The nominations for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards were announced in early November. The music awards ceremony will take place on February 4th, 2024. As this date nears, let’s take a look at this year’s competitors for best record, artist, and composition.
The ceremony’s biggest categories include Record of The Year, Album of The Year, and Song of The Year. Among the nominees include artists that have been nominated in the past, including Taylor Swift, Billie Eillish, Jon Batiste, and SZA. Boygenius, an indie band made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, is one of the only new nominees for Record of The Year and Album of The Year.
For the Best New Artist category, many fans are looking forward to seeing who comes out on top, as many of the nominees in this category have recently become popular in mainstream music. Nominees in this category include Gracie Abrams, Ice Spice, Victoria Monét, and Noah Kahan.
In big news, The Recording Academy, who created the Grammy Awards, has added three new categories this year: Best Alternative Jazz Album, Best Pop Dance Recording, and Best African Music Performance. These categories were added to “celebrate these impactful sounds like never before,’ according to an article written by Morgan Enos on the official Grammy website.
“..changes like these open up the prospect of GRAMMY wins and nominations to artists from a multitude of backgrounds and across more genres,” Enos said.
Leading the pack this year with most Grammy nominations is SZA, with nine nominations. Her second album “SOS” and its lead single “Kill Bill” gained a massive amount of popularity after its release in December of 2022. In the past year, the singer’s popularity has grown extensively, which her Grammy nominations reflect. These nominations include Record of The Year and Song of The Year for “Kill Bill”, Album of the Year for “SOS”, and Best Pop/Duo Group Performance for “Ghost In The Machine” featuring Phoebe Bridgers. She has also received five nominations in the R&B Category, including Best R&B Performance, Best R&B Song, Best Progressive R&B Album, and Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Another woman who has taken over the 2024 Grammy Awards is Barbie – well the movie at least. The Barbie soundtrack has received a total of eleven nominations, four of which are all in the same category of Best Song Written For Visual Media. Artists associated with the Barbie soundtrack include Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and even Ryan Gosling for his hit song “I’m Just Ken”. Gosling commented on his song’s success, saying that before the Barbie movie, no one cared about the character Ken.
“He was just a 70-year-old crotchless doll with no house, no car, no job, no voice and look at him now! He has a Grammy-nominated power ballad and the voice of an angel,” Gosling said.
Billie Eillish’s song “What was I Made For?” has respectively received nominations for Record of The Year, Song of The Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance. “Dance The Night” written by Dua Lipa has also received a nomination for Song of The Year.
Overall, the Grammy Awards will be a nail biting ceremony. With a variety of nominees and the excitement around the new Grammy categories, all we can do is wait until February 4th to see which artists and songs come on top.
