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Tuesday, May 14, 2024
The Observer

Start rooting for your favorites: Grammy nominations are in

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Maria Tobias | The Observer


The Grammy Awards celebrate the recording industry and artists’ accomplishments throughout the years. The 2024 ceremony will mark the 66th annual Grammy Awards. 

The Record of the Year award recognizes art and technical development in production in the recording industry. This year's eight Grammy nominees for the Record of the Year category are “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, “Kill Bill” by SZA, “Worship” by Jon Batiste, “Not Strong Enough” by boygenius, the “Barbie” movie’s “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, “On My Mama” by Victoria Monét, “vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo and “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift. 

The Album of the Year award honoring all collaborators on an album recognizes Miley Cyrus’ “Endless Summer Vacation,” Jon Batiste’s “World Music Radio,” boygenius’ “the record,” Lana Del Rey’s “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd,” Janelle Monáe’s “The Age of Pleasure,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “GUTS,” SZA’s “SOS” and Taylor Swift’s “Midnights.” This award works to honor the artists, producers, sound engineers, songwriters, mastering engineers and recording engineers/mixers who collaborated on the body of work. Over the years, the Recording Academy has modified who exactly this award celebrates. For example, in 1959 when the Grammys started, only the artist was honored until 1965 when the producer joined the list of credits; this list has only grown and continues to grow in order to justly honor the efforts that went into creating an album. 

Another one of the most prestigious Grammy awards, Song of the Year, recognizes songwriters and composers who have had an incredible past few years in the industry. To start, this category nominates some music from the ”Barbie” soundtrack including Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night” and “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and her brother FINNEAS. Dua Lipa holds three wins and 10 nominations; Billie Eilish boasts seven Grammy wins and 25 nominations. Similar to Eilish in age, fellow singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo is nominated for her song “vampire” from her 2023 album “GUTS.” Jon Batiste, winner of five Grammy awards, is nominated in this category with his song “Butterfly.” Taylor Swift, recipient of 12 Grammy awards and 52 nominations in her career, is nominated for her track “Anti-Hero.” Her producer Jack Antonoff is nominated for both this song and the Lana Del Rey track “A&W.” Miley Cyrus and SZA add to the list of well-decorated and accomplished nominees in this category with their songs “Flowers” and “Kill Bill,” respectively. 

Last year’s Best New Artist was American jazz singer Samara Joy. This year, the nominees encompass a wide range of genres, including American pop singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, up-and-coming indie folk rock artist Noah Kahan, R&B singer Victoria Monét and rising drill and hip-hop artist Ice Spice. Other nominees include British dance/electronic music producer Fred again.., rapper Jelly Roll, husband-and-wife country duo The War and Treaty and American singer-songwriter Coco Jones. Who will be this year’s Best New Artist? Tune in to 2024’s Grammy Awards to find out. 

The other general field award categories are Producer of the Year, Non-Classical and Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical. The rest of the awards are broken down into “fields” or genres. For example, Field 1 is described as “Pop & Dance/Electronic Music” and Field 2 is “Rock, Metal, & Alternative Music.” Other fields include “R&B, Rap, & Spoken Word Poetry,” “Jazz, Traditional Pop, Contemporary Instrumental & Musical Theater” and “Country & American Roots Music.” Notable first-time nominees include Troye Sivan, Ice Spice and Gracie Abrams. 

Tune in on Feb. 4, 2024 to see which of these nominees earn their Grammy accolade.