2025 Grammy nominations: 10 takeaways : NPR

The pop music panorama has been awash in celebrity 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 — acquired a great deal of nominations when subsequent 12 months’s Grammy Awards contenders had been introduced Friday.

That isn’t to say that every part 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 a large 12 months for ladies in pop. Bear in mind again in 2018, when Neil Portnow, then head of the Nationwide Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, stated that ladies wanted to “step up” after that 12 months’s Grammys had been overwhelmingly received by males? Yeah, he sucked. This 12 months, girls dominate the key classes: In report of the 12 months, track of the 12 months and album of the 12 months, six of the eight nominees are headlined by girls, although a number of share billing with male counterparts. And, whereas one of the best new artist area is cut up 50-50, the overwhelming frontrunners (Roan and Carpenter) are each girls.

2. As anticipated, Beyoncé leads the sector. The 2 most closely nominated musicians of all time share a family: Till Friday, Beyoncé and Jay-Z had been tied with 88 nominations apiece, whereas Beyoncé holds the all-time report for Grammy wins with 32. Now, Queen Bey has a shocking 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 outdoors pop.

3. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter be a part of a choose group. The Grammys have 4 normal, cross-genre classes, which have collectively come to be often known as The Large 4: album of the 12 months, report 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, but it surely didn’t depend; he was nominated for finest new artist as a solo act, however his different nominations in that 12 months’s Large 4 had been headlined by his sister, Billie Eilish.) Within the newest spherical of nominations, Roan and Carpenter are up for every of The Large 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 Brief 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 may be very a lot within the eye of the beholder right here. However Carpenter broke by means of in a giant means in 2024, so she was eligible. (The foundations are extra byzantine than that, however that’s the gist of it.) Similar goes for her fellow nominee Khruangbin, which has been cranking out albums since 2015, however pretty not too long ago turned widespread sufficient to fill stadiums.

5. Talking of complicated classes… Grammy viewers have lengthy been baffled by the distinction between report 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 report of the 12 months. Track of the 12 months is an award for composition, whereas report of the 12 months is an award for the entire bundle: the manufacturing, the efficiency, the vibe. “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” is terrific; it’s nice enjoyable. However it’s extra of a “report of the 12 months” type of track than a “track of the 12 months” type of track.

6. The report of the 12 months area does embrace one very previous 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 traditional; nonetheless, it’s one in every of eight songs nominated for report of the 12 months in 2025. If it wins, it’ll be the primary time a Beatles track received a Grammy since all the best way again in… February 2024, when a remastered reissue of 1966’s “I’m Solely Sleeping” received 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 had been just about mortal locks: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Sabrina Carpenter’s Brief 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 when it comes to their general 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 for the reason that one he obtained 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, positive, and plenty of individuals had been interested in André’s first report in 17 years. However… album of the 12 months? Actually?

8. After all, there have been snubs. Getting disregarded 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 sector of girls 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 Large 4.) Followers is likely to be stunned to see Zach Bryan absent from the sector, given how properly his information carried out in 2024, however he refused to submit any of his music for consideration, so he’s out. The most important 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 — presumably even album of the 12 months — however obtained disregarded of all of them.

9. Talking of which, Ye’s Grammy star might lastly be fading. The artist previously often known as Kanye West has been nominated for 75 Grammys, and received 24 of them. Even an extended 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 girls, as this 12 months’s rap classes embrace 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 whole to 58 general, 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 report of the 12 months (for “Fortnight”) and… hey, the place are you going?