LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé has propelled herself to the highest echelon of the Grammy Awards: The star singer picked up nine nominations on Tuesday, tying her — with husband Jay-Z — as the most popular musical actor. nominee in awards history.
Beyoncé’s ‘Break My Soul’ Shaken by Nominations for Record and Song of the Year, while “Renaissance” – which ventured into the world of dancehall music – won an album of the year nod. With Jay-Z also earning five nominations this year, each spouse now holds the record for the most Grammy nominations at 88 each.
Kendrick Lamar walked away with the second most nominations, with eight. Adele and Brandi Carlile both received seven nods. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill each picked up six.
Nearly half of this year’s main nominees — announced by Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and Smokey Robinson — are women and more than half are people of color, according to the recording academy. The ceremony will take place on February 5 in Los Angeles.
“It makes me very proud, but it makes me aware that we need to maintain the work that we have done,” said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of The Recording Academy. He said there had been progress in the peer voting system and membership growth, but he still believes more progress can be made.
“This year, I am satisfied with the result and the work of the voters,” he continued. “