By Ayeza Shaur
The 66th Annual Grammy Awards will take place on February 4th, at 8:00 PM EST. This year, there will be a total of 94 categories with three new additions: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording. Let’s look at the most anticipated awards at the Grammy Awards this year!
The first category is Record Of The Year. This award is given to the artist, producer, recording engineer, or mixer/mastering engineer. This year, many hits were nominated for record of the year including:
“Worship” by Jon Batiste
“Not Strong Enough” by boygenius
“Flowers” by Miley Cyrus
“What was I made for? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”]” by Billie Eilish
“On my Mama” by Victoria Monet
“Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo
“Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift
“Kill Bill” by SZA
The next category is Album Of The Year. This award is given to the top albums that contain at least five different tracks and a total playing time of fifteen minutes. This is the most prestigious award at the Grammys each year. This year the nominations include:
World Music Radio by Jon Batiste
the record by boygenius
Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus
Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey
The Age Of Pleasure by Janelle Monáe
GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
Midnights by Taylor Swift
SOS by SZA
The third category is the famous Song Of The Year. This award is given to songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melodies to the song and is given for a single or for an album track. Here are this year’s nominees:
“A&W” written by Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey & Sam Dew
“Anti-Hero” written by Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift
“Butterfly” written by Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson
“Dance The Night (From Barbie The Album)” written by Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt
“Flowers” written by Miley Cyrus, Gregory Aldae Hein & Michael Pollack
“Kill Bill” written by Rob Bisel, Carter Lang & Solána Rowe
“Vampire” written by Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo
“What Was I Made For? [From The Motion Picture “Barbie”]” written by Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell
The next annual category recognizes the Best New Artist. These are individuals that had a breakthrough in the public and impacted the musical scene this year. Here are the 2024 nominees:
Gracie Abrams
Fred again…
Ice Spice
Jelly Roll
Coco Jones
Noah Kahan
Victoria Monét
The War And Treaty
Additionally, there is an award that honors the producers, titled Producer Of The Year (non-classical). This year’s nominees are:
Jack Antonoff for his work in The 1975’s album, Lana Del Rey’s album, and Taylor Swift’s album.
Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II for their work in Victoria Monet’s new album.
Hit-Boy for their work in various albums.
Metro Boomin for his work in various self produced songs with other famous rappers.
Daniel Nigro for his various hit albums, including the successful GUTS by Olvia Rodrigo.
Another famous award is the Best Pop Vocal Album category which honors albums which contain mostly pop vocal recordings. The nominations this year are:
Chemistry by Kelly Clarkson
Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus
GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
– (Subtract) by Ed Sheeran
Midnights by Taylor Swift
The Best Rock Performance category is for new rock recordings. This year, there were five nominations. These include:
“Sculptures Of Anything Goes” by Arctic Monkeys
“More Than A Love Song” by Black Pumas
“Not Strong Enough” by Boygenius
“Rescued” by Foo Fighters
“Lux Æterna” by Metallica
Moving on, the R&B category features the nominations in the genre of R&B. The nominations for the Best R&B Song award are:
“Angel” by Halle Bailey, Theron Feemster & Coleridge Tillman, songwriters (Halle)
“Back To Love” by Darryl Andrew Farris, Riley Glasper, Robert Glasper & Alexandra Isley, songwriters (Robert Glasper Featuring SiR & Alex Isley)
“ICU” by Darhyl Camper Jr., Courtney Jones, Raymond Komba & Roy Keisha Rockette, songwriters (Coco Jones)
“On My Mama” by Dernst Emile II, Jeff Gitelman, Victoria Monét, Kyla Moscovich, Jamil Pierre & Charles Williams, songwriters (Victoria Monét)
“Snooze” by Kenny B. Edmonds, Blair Ferguson, Khris Riddick-Tynes, Solána Rowe & Leon Thomas, songwriters (SZA)
The Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album is a category which honors traditional pop music. This refers to music that predates rock in the 1950s. Six albums are nominated for this genre this year. They are as follows:
To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim by Liz Callaway
Pieces Of Treasure by Rickie Lee Jones
Bewitched by Laufey
Holidays Around The World by Pentatonix
Only The Strong Survive by Bruce Springsteen
Sondheim Unplugged (The NYC Sessions), Vol. 3 by (Various Artists)
Another popular category is Best Rap Album. This year the nominations are:
Her Loss by Drake & 21 Savage
MICHAEL by Killer Mike
HEROES & VILLAINS by Metro Boomin
King’s Disease III by Nas
UTOPIA by Travis Scott
Lastly, the Best Song Written For Visual Media is an interesting category at the Grammy’s each year. This category is for a song written specifically for a motion picture, television, video game, or other visual media. This year, the Barbie movie soundtrack dominated this category, following the movie’s hit this summer. The nominations this year include:
“Barbie World [From Barbie The Album]” by Naija Gaston, Ephrem Louis Lopez Jr. & Onika Maraj, songwriters (Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice Featuring Aqua)
“Dance The Night [From Barbie The Album]” by Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Dua Lipa)
“I’m Just Ken [From Barbie The Album]” by Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Ryan Gosling)
“Lift Me Up [From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From And Inspired By]” by Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson, Robyn Fenty & Temilade Openiyi, songwriters (Rihanna)
“What Was I Made For? [From Barbie The Album]” by Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)
Overall, many artists were successful in terms of Grammy nominations this year. However, some artists distinguished themselves with an impressive number of nominations. SZA, in particular, was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, including those in the most famous three categories: song, album, and record of the year. The debut studio album, the record, by boygenius was also very successful this year, as the band received seven nominations. Victoria Monet also received seven nominations. Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Brandy Clark John Batiste, and Jack Antonoff received six nominations each.
Viewers can expect Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Billy Joel, Burna Boy, Dua Lipa, Joni Mitchell, Luke Combs, and Travis Scott to perform at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
