Music

12 Oct 2023

Drake Ends Grammy Hold Out, Submits ‘Her Loss’ for Album of the Year, Best Rap Album Consideration

Drake has been absent from the Grammy Awards mix lately, but that drought appears to be over as the 6 God has offered up his joint album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, for consideration in several categories.

Billboard has confirmed that Her Loss was submitted for album of the year and best rap album for the 2024 awards show — news first reported by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday (Oct. 11) — while the songs “Rich Flex” and “Spin Bout U” were offered up in categories including record of the year, song of the year for both, best rap performance (“Rich Flex”), best rap song (“Rich Flex”) and best melodic rap performance (“Spin Bout U”). Drake also could earn further nominations for his collaborations on Travis Scott’s “Meltdown” and Young Thug’s “Oh U Want,” which are both entered for both rap song and best rap performance.

Her Loss was released in November 2022 and qualifies for the Feb. 4, 2024, Grammys because it falls into an eligibility period that opened on Oct. 1, 2022, and ran through Sept. 15, 2023; balloting for first-round voting for those awards opened on Wednesday, with nominations slated for announcement on Nov. 10.

Billboard has reached out to Drake and 21 Savage’s reps for comment.

Drake has criticized the Grammys in the past and withdrew his rap noms for the 2022 awards, with his management asking the Recording Academy to remove him from nominee consideration on the final-found balloting for 2022’s 64th annual awards in April 2022, a request the Academy honored. He also did not submit his 2022 Honestly, Nevermind album or any of its singles for consideration at this year’s Grammys in February. He did, however, share a best melodic rap performance trophy for his guest spot on Future’s “Wait For U” from the latter’s I Never Liked You album.

In 2020, Drake criticized the Grammys after The Weeknd (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye) received no nominations for his After Hours album. “I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artist that exist now and the ones that come after,” Drake said in an Insta story at the time. “It’s like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just won’t change their ways.”

Drake’s latest album, For All the Dogs, was released Oct. 6 and would be eligible for the 2025 Grammys.

12 Oct 2023

‘Good’ News: Usher Earns 29th Top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart, His First Since 2016

Usher lands in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for the first time in seven years as “Good Good” with Summer Walker and 21 Savage advances 11-7 on the list dated Oct. 14. The ascent comes from the song’s sales gains and increased radio reach as it captures or nears the summit of multiple airplay charts.

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In the latest tracking week (Sept. 29 – Oct. 5), “Good Good” generated 5.4 million official U.S. streams, according to Luminate, a 1% increase from the prior week, and 2,000 sales downloads (up 45%) that spark a 5-3 push for a new peak on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart. For radio airplay, “Good Good” registered 38.7 million total audience impressions, a 9% improvement from the previous frame.

Diving further into the radio ranks, “Good Good” wins a second week at No. 1 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart as the most heard song on U.S. monitored R&B/hip-hop radio stations, despite a 2% drop for the week in plays. It also cracks the top 10 on Adult R&B Airplay (11-9) through a 16% surge in weekly plays and repeats at its No. 2 high on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, which ranks songs by combined audience listenership on the adult R&B and mainstream R&B/hip-hop formats. There, “Good Good” climbed 2% in weekly impressions to 20.3 million at the format.

With “Good Good,” Usher achieves his 29th career top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and first since “No Limit” featuring Young Thug in 2016. Here’s a full rundown of his top 10 collection:

