Chappell Roan, performing in the course of the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 11, 2024, is up for six Grammy Awards, which shall be handed out Feb. 2 in Los Angeles. Roan, together with Sabrina Carpenter, is nominated for album, track and document of the 12 months, in addition to finest new artist.
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Noam Galai/Getty Photos
In case you had been to compile an inventory of probably the most regularly requested Grammy-related questions, one in every of them would certainly boil all the way down to a single phrase: “Why?” Why attempt to whittle the music {industry}’s complete huge output — throughout numerous genres, by artists from all around the world — all the way down to a handful of industry-appointed “winners”? What is the level?
It is best to consider the Grammy Awards as a three-and-a-half-hour infomercial for the music {industry}. The performances are there to draw eyeballs whereas showcasing previous, current and future stars; the awards are there to reward excellence, at the very least on paper; and each exist to assist the {industry} anoint the artists the {industry} sees as ambassadors, each within the second and hopefully nicely into the long run. It is honest to query the awards’ worth in a world rocked by political turmoil and local weather catastrophe. However in case you’re within the music {industry} — the way it sees itself and who it sees as its standard-bearers — the Grammys have loads to let you know.
Listed here are 5 storylines to contemplate as Sunday’s awards strategy. The CBS telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET, however do not forget that the lion’s share of the awards — a lot of the Grammys’ 94 classes — shall be handed out in a web-streamed Premiere Ceremony that begins 4 and a half hours earlier.
1. Look to the celebs (particularly the most-awarded star in Grammy historical past)
It is tempting — and never essentially inaccurate — to view this 12 months’s Grammys as a demolition-derby-style conflict of the titans involving a number of the greatest names in pop music.
The main nominee, with 11 nods, is Beyoncé, who’s gained probably the most trophies in Grammy historical past (32) whereas by no means snagging both of the awards’ crown jewels: document or album of the 12 months. This 12 months, she’s up for each, and Cowboy Carter and its chart-topping single “Texas Maintain ‘Em” are robust contenders. In case you watched the singer’s Christmas Day “Beyoncé Bowl” halftime present on Netflix, it was basically a “For Your Consideration” reel for these prizes. They matter to her — and at this level, she’ll be one of many night time’s greatest tales, whether or not it ends in triumph or one other defeat within the main classes.
In fact, Beyoncé must get previous a few of music’s greatest names — together with Taylor Swift, who’s basically the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs of pop stars at this level. (If you would like this text to double as a preview of the upcoming Tremendous Bowl, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs are additionally the Taylor Swift of NFL franchises: inevitable because the tides, conscious of each element, susceptible to profitable even when most individuals assume they should not.)
Beyoncé and Swift are each up for the night time’s greatest prizes — album, document and track of the 12 months — however they don’t seem to be alone on that entrance. Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are additionally up for all three, and it is actually doable that one will find yourself sweeping if all the things breaks a sure approach. If that occurs, it’s going to mark a coronation that extends nicely past the Grammys themselves. And, after all, Roan and Carpenter are in place to tug off a fair bigger and extra prestigious potential sweep. Which leads us to…
2. A stacked finest new artist area
The Grammys have 94 classes, however the 4 prime fields are album, track and document of the 12 months, plus finest new artist. Earlier than this 12 months, solely 13 artists had ever been nominated in all 4 classes the identical 12 months, and simply two have executed the sweep by profitable all of them: Christopher Cross in 1981 and Eilish in 2020.
Roan and Carpenter are buddies — do not miss Carpenter’s cowl of Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” in case you’ve by no means heard it — however they’re on a collision course heading into Sunday. Every could be a heavy favourite for finest new artist if she weren’t going through off in opposition to a star of the opposite’s stature. Each dominated the pop panorama in 2024.
Even then, they don’t seem to be the one nominees on this class to have scored colossal business breakthroughs in latest months. Benson Boone, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims have every had one of the crucial inescapable hits of the streaming period with “Lovely Issues,” “A Bar Tune (Tipsy)” and “Lose Management,” respectively; all three songs stay within the prime 20 many months after they first grew to become hits.
Nobody else on this class is a slouch, both: Doechii rightly ranks among the many fastest-rising stars in hip-hop and RAYE is genre-straddling Grammy catnip who’s additionally nominated for songwriter of the 12 months (she’s a darkish horse who may shock individuals, even on this class), whereas Khruangbin sells out stadiums, even because the band’s decade-spanning catalog calls into query the concept of what constitutes a “new artist.”
