum of five songs in which they are credited solely as a songwriter or co-writer” (and not also as a primary or featured artist, or producer). But if they meet that threshold, they may also have written or co-written tracks on which they were the artist.
RAYE qualified because in addition to writing for herself, she writes for other artists. Her entries this year include Rita Ora’s “Ask & You Shall Receive,” Halle’s “Because I Love You,” Jennifer Lopez’s “Dear Ben Pt. II,” Beyoncé’s “Riiverdance,” and Neiked’s “You’re Hired” (featuring Ayra Starr).
Nominated songwriters can come from any musical field, except classical. Those composers are recognized in the best contemporary classical composition category.
Will any of these women be nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical? We’ll find out on Nov. 8 when the nominees are announced. Winners will be revealed on Feb. 2.
As a bonus, here are the first women to win in 10 other songwriting categories at the Grammys.
Song of the year: Carole King in 1972 for writing “You’ve Got a Friend,” which was featured on her Tapestry album and was also a No. 1 Hot 100 hit for James Taylor. It took a while for a woman to win this award: This was the category’s 14th year. King later also became the first woman to win the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
Best rock song: Alanis Morisette in 1996 for co-writing “You Oughta Know,” the most incendiary track on her Jagged Little Pill album, with Glen Ballard. This was the category’s fifth year.
Best R&B song: Betty Wright in 1976, for co-writing her track “Where Is the Love” with Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch (both of KC and the Sunshine Band) and Willie Clarke. Note: This is not the far more famous Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway song of the same title, but confusion with that classic may have worked to this song’s benefit. This was the category’s eighth year.
Best rap song: Miri Ben Ari in 2005, for co-writing Ye’s “Jesus Walks” with Che Smith and Kanye West (as Ye was then known). This was the category’s second year.
Best country song: Debbie Hupp in 1980, for co-writing the Kenny Rogers ballad hit “You Decorated My Life” with Bob Morrison. This was the category’s 16th year.
Best song written for visual media: Cynthia Weil in 1988, for co-writing the Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram hit “Somewhere Out There” (from An American Tail) with her husband and longtime collaborator Barry Mann and film composer James Horner. This was the category’s first year. (The ballad also won song of the year.)
Best American roots song: Edie Brickell in 2014 for cowriting “Love Has Come for You” with Steve Martin. They also recorded the song. This was the category’s first year.
Best gospel song: Yolanda Adams in 2006 for cowriting her track “Be Blessed” with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and James Q. Wright. This was the category’s first year. The award is now known as best gospel performance/song.
Best contemporary Christian song: Laura Story in 2012 for writing her own track “Blessings.” This was the category’s third year. The award is now known as best contemporary Christan music performance/song.
Best contemporary classical composition: Joan Tower in 2008 for composing “Made in America.” This was the category’s 30th year.
Pharrell Williams is the latest guest to test his taste buds on Hot Ones, and while he was feeling the heat of the increasingly spicy chicken wings before him, the multi-hyphenate artist opened up about working with some of his long list of collaborators.
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When host Sean Evans asked him about his teenage years “jamming out” with soon-to-be fellow superstars like Timbaland, Missy Elliott, the Clipse and more, Williams that it felt like “kids having fun.”
He continued, “We didn’t know where it was going to end up. That’s the thing, falling in love with the process. It’s not necessarily the ‘there,’ it’s the ‘getting there,’ it’s the ‘going,’ it’s the process, it’s the journey.”
Later on in the interview, Evans listed off some of Williams collaborators, and challenged him to share his first thought about them in the studio. With Daft Punk, Williams noted that being in the studio with a “robot” is “euphoric, because you’re around two absolute masters.”
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Beck, Williams says, is “one of the most eclectic people with one of the deepest mental libraries of all kinds of records,” calling him a “walking almanac.” He wrapped up by calling N.O.R.E. “so funny, bombastic with the energy he wants to evoke when he’s making a song.”
Beyond releasing his biographical Lego film, Piece by Piece, on Oct. 11, it’s gearing up to be an exciting next few months for Williams. The star will serve as a co-chair for the 2025 Met Gala among a group of Black men including Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky and honorary chair LeBron James.