Song Title, Artist (if other than Usher), Peak Position, Peak Date

  • “Think of You,” No. 8, April 29, 1995
  • “You Make Me Wanna…,” No. 1 (11 weeks), Sept. 6, 1997
  • “Nice & Slow,” No. 1 (eight), Jan. 24, 1998
  • “My Way,” No. 4, July 4, 1998
  • “U Remind Me,” No. 1 (four), July 7, 2001
  • “U Got It Bad,” No. 1 (seven), Nov. 17, 2001
  • “U Don’t Have to Call,” No. 2, March 23, 2002
  • “I Need a Girl (Part One),” No. 2, May 25, 2002
  • “Yeah!,” featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris, No. 1 (eight), March 6, 2004
  • “Burn,” No. 1 (four), June 5, 2004
  • “Confessions Part II,” No. 1 (two), July 10, 2004
  • “My Boo,” with Alicia Keys, No. 1 (three), Oct. 23, 2004
  • “Lovers & Friends,” Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz featuring Usher & Ludacris, No. 2, Jan. 22, 2005
  • “Same Girl,” with R. Kelly, No. 4, July 28, 2007
  • “Love in This Club,” featuring Young Jeezy, No. 1 (four), April 12, 2008
  • “Love in This Club Part II,” featuring Beyoncé & Lil Wayne, No. 7, June 21, 2008
  • “Trading Places,” No. 4, Jan. 3, 2009
  • “Papers,” No. 1 (two), Dec. 12, 2009
  • “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home),” featuring Plies, No. 2, April 10, 2010
  • “Lil Freak,” featuring Nicki Minaj, No. 8, May 1, 2010
  • “There Goes My Baby,” No. 1 (four), Aug. 14, 2010
  • “OMG,” featuring will.i.am, No. 3, June 26, 2010
  • “Hot Tottie,” featuring Jay-Z, No. 9, Oct. 23, 2010
  • “Climax,” No. 1 (11), April 28, 2012
  • “Lemme See,” featuring Rick Ross, No. 2, Aug. 4, 2012
  • “New Flame,” Chris Brown featuring Usher & Rick Ross, No. 6, Oct. 4, 2014
  • “I Don’t Mind,” featuring Juicy J, No. 1 (one), Feb. 14, 2015
  • “No Limit,” featuring Young Thug, No. 9, Oct. 8, 2016
  • “Good Good,” with Summer Walker & 21 Savage, No. 7, Oct. 14, 2023

Summer Walker nabs her fourth Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs top 10, after 2019’s “Playing Games” (No. 9) and 2021’s “No Love” with SZA (No. 5) and “Bitter” with Cardi B (No. 9). 21 Savage, meanwhile, secures his 30th top 10, and fourth this year.

Elsewhere, “Good Good” rises 4-3 on the Hot R&B Songs chart and jumps 36-28 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. The single will appear on Usher’s next album, Coming Home, which will be released on Feb. 11, the same day that the superstar will headline the halftime show of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.

12 Oct 2023

Latto and Christina Aguilera Tease a Collab: ‘Did Somebody Say Just Eat?’

Christina Aguilera and Latto are cooking something up. And according to a series of teases over the past few days it sounds delicious. “Y’all ready for something new?” Latto asks in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday in which Aguilera can be heard hitting one of her signature sky-high notes in the background.

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“Did somebody say just eat?” Latto adds over operatic trills and images of the two women modeling billowing Victorian-era ball gowns while sitting on the white steps of a mansion. The words “just eat” are then repeated in dramatic fashion over a logo comprised of a knife and fork inside a white house. The post promises a release today (Oct. 12) along with the hashtag @JustEatUK.

Xtina reposted the tease tagging the Uk food delivery service JustEat, which added, “Y’all ready for our latest track featuring our two new queens @xtina @Latto? [crown, heart eyes emoji].

On Tuesday the pair began setting the stage for the project, with Latto tweeting “Should we tell them? [eyes and mouth covered emoji] @xtina, with the “Genie in a Bottle” singer responding “I think it’s time babe…” At press time no additional information was available on the project.

Earlier this week, Aguilera announced that she has a new series of “seductively cozy” shows set for Voltaire Belle de Nuit at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas beginning New Year’s Eve weekend. Latto, meanwhile, is slated to appear on the song “Fine As Can Be” on Offset’s Set It Off solo album, which is due out on Friday (Oct. 13).

Check out the tease below.

12 Oct 2023

Madonna’s Celebration Tour Will Feature More Than 40 Songs Comprising a ‘Documentary Through Her Vast Career’

After pushing back the launch of her eagerly anticipated career-spanning Celebration Tour due to a health scare earlier this year, Madonna is set to kick off the outing at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday (Oct. 14).

And according to the tour‘s musical director, Stuart Price, fans can expect more than 40 songs from across her four-decade career, plus some special surprises that will nod to the pop icon’s legendary impact on pop culture. “A greatest hit doesn’t have to be a song,” Price told BBC News. “It can be a wardrobe, it can be a video, or a statement.”

So whether your jam is “Material Girl,” “La Isla Bonita,” “Ray of Light,” “Frozen,” “Live To Tell” or “Into the Groove,” Price said there will be something for everyone, including archival footage and studio recordings that will help tell the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s story in what he described as “a documentary through her vast career.”

