Sabrina Carpenter, seen right here at Coachella earlier this 12 months, is nominated in every of the large 4 classes on the 2025 Grammy Awards: album, track and document of the 12 months, plus finest new artist.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Photographs North America
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Frazer Harrison/Getty Photographs North America
The pop music panorama has been awash in famous person juggernauts (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé), headline-grabbing beefs (Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar, et. al.) and a freshly minted gaggle of hit-makers reminiscent of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Shaboozey. Appropriately sufficient, every of the aforementioned artists — besides Drake, who stopped submitting his music for Grammy consideration some time again — obtained a great deal of nominations when subsequent 12 months’s Grammy Awards contenders have been introduced Friday.
That isn’t to say that all the pieces performed out precisely as anticipated. And there are many subplots and storylines to unpack as we await the Grammys telecast on Feb. 2, 2025:
1. It’s been an enormous 12 months for ladies in pop. Keep in mind again in 2018, when Neil Portnow, then head of the Nationwide Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, mentioned that ladies wanted to “step up” after that 12 months’s Grammys have been overwhelmingly gained by males? Yeah, he sucked. This 12 months, ladies dominate the key classes: In document of the 12 months, track of the 12 months and album of the 12 months, six of the eight nominees are headlined by ladies, although a number of share billing with male counterparts. And, whereas one of the best new artist area is break up 50-50, the overwhelming frontrunners (Roan and Carpenter) are each ladies.
2. As anticipated, Beyoncé leads the sphere. The 2 most closely nominated musicians of all time share a family: Till Friday, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been tied with 88 nominations apiece, whereas Beyoncé holds the all-time document for Grammy wins with 32. Now, Queen Bey has a surprising 99 nominations to her title, as Cowboy Carter and an assortment of its songs have racked up a field-leading 11 nods. It helps that Cowboy Carter sprawls throughout a number of genres and brings in a great deal of collaborators, which made her eligible in additional classes than, say, Chappell Roan, who lacks eligible collaborations and didn’t submit in any genres exterior pop.
3. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter be part of a choose group. The Grammys have 4 common, cross-genre classes, which have collectively come to be generally known as The Massive 4: album of the 12 months, document of the 12 months, track of the 12 months and finest new artist. Within the historical past of the awards, solely 13 artists have been nominated in all 4 classes throughout the identical 12 months — most not too long ago Olivia Rodrigo three years in the past. (FINNEAS kinda did it that 12 months, too, however it didn’t depend; he was nominated for finest new artist as a solo act, however his different nominations in that 12 months’s Massive 4 have been headlined by his sister, Billie Eilish.) Within the newest spherical of nominations, Roan and Carpenter are up for every of The Massive 4; if both occurs to brush, she’ll develop into solely the third artist ever to take action, after Christopher Cross in 1981 and Eilish in 2020.
4. Wait, Sabrina Carpenter — whose Quick n’ Candy is her sixth album — is up for finest new artist? Yeah, the class of finest new artist might actually use a rebrand, maybe to one thing like “finest breakthrough artist,” as a result of newness could be very a lot within the eye of the beholder right here. However Carpenter broke by means of in an enormous manner in 2024, so she was eligible. (The principles are extra byzantine than that, however that’s the gist of it.) Identical goes for her fellow nominee Khruangbin, which has been cranking out albums since 2015, however pretty not too long ago turned well-liked sufficient to fill stadiums.
5. Talking of complicated classes… Grammy viewers have lengthy been baffled by the distinction between document and track of the 12 months. Because it seems, so are Grammy voters, who heard Shaboozey’s chart-topping “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” and nominated it for track of the 12 months, however not document of the 12 months. Track of the 12 months is an award for composition, whereas document of the 12 months is an award for the whole package deal: the manufacturing, the efficiency, the vibe. “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” is terrific; it’s nice enjoyable. Nevertheless it’s extra of a “document of the 12 months” sort of track than a “track of the 12 months” sort of track.
6. The document of the 12 months area does embody one very outdated track. “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” famously interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 hit “Tipsy,” however the Recording Academy went even additional again for the awards’ premier class. John Lennon wrote and recorded his demo of The Beatles’ “Now and Then” someday round 1977, however the track wasn’t completed or launched till late 2023. Naturally, it got here out with an enormous surge of fanfare, although it’s extra curiosity than basic; nonetheless, it’s certainly one of eight songs nominated for document of the 12 months in 2025. If it wins, it’ll be the primary time a Beatles track gained a Grammy since all the best way again in… February 2024, when a remastered reissue of 1966’s “I’m Solely Sleeping” gained finest music video.
7. The album of the 12 months area options two excessive darkish horses. Six of the eight nominees for album of the 12 months have been just about mortal locks: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Sabrina Carpenter’s Quick n’ Candy, Charli xcx’s Brat, Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Division. These six albums dominated 2024 — not solely primarily based on gross sales and streaming, but additionally by way of their total cultural footprint. The subsequent two? Not a lot.
One is Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4, which marks Collier’s first album of the 12 months nomination because the one he received for, um, Djesse Vol. 3. With credit score to NPR Music editor Jacob Ganz, who referred to this nomination as “filling the Jon Batiste jazz-but-with-smiling spot,” the nod to Collier feels unusual coming from such a crowded area of powerhouse contenders. Nonetheless, it’s not as surprising because the nomination for André 3000’s New Blue Solar — which is, bear in mind, an epic-length assortment of flute-forward instrumental odysseys. OutKast was a Grammy staple, certain, and plenty of individuals have been inquisitive about André’s first document in 17 years. However… album of the 12 months? Actually?
8. After all, there have been snubs. Getting not noted of a area of 5, six or eight nominees isn’t technically a “snub” — it’s simply math, actually — however there have been nonetheless surprises amongst this 12 months’s Grammy omissions. Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism didn’t carry out in addition to its predecessor, and the sphere of ladies in pop was unusually crowded and robust this 12 months, however her lack of nominations feels notable. (See additionally: Ariana Grande, who did decide up three nominations however was shut out of The Massive 4.) Followers may be shocked to see Zach Bryan absent from the sphere, given how nicely his information carried out in 2024, however he refused to submit any of his music for consideration, so he’s out. The largest shock of all could also be Vampire Weekend, whose Solely God Was Above Us was thought-about a lock to be nominated in a number of classes — probably even album of the 12 months — however received not noted of all of them.
9. Talking of which, Ye’s Grammy star could lastly be fading. The artist previously generally known as Kanye West has been nominated for 75 Grammys, and gained 24 of them. Even a protracted string of controversies didn’t dampen the Grammys’ enthusiasm for him, on condition that Donda was nominated for album of the 12 months simply three years in the past. However Ye’s newest album, the Ty Dolla $ign collaboration Vultures 2, yielded only one nomination, for finest rap track (“Carnival”). Ye is both matched or exceeded by a formidable assortment of ladies, as this 12 months’s rap classes embody nominations for Cardi B, Doechii, GloRilla, Beyoncé (joined by Linda Martell), Latto and Rapsody (with Erykah Badu).
10. By no means, ever overlook Taylor Swift. Wait, did you simply learn 12 paragraphs and solely one of them talked about Taylor Swift? Is that even authorized? Actually, how dare you? Swift picked up six extra nominations this 12 months, bringing her complete to 58 total, with 24 wins — together with 4 album of the 12 months gramophones. She’s picked up her seventh nomination for album of the 12 months (for The Tortured Poets Division), is within the operating for track and document of the 12 months (for “Fortnight”) and… hey, the place are you going?