This year’s theme is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which draws inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
Williams’ Something in the Water festival will also return in April 2025 after being postponed last month. “Dearest Virginia, I love you with all my heart,” he wrote in a statement at the time. “Nobody loves you more than I do. Virginia doesn’t deserve better, Virginia deserves THE BEST. So SOMETHING IN THE WATER has to match that. It just isn’t ready yet.”
Watch Pharrell Williams on Hot Ones below.
Elle King just gave an update on her relationship with dad Rob Schneider — not that there’s much to say.
While stopping by Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live on Wednesday, the 35-year-old singer/songwriter revealed that even she isn’t certain where things stand with the comedian after he publicly apologized for his “shortcomings” as a father in an August interview with Tucker Carlson. “Umm, I’m not sure,” King said when asked about the current state of their relationship. “I haven’t spoken to him.”
The “Ex’s & Oh’s” musician did confirm, however, that she watched Schneider’s apology to her — not that she stayed tuned for the rest of Carlson’s interview with the Deuce Bigalow actor. “I think it was like two hours long, so no,” she said. “Nobody wants to listen to that. But I did see his apology, yeah. Of course I watched that, yeah.”
The talk-show appearance comes about two months after King slammed her famous father for being “toxic” on Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast, on which the four-time Grammy nominee also accused Schneider of sending her to “fat camp,” forgetting her birthdays and being overall absent from her life as she was growing up. A couple of days later, Schneider appeared on Carlson’s YouTube show and directly addressed his daughter, whom he had with model London King.
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“I wish I was the father in my 20s that you needed, and clearly, I wasn’t,” he said at the time. “I hope you can forgive me for my shortcomings. “I feel terrible, and I just want you to know that I don’t take anything you say personally.”
About a month after that, King once again spoke about her father. “I was just speaking about my childhood and about my truth,” she told People in September of her Dumb Blonde appearance. “I was not trying to hurt him.”
“A lot of people said, ‘How could she say that about her family?’ and ‘Everything needs to be behind closed doors.’ No, it doesn’t,” she continued at the time. “Sometimes you have to just say things and get them off your chest so that you don’t have to carry it for the rest of your life.”
If this were 25 years ago and Beanie Sigel was coming to your front door, uninvited, and accompanied by a crew of about a dozen, maybe his intentions would be more on the nefarious side. But the hip-hop legend, whose nicknames include “The Broad Street Bully,” is out in broad daylight determined to positively affect change. It’s September 17, National Voter’s Registration Day, and Sigel has quite the entourage as he canvases homes throughout Detroit’s 8 Mile. Beans is flanked by his State Property collective brother Freeway, media personality and Quality Control Records A&R Wayno, Harlem MC Smoke DZA, Bronx rapper Mysonne, and My’s tag team partner in activism, Tamika Mallory.
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“Hello ma’am, good afternoon to you, my name is Beans,” Sigel says with a grin to an elderly woman as he stands on her porch. Unfortunately, the brimming bravado that endeared him to so many as a mainstay of Roc-A-Fella Records in the 2000s, is turned down. Undeterred by rejection, Sigel speaks calmly and candidly to seniors and youngsters while taking pictures with OGs on the block who came up on his music. Across the street is a contingent of Detroit born and bred MCs captained by Icewear Vezzo, who too are ringing doorbells and knocking on doors. Today, these hip-hop coalitions share the same goals: sign up as many people as they can who are of legal age, but not registered to vote.
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“I’ve lived a very colorful past, where I haven’t always done good in the neighborhood,” Sigel would say later in his sprinter heading to Wayne State University, where he and his compatriots would go on and register students there to vote. “This is a chance for me to not only do some good for the people, but for myself, as well. As I got out and talked to people and share the information about voting and my experience, I’m taking some gems away from the people. We are all learning together in these conversations.”
Ice Wear Veezo at the launch of Vote or Else on Sept, 22 2024 in Detroit, MI.
Courtesy of Mobilize Justice
“It was a dope experience,” Freeway adds. “I get a lot of love in Detroit. I feel so strongly about the city. Me and Beans have been coming out here since the early 2000s. It was a good experience to go door-to-door. I feel like they connect with us through our music anyway, but being able to connect with them in-person and talk about real life [issues] is an amazing experience. They knew we were speaking to them from a real place and not just trying to make some money. It seemed like people were really receptive to getting registered and those that were registered said they would be going out to vote.”