The O2 launch will be the first of six shows at the venue, where Price noted fans will not see a band on stage for the first time since the beginning of Madonna’s career. “There are live musicians that perform at different parts of the show,” he explained. “But what we realized is that the original recordings are our stars. Those things can’t be replicated and can’t be recreated, so we decided just to embrace that.”

Price said honing the set list was a “big” challenge given Madonna’s decades of hits — including 50 No. 1s on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart — so many of the big ones will be played in full, while others will be interpolated into other songs and some will be used as “bridges” between acts. Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 Confessions On a Dance Floor album and has been music director on three of her previous world tours, added that there will be around 25 songs performed in full, with elements of 20 others appearing in “some form.”

The show will also employ Madonna’s original multi-track recordings, including a vocal take Price said includes the sound of a “car going by in the background,” and, cryptically, a “solo from a guitarist who’s no longer with us.”

The long-awaited beginning of the tour comes nearly five months after Madonna was rushed to the hospital in June after being found unconscious in her New York apartment due to a “serious bacterial infection.” The hospitalization resulted in the tour being pushed back from July to October, with the North American dates — which were originally slated to kick off the run on July 15 in Vancouver — delayed until later this year. The North American dates are now slated to kick off on Dec. 13 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and run through an April 24 gig at Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City.

“The person that is going to take the stage looks incredible, sounds incredible, performs incredible,” said Price of the 65-year-old singer he noted has “fully” recovered. In fact, he said the legendarily detail-oriented star used the three-month delay to further tweak and dial-in the show.

“Madonna has very high expectations of how much hard work people will put into something,” Stuart said. “It’s very uncompromising – but she’s equally as hard on herself. So when she took a break, that pause created an opportunity to further enhance the show. And I’m sure the opportunity [for her] to focus on being 100% well was greatly received as well.”

He described the story line as reflecting the arc of Madonna’s career, “from being a young woman in New York and learning the scene, all the way through to motherhood, spiritual awakenings, and all the ups and downs. The storyline was just really, really compelling.” If that sounds similar to a since-shelved biopic that was to star Julia Garner, Price said that’s no coincidence since Madonna is expert at cross-pollinating ideas from different projects.

“In this case there’d been consideration about doing a biopic [which gave] this tour the potential for having a documentary aspect to it as well,” he said, which explains why the show will incorporate news footage, classic costumes and videos.

Check out Madonna’s tease of the tour launch below.

12 Oct 2023

Cardi B Blown Away By Offset’s Over-the-Top Birthday Surprise: ‘You Always Go Beyond For Me’

If there are any rose petals, balloons or candles left in Atlanta it’s not for Offset‘s lack of trying. The Migos rapper went way above and beyond to celebrate wife Cardi B‘s 31st birthday on Wednesday (Oct. 11) by flooding the zone at the couple’s house with a lavish display.

“Thank you soo much babe @offsetyrn …you always go beyond for me,” Cardi wrote on Instagram alongside a video of her freaking out over the surprise, which included rose petal-strewn steps, an entire room covered in petals, giant “Happy Birthday” balloons, an enormous flower heart with the “Bongos” MC’s name on it and a ceiling covered in pink balloons.

“I love your skin,I love your face,I love your body , your ankles,I love your soul,I love your heart,I love your fart ,I love your faith,I love your talent ,I will BITE anybody for you lmaaooooo ❤️❤️❤️❤️,” Cardi added.

In the audio of the clip, Cardi can’t believe the lengths ‘Set went to to honor her, saying, “Ahhh… So this is why you was rushing me to go downstairs and eat?… Wow, oh my God. This n—a, I swear to God! Wow. I love you, thank you. Seems like it’s gonna be his birthday the way i’m gonna [mouth noises]. I love you, I love you, thank you so much. I’ll bite you b–ches for this man!”

Cardi and Offset married in 2017 and they share two children, 5-year-old Kulture Kiari and 2-year-old Wave Set. Bold displays are clearly his thing, as last month Offset celebrated their sixth anniversary by, you guessed it, filling up the foyer of their house with an avalanche of pink and red flowers and white candles. “Thank you for the flowers, the empowerment, the protection and for being a great father to our children… I love so many things about you,” Cardi wrote at the time.

Check out Offset’s lavish gift below.

