It’s time to get excited because the 60th annual Grammy Award nominations have been announced, with some surprises along the way.
Jay- Z and Kendrick Lamar lead the way with nominations this year, in a move by the Grammys that sees hip-hop and R’n’B dominating the main categories.
Jay-Z has eight nominations. This is in contrast to previous years where there has been controversy over lack of recognition for artists in those genres. In the past 20 years, only 2 black artists have won the most coveted award, Album of the Year. This prompted Drake to withdraw himself from the running when he was nominated last year and Frank Ocean withdrew his album ‘Blonde’ in 2016. Frank Ocean even stated that there was “cultural bias” shown by the ceremony.
The Grammy’s have seemed to have learnt their lesson as the nominations that have been announced have been dominated by hip-hop and R’n’B artists. One such artist is 19 year old Khalid. His song “Young, Dumb and Broke” has been played all over the radio recently, and he has worked with fellow Grammy nominee Lorde on the remix of her track, “Homemade Dynamite”. Khalid tweeted back in 2014, “I want to go to the Grammys one day” and now he can! He has been nominated in five categories including Best New Artist and Song of the Year.
Credit – BBC
Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga have been overlooked for the main categories. This is very unexpected since Sheeran’s album “Divide” was a multi-million selling success and Gaga is a force to be reckoned with in the industry. Another artist overlooked for any nominations has been Harry Styles, which has left his fans fuming.
Carrie Fisher has been nominated posthumously for the spoken word album version of her candid autobiography, The Princess Diarist. Other posthumous nominations have been given to Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell and Leonard Cohen.
Lorde’s album “Melodrama” has also been nominated and is a personal favourite of mine so I have to say I’m rooting for Ella. She’s also the only female in the ‘Album of the Year’ category.
Credit – BBC
Kesha’s comeback as a soulful singer has worked since she has been nominated for Best Vocal Album for “Rainbow”.
Every Katy Perry album thus far has received a Grammy nomination, however the same can’t be said for her latest album, “Witness”, despite the singer having performed at last year’s awards ceremony.
Rival, Taylor Swift, also hasn’t had a nomination nod this year, but for another reason… Her album “Reputation” was released after the cut-off point for consideration, so we will have to wait until next year to see how she does. However, she hasn’t been completely disregarded as her duet with ZAYN, “I Don’t Want To Live Forever” has received recognition, so it’s not all bad news for Swifty.
The hit song, “Despacito”, by Luis Fonsi featuring Justin Beiber and Daddy Yankee is up for three awards. These include Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
Credit – BBC
Main nominees:
Album of the year
- Childish Gambino – Awaken, My Love!
- Jay Z – 4:44
- Kendrick Lamar – DAMN
- Lorde – Melodrama
- Bruno Mars – 24K Magic
Record of the year
- Childish Gambino – Redbone
- Luis Fonsi – Despacito
- Jay Z – The Story of OJ
- Bruno Mars – 24K Magic
- Kendrick Lamar – Humble
Song Of The Year
- Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber – Despacito
- Jay Z – 4:44
- Julia Michael – Issues
- Logic ft Alessia Cara and Khalid – 1-800-273-8255
- Bruno Mars – That’s What I Like
Best new artist
- Alessia Cara
- Lil Uzi Vert
- Khalid
- Julia Michaels
- SZA
The Grammy Awards will take place on 28 January 2018 at the prestigious Madison Square Gardens in New York. Will you be watching?
By Narzra Ahmed