On November 8th, the 67th Annual Grammy Awards released their list of nominees. Familiar names like Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Charli XCX, and Taylor Swift dominated the list. Those nominated represent the music that is constantly appearing on the Billboard charts, radio, and various streaming services; however, there continues to be a question of whether the Grammy Awards are fair.
Ariana Grande’s album Eternal Sunshine was missing from the list of nominees for Album of the Year. According to Billboard, “Grande didn’t earn anything in the Big Four despite producing two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits [Yes and? and We Can’t Be Friends].” The album was, however, nominated for three awards: Pop Vocal Album, Best Dance Pop Recording, and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
This is not the first time Grande has clashed with the Recording Academy, the group who determine each year’s nominees and winners. The singer-songwriter has broken multiple records, including one in 2019 when she became the first solo act to occupy the first 3 positions on the US Billboard 100 simultaneously. Despite her many accomplishments, she has only won two Grammy Awards over the course of her 13-year music career. Comparatively, other solo pop singers, such as Taylor Swift, who has won an impressive 12 Grammy Awards over the past 14 years, and Adele, who has earned 16 Grammy Awards since 2009, have achieved remarkable success.
Beyoncé reached an all-time record of 11 Grammy nominations with Cowboy Carter, her genre-bending album. Beyoncé, who kickstarted her solo career in 2003, leads this year with the most nominations. Her name appears in all the general categories, including the coveted Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. After this year’s nominations came out, Beyoncé earned the title of most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys with a total of 99 nominations, surpassing the record previously held by her husband, Jay-Z.
Another surprise was Jack Antonoff’s name missing from the list for Producer of the Year (non-classical). According to Billboard, “The super-producer was passed over for a nomination for producer of the year, non-classical – a category he had won the last three years running.” This year, Antonoff produced Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department – both were nominated for Album of the Year.
Country music has recently made an astounding return by including other genres, stepping away from the traditional Southern-twang. Country hybridists, such as Beyoncé, Post Malone, and Shaboozey—who have taken a spin on what it means for a song to be a country singer, are leading in many nominations. While this may be exciting for the Country genre in general, traditional country artists, like Luke Combs and Cody Johnson, may not see many rewards this year despite being nominated in the same categories as said country hybridists, mainly due to the Grammy favoring commercial music.
The 67th Annual Grammy Awards nominations have brought up a lot of questions about fairness and who really deserves to win. While some artists are breaking records and getting tons of nominations, others are being left out, which fuels the debate about the Grammys and keeps fans tuning in to see what happens next.