12 Oct 2023

Jimmy Barnes, Amy Shark, The Temper Trap Lead Mushroom 50 Anniversary Concert

MELBOURNE, Australia — Mushroom Group will celebrate its half-century next month with a special all-star concert, its lineup representing the music company’s indie spirit and broad church roster.

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Jimmy Barnes, Amy Shark, The Temper Trap, Vika & Linda, DMA’S, Paul Kelly, Ross Wilson, Kate Ceberano, Missy Higgins and many others are confirmed for Mushroom 50, set for Sunday, Nov. 26 at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.

Mushroom 50 will be an “incredible once-in-a-lifetime night,” comments Matt Gudinski, CEO of Mushroom Group, a commemoration of 50 years “of great Mushroom music and Australian talent.”

The independent music juggernaut was launched by the late Michael Gudinski back in 1972 Mushroom Records, when the entrepreneur was just 20.

With MG, the brash, inspirational leader at the helm, Mushroom shaped Australia’s music culture like no other brand. Today, the group is a two-dozen-strong collection of affiliates active in every conceivable area of the music and entertainment industries, from touring to booking agencies, publishing, merch and marketing services, venues, exhibition and events production, neighboring rights, branding, labels, talent management and more.

Matt Gudinski is now the leader, following the passing of his father Michael in 2021.

“The Mushroom family is determined to bring together a special evening for all involved,” he comments. “With more than 20 artists performing as part of the event, this will be a true celebration of Australian music and a showcase our thriving local music scene and its history. I know my late father would be very proud of what we are putting together.”

On the night, performers will hit a mix of originals and classic songs from across the Mushroom catalog, including “Working Class Man,” “Holy Grail,” “Sweet Disposition,” “Riptide,” “Hoops,” “It’s Only the Beginning,” “Before Too Long,” and “Living In The 70s.”

Mushroom 50 is the culmination of a months-long program of releases and activities, which have included limited-edition merchandise and frontline artist covers of classic Mushroom songs.

The milestone anniversary was also celebrated with the release of Ego, the feature length documentary on MG, a larger-than-life character whose death was mourned by many of the giants he worked with, from Paul McCartney to Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and his bestie, Ed Sheeran.

Mushroom Group hasn’t missed a chance to celebrate its big moments. In 1983, Mushroom hosted its 10th birthday bash, with the Mushroom Evolution Concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Then, in 1998, the Mushroom 25 Live concert at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a concert that, at the time, entered the history books as the largest ever ticketed concert in Australian music history, with 73,000 in the stadium. Mushroom Group still holds the record, thanks to Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour earlier in the year, when the Brit played to 105,000 on one evening, then topped it with 109,500. Frontier Touring, a division of Mushroom Group, produced that tour.

From every ticket sold to Mushroom 50, A$2 will go towards Support Act’s Ausmusic T-Shirt Day campaign.

The Telstra Plus presale starts Friday, Oct. 13, ahead of the Frontier Touring members presale on Monday, Oct. 16. The general public on sale begins Wednesday, Oct. 18.

For more visit mushroom50.com. Mushroom 50 Live is in partnership with ALWAYS LIVE and Telstra.

12 Oct 2023

Taylor Swift’s Theater-by-Theater Speech, A Beyoncé Cameo & More From Inside the ‘Eras Tour’ Film Premiere

Just like The Eras Tour itself, Taylor Swift is making her Eras Tour film all about the fans.

At Wednesday’s (Oct. 11) premiere of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour at The Grove in Los Angeles, a host of VIPs were on hand — from Beyoncé (more on her below) to Adam Sandler, Maren Morris and Julia Garner. But when it came time for Swift to rub elbows ahead of the movie, the pop superstar chose to spend her time on the other side of the red carpet, where fans invited to the film’s debut were lined up along a barricade waiting for a glimpse of their idol.

They ended up getting more than just a glimpse, as Swift took selfies with dozens of fans and personally thanked them for supporting her most ambitious tour yet, which now has its own ambitious movie to match.

And the gratitude train was just getting started, because Swift also made her way to each AMC theater at The Grove that was screening her movie on Wednesday night to gave a three-minute speech about why the tour meant so much to her.

“We did this show rain or shine, in sickness and in health, no matter what was going on in our lives,” she said from the stage of each theater. “And we did it with a grin on our face because of what greeted us on the other side.”