This past summer, Sigel started spearheading a movement to get involved — not so much in politics, but getting more educated in the political process. With the urging and guidance of his close friend and fellow Philly native Marvin Bing, Beanie aligned himself with organizations Mobilize Justice (which Bing founded) and AAP and started going directly into various communities. Beans would give personal testimony about his journey and heard the stories of the locals, which included activists, members of the church, social media influencers, small business owners and business executives. These conversations commenced in mid-July in Detroit and continued in August in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.
“We started talking to the people in the community about the issues affecting them and what they wanted to see addressed,” Sigel elaborates. “If they have not voted in the past, we talked about what may have discouraged them from doing so. If they have voted before and will keep putting their ballots in the boxes, we asked them to elaborate on what inspired or inspires them to continue. We don’t try to sway people in the direction to vote for this person or vote for that person. I do tell them to get informed about what candidates’ policies are and who can be beneficial to your needs, your family’s needs and your community’s needs.”
Mysonne during an interview for the launch of Vote or Else on Sept, 22 2024 in Detroit, MI.
Courtesy of Mobilize Justice
As National Voter’s Registration Day turned into night, more hip-hop luminaries started landing in Detroit to participate in a Town Hall called “Vote Or Else” at the Huntington Place convention center. The event was open to the public who were already registered or signed up to register to vote. Nipsey Hussle’s brother Blacc Sam — who runs The Marathon brand and store — Killer Mike and Pusha T were among those also participating.
“Everybody thinks it’s always on such a presidential level. Bro, it’s the state and local [elections] too. That’s where you’re gonna feel it at,” Pusha T says about the voting process. “It’s about being mindful of that and knowing what you’re really getting into. Understand the policies of those who are running in circles that are close to you. Be mindful. At this time more than ever, you’re watching the industry, the community, everybody, at once are feeling the effects of the government. We’re seeing the effects of it. The only way to change that is to get out there and vote.”
Reverend Michael McBride, co-founder of The Black Church PAC and lead Pastor of The Way Church in Berkley, CA was the moderator for a very spirited conversation about reparations for Black people, the need for Black entrepreneurship, the hip-hop community using their voices and platforms as vehicle to inspire and the need to vote.
Killer Mike at the launch of Vote or Else on Sept, 22 2024 in Detroit, MI.
Courtesy of Mobilize Justice
“These are the conversations we need,” Killer Mike said afterwards, still standing on the stage as everyone began dispersing. “We need to be in a constant state of organizing, Kwame Ture once said. We need to be in a constant state of educating ourselves, Fred Hampton said. So for me, whether you read The Wretched of Tte Earth or Watch The White Guys Have All the Fun, we need to come to a place where we’re alone, [and] outside of cameras, to discuss what’s going on in our communities.”
He adds: “What we had here was a great discussion. I loved that, because I walked away knowing more, feeling more empowered, more engaged. I know if we do this at home, if we do this in our living rooms, that’s where the real organization begins.”
“Vote or Else” isn’t just the name of the Town Hall; Mobilize Justice, The Black Church PAC and AAPI have joined forces as one organization under the same name. Their initiatives are to eradicate voter suppression, the mass incarceration of Black people and end gun violence in the Black community. Vote Or Else are putting out a self-titled EP with contributions from MCs such as Bun B, Havoc From Mobb Deep, Styles P. and of course Beans and Free. The lead cut was just released and is called “Still Here.” The track is a collaboration of fiery, insightful wordsmiths, Benny The Butcher, Jay Electronica, Black Thought from The Roots and Freeway.
“It’s time for us to come together and stand up for something, stand up for something we believe in,” Freeway said of the MCs joining forces for a common cause. “I gained a lot of respect for certain artists that were out there. Especially Icewear Vezzo. As soon as I pulled up to the community earlier, his mom and his family were out there speaking to people about voting. He does sneaker and clothing drives, he has a juice bar in the city. So he doesn’t just talk, he invests in the community. When I got first signed to Roc-A-Fella records, Jay-Z and Dame Dash instilled that in us. This music thing is just a launch pad for 1000 other things we can do.”
Flavor Flav is celebrating an important milestone while helping others. The Public Enemy musician took to social media on Oct. 10, which is also World Mental Health Day, to announce that next week marks “4 years sober from alcohol.” To help others struggling with mental health, Flav noted that he reached out to AI therapy […]
Feid is set to light up Miami as Billboard Latin Music Week marks its 35th year in the heart of Miami Beach. But who is Feid, and how did this Colombian sensation ascend to the echelons of global stardom?