3. Search for the Grammys to observe their tone.
The Grammys have needed to alter to tragedies earlier than, whether or not it is the postponed-due-to-COVID telecasts of 2021 and 2022 or the 2020 awards being handed out mere hours after Kobe Bryant’s dying. Each time, the Recording Academy adopts a “the present should go on” mentality and, nicely, places on a present, even when it feels obliged to cancel a number of the events that encompass the massive occasion, because it did this 12 months.
In gentle of the LA wildfires’ affect on the music {industry} — and given the numerous alternative for a closely watched telecast to boost funds for victims — anticipate a toned-down ceremony that also makes room for moments of pop-star spectacle. It will be a tough balancing act, however the Grammys have pulled it off earlier than.
4. If you wish to predict a large, earth-shaking upset, attempt these on for measurement.
The 2 prime classes — album of the 12 months and document of the 12 months — break down equally this 12 months: You have acquired a cluster of latest business juggernauts going through off in opposition to one or two outliers.
In album of the 12 months, six girls who’ve dominated pop music — Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli xcx, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift — are vying for arguably the night time’s greatest prize. Every has her personal constituency, and several other have loved monumental Grammy success: Beyoncé is probably the most adorned Grammy winner in historical past; Swift has gained album of the 12 months 4 instances; Eilish swept the massive 4 classes in 2020, then gained document of the 12 months (“Every part I Needed” in 2021) and track of the 12 months (“What Was I Made For?” in 2024) within the ceremonies since. Carpenter, Charli xcx and Roan all broke by in a large approach final 12 months.
Every of the six powerhouses on this class has a definite sound, however all site visitors in business pop music. You then’ve acquired two left-field entries: André 3000, whose instrumental flute odyssey New Blue Solar appears fairly out-there for Grammy voters, and Jacob Collier, who has by no means a lot as cracked the Billboard pop charts. However Collier, who picked up an album of the 12 months nomination for Djesse Vol. 4, has gained six Grammys and been nominated 15 instances; the Grammys have been sponging what he is spilling ever since he got here on the scene as an irrepressibly cheerful prodigy. (There’s precedent for this type of jazz-adjacent upset, too: Keep in mind 2011, once they gave finest new artist to Esperanza Spalding over Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and the Machine and Mumford & Sons?)
The same vote-splitting dynamic may have an effect on the race for document of the 12 months. As soon as once more, you’ve got acquired the identical six pop-fluent girls who spherical out the album of the 12 months area, however as an alternative of André 3000 and Jacob Collier, you’ve got acquired two completely different acts with large constituencies. Neither has to share a lane, or a voting constituency, with related stars.
Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” would not be an enormous shock right here: The monitor was one in every of 2024’s greatest songs, and its staunchly pro-L.A. vibes really feel well timed proper now. Then there’s The Beatles‘ “Now and Then.” Nobody’s going to confuse the monitor — which fleshes out a late-’70s John Lennon demo and has been billed as “the final Beatles track” — with, say, “Let It Be.” However voters within the Grammys’ normal fields do skew older, and so they’ve been identified to interrupt ties in favor of commemorated rock sounds.
Would a document of the 12 months win for The Beatles in 2025 qualify as a big upset? Yeah, kinda. How about an album of the 12 months win for Jacob Collier? That’d be an earth-shaker, particularly given how typically (and the way infamously) Beyoncé has been denied on this class. However neither feels inconceivable.
5. The performances are a giant deal (possibly an even bigger deal than the precise awards).
In an period the place any given reside set may go viral, the stakes won’t appear that prime for artists who carry out on the Grammys. However there are a lot of incentives to do one thing particular: They’re performing in entrance of {industry} power-brokers. They’re being measured in opposition to friends on the prime of their recreation. Within the streaming period, Grammy performances typically straight affect the components that drive Billboard chart placement — and revenues. And, in a world the place streaming companies’ algorithms feed listeners music they’ve already sought out, these streams have a approach of multiplying themselves.
Just a few of the most important nominees, like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, aren’t scheduled to carry out this 12 months. Identical goes for Kendrick Lamar, who’s headlining the Tremendous Bowl halftime present the next weekend. However the confirmed lineup to this point accommodates a lot of the night time’s greatest names — and lots of of them are famend for his or her flashy stage presences. Benson Boone and Teddy Swims are positive to carry vein-bulging vocal thunder, although solely the previous is understood for incorporating backflips and rollerblades into his act. Chappell Roan crushed the VMAs and any variety of competition gigs. Charli xcx, Doechii, Shakira, Billie Eilish… all of them know methods to work a stage. RAYE is teetering on the point of superstardom, and he or she’s precisely the type of genre-smashing polymath the Grammys like to showcase.
In different phrases, in case you’re susceptible to lamenting you could’t sustain with who the massive pop stars are as of late, these three and a half hours may also help get you caught up in a giant approach.