Before Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour hits theaters early on Thursday night, see some of the best moments from the film’s Hollywood premiere — and also what was left on the cutting-room floor from the first three nights of Swift’s six-night stint at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

12 Oct 2023

Reba McEntire Nearly Quit Music When Her Mom Died

Reba McEntire was so grief-stricken by the loss of her mum, she considered turning her back on music. Three years on, the country legend is back in the saddle, back in the swing of things.

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In an interview for Today With Hoda & Jenna, the 68-year-old artist recounted the pain of when her mom, Jacqueline Smith, died from cancer at the age of 93.

As the hosts walked viewers through some old family photos, McEntire recounted a chat with her sister Susie. “I said, ‘I just don’t think I’m going to do this anymore,” she remembers saying. “I always did it for Mama.”

Her sister’s response, “Oh, you’ll get it back.” She did. The pain, however, persists. To this day, McEntire is triggered if she sees photos of her mom. “I can’t talk if I see Mama.”

The matriarch gave music to the family, and always backed a young, admittedly naïve McEntire. “When I got started in the ’70s,” she says, “I thought back then when you got a record on the radio, you were rich.”

McEntire’s mom “was really encouraging for all of us kids,” which includes brother Pake and sister Alice, “in whatever we wanted to do. She taught us harmony. She encouraged us, we were The Singing McEntires when we were in high school, junior high.”

Today, McEntire has a lot on her plate. She’s a high-profile coach on NBC’s The Voice, she’s got a new book and album out (both called Not That Fancy) and she’s an advocate on stretching, an activity she does each day with her partner Rex Linn.

The Country Music Hall of Famer returns with “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” the new song from her new album, a collection of stripped-back, acoustic songs, helmed by Grammy Award-winning producer, Dave Cobb.

Songwriters Olivia Rudeen and Matt Wynn pitched “Seven Minutes” to Reba, and the emotional response was palpable. ”When you find a song that really touches your heart and chokes you up, I’ve gotta sing it, I’ve gotta record it,” she remarks.

Watch a live performance of “Seven Minutes in Heaven” below.

12 Oct 2023

Taylor Swift at ‘Eras’ Film Premiere: Tour ‘The Most Electric Experience of My Life’

Taylor Swift is energized and loving life right now, when, to be fair, others in her position would be on the lookout for an extended beach getaway.

Swift’s ongoing The Eras Tour has completed its first lap of North American stadiums, and will return to the road from next month, beginning with a visit to Brazil followed by a full international schedule in 2024.

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Not one to waste a moment of precious time, the pop superstar has moved forward The Eras Tour Concert Film, and was on hand for the world premiere at The Grove in Los Angeles on Wednesday (Oct. 11), where she delivered a three-minute speech and gave shoutouts to her band, dancers, and, of course, Swifties.

“I’ve always had fun doing this. I can’t believe I get to do music as a career. That’s crazy,” she said at the top. “I’ve always had so much fun doing it. I’ve never had this much fun in my life as I have had on The Eras Tour. It is far and away just the most electric experience of my life.”

Guests in the room included celebrities Rachel Zegler, Maren Morris, Simu Liu, Julia Garner and Adam Sandler, according to The Hollywood Reporter, as well as Swift’s mother Andrea.

Every person in the theater “has been hand selected and handpicked and invited to this night because you’ve shown some type of extra support for this tour,” she explained, “and I appreciate that more than you could possibly know.”

And what type of characters pique TayTay’s interest? “I’m always looking out for people with elevated levels of passion, incredible senses of humor on the internet, attention to detail. These things are very important to me.”

The Eras Tour movie rolls out Thursday, and is already a hit. According to a press release from AMC Theatres, her film has broken all existing records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue in the chain’s 103-year history with $26 million in the first 24 hours of on-sale. 

The tour itself has been a box office juggernaut. Billboard’s North American projection nearly doubled earlier expectations at $591 million, just one piece of a 146-date mega-tour spanning five continents.

“We did this show rain or shine, in sickness and in health, no matter what was going on in our lives,” she told guest at the L.A.  premiere, “and we did it with a grin on our face because what greeted us on the other side.”

Watch Swift address her fans at the world premiere below.

11 Oct 2023

Who Is Eligible for Best New Artist at the 2024 Grammys & Who Isn’t?

Gracie Abrams, Ice Spice, Coco Jones, Jelly Roll, Noah Kahan, Peso Pluma, the War and Treaty and Lainey Wilson are among 405 artists who are vying for best new artist nominations at the 66th annual Grammy Awards.