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The Colombian singer-songwriter began his music journey in Medellín, learning the clarinet before focusing on singing. He joined a children’s choir and performed in talent shows. In his 20s, he became a sought-after songwriter for major Latin artists — he co-wrote J Balvin’s first global hit, “Ginza” (2015) — and signed with Universal Music Latin Entertainment. Feid released his debut album, Así Como Suena, in 2017, and by his third album, Ferxxo, Vol. 1: M.O.R. (2020), he had reached No. 1 on Latin Airplay.
His success continued with albums such as Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo Te Pirateamos el Álbum (2022), and Mor, No le Temas a la Oscuridad (2023), which peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard 200. To date, he holds eight No. 1 hits on Latin Airplay and 10 Latin Rhythm Airplay charts.
Ferxxo’s journey is highlighted as he prepares to appear at Billboard Latin Music Week in Miami on Monday, Oct. 14, on a panel called From Clubs to Stadiums featuring Feid, presented by Live Nation. Get your tickets here.
Watch the video about Feid’s success above, then catch up on more Billboard Explains videos and learn about Peso Pluma and the Mexican music boom, the role record labels play, origins of hip-hop, how Beyoncé arrived at Renaissance, BBMAs, NFTs, SXSW, American Music Awards, the Billboard Latin Music Awards and more.
Cuban artist José Manuel Carbajal Zaldívar, best known as El Taiger, has died. He was 37 years old. The urbano singer passed away on Thursday (Oct. 10) a week after being shot in the head, his family confirmed in an official statement posted on El Taiger’s Instagram Stories.
“On the morning of Friday, October 4, 2024, Jose Manuel Carvajal, known as ‘El Taiger,’ was the victim of a senseless violent crime. He was found near Jackson Memorial Hospital and immediately transported to the Emergency Intensive Care Unit,” the statement reads. “From the moment of his arrival, a team of physicians at Jackson Memorial worked tirelessly to provide him with the care he needed. We are extremely grateful. During this incredibly difficult time, family, friends and supporters joined together in prayer, hope and support, seeking a miracle. To all who offered their prayers, we thank you. Sadly, this afternoon, El Taiger was pronounced dead and is now reunited with his beloved mother in heaven.”
One of the most popular Cubaton artists (a genre that fuses reggaeton with traditional Cuban rhythms), El Taiger is known for his Cuban-rooted urban sound heard in songs such as “La Historia,” “El Papelito” and “Habla Matador.” His debut album, Taiger, was released in 2016 on Puerto Rican hip-hop artist Cosculluela’s label Rottboyz, and in 2017, he was featured on the Fate of the Furious movie soundtrack on producer Pinto “Wahin” and DJ Ricky Luna’s track “La Habana.” His most recent production, “Rulay,” in collaboration with Ecuadorian newcomer Niko G, came out this summer.
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According to a press conference offered by the chief of the Miami Police Department last week, officers responded to a call just after 7 a.m. on Oct. 3, where they found a man inside a black vehicle who had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. El Taiger was then transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he underwent surgery and remained in critical condition until his passing. Billboard reached out to the Miami PD to get an update on the investigation, but did not hear back at press time.
“While this news is both shocking and heartbreaking, we encourage fans of El Taiger to honor his memory by celebrating the joy he brought to so many,” the family’s statement continues. “Turn up your music, dance and celebrate his life. El Taiger was the sentiment of the people, and now we must keep that sentiment alive through his music and his legacy.”
Kane Brown will launch 2025 with a new album and a new tour when he releases his album The High Road on Jan. 24 and sets out on The High Road Tour beginning March 13 in San Diego, Calif. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The tour […]
Halsey’s The Great Impersonator is almost here, and the superstar dropped a new track off the album on Thursday (Oct. 10) titled “I Never Loved You.” Leading up to the release, Halsey continued their Instagram series in which they impersonate a different musical icon and the song they inspired. For “I Never Loved You,” the […]
After securing a record-setting 21 weeks atop Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs chart with his 2024 hit “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar continues to rack up the accolades. Now, his 2017 Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Humble” has reached the venerable one billion mark, becoming the rapper’s second-ever video to accomplish such a feat. Released in 2017, […]