While the aforementioned artists appear to be front-runners to fill the eight available slots, or at least among the front-runners, Grammy voters have a way of surprising us. Last year, not that many thought that Samara Joy would be nominated. She was not only nominated – she won. And this year’s eligibility list contains the names of 397 other artists, many highly credible, who are also hoping to make the final list.

As expected, Zach Bryan, who received a Grammy nomination (best country solo performance for “Something in the Orange”) last year was ruled ineligible. So was boygenius, which includes Phoebe Bridgers, who has received four previous nominations. A previous nomination is an automatic disqualifier in this category (assuming the artist had released enough tracks to be eligible in a previous year).

But for the most part, the Academy tries to err on the side of inclusiveness in this category. In the past, Whitney Houston, Richard Marx, Lady Gaga and many more potential best new artist nominees and even winners were ruled ineligible based on what were sometimes nitpicky technicalities. The Academy now looks for ways to include artists, not rule them out.

Indeed, several of the artists who were ruled eligible this year have been around awhile. Jelly Roll has been putting out albums, without much notice until recently, since 2011.

Other best new artist contenders who aren’t exactly new include Ava Max, whose hits, dating back nearly five years, include “Sweet but Psycho” and “Kings and Queens”; Cody Johnson, who was nominated for a CMA award for new artist of the year in both 2019 and 2022; and Coi Leray, who was nominated for a BET Award for best new artist in 2021.

Several more of this year’s Grammy best new artist hopefuls have been nominated for new artist of the year at the CMA Awards, including Wilson, who won in that category in 2022, and Jelly Roll, who is the front-runner to win there on Nov. 8. Others include HARDY, Parker McCollum, Megan Moroney and Hailey Whitters.  

Several other Grammy contenders have been nominated for best new artist at the BET Awards. Jones won that award this year. FLO, Ice Spice and Lola Brooke were also nominated.

Peso Pluma is vying to become the third Latin artist in the past five years to receive a best new artist nomination. He would follow Rosalía and Anitta. Pluma wasn’t eligible for best new artist at the Latin Grammys and was passed over for nominations in the categories in which he was eligible. A nomination here would be a make-good for an artist who was widely seen as snubbed.

Aespa, Fifty Fifty, Seventeen and Stray Kids are among the K-pop acts that are hoping to make history as the first K-pop act to land a best new artist nomination.

Here are more noteworthy artists, not already named, who are fighting for one of the eight nomination slots: Madison Beer, Sabrina Carpenter, Gus Dapperton, Ezra Collective, Fred Again…, Fridayy, JVKE, David Kushner, Laufey, The Linda Lindas, Lizzy McAlpine, Tate McRae, Mitski, NLE Choppa, Joy Oladokun, Keke Palmer, Pink Pantheress, Raye, Rema, Stephen Sanchez, Lauren Spencer Smith, Toosii, Yves Tumor, Morgan Wade and Bailey Zimmerman.

As noted, 405 artists are entered, so this is just a sampling. We could be in store for a surprise.

The number of best new artist nominees at the Grammys jumped from five to eight in 2018, and from eight to 10 in 2021. This year it will (mercifully) drop back down to a more reasonable eight.

The winners in the past five years, since the number of number of nominees expanded, were Dua Lipa (2018), Billie Eilish (2019), Megan Thee Stallion (2020), Olivia Rodrigo (2021) and Joy (2022). As you can see, Grammy voters tend to favor female artists in this category. The 2017 winner (the last year there were just five nominees), was also a woman (Alessia Cara).

Last year’s nine other nominees — besides Joy – were: Anitta, Omar Apollo, DOMI & JD Beck, Muni Long, Latto, Maneskin, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle and Wet Leg.

Best new artist is the only category in what has long been called the Big Four (along with album, record and song of the year) to see an increase in the number of entries from last year. There are 405 entries this year, up from 368 last year. The number of contenders in this category peaked in 2013 at 670.

First-round voting for the 66th annual Grammy Awards opened on Wednesday (Oct. 11) and closes Oct. 20. Nominees will be announced on Nov. 10 (five days earlier than last year). The final-round voting window extends from Dec. 14 through Jan. 4, 2023 (same as last year). Winners will be announced on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, at Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as Staples Center) in Los Angeles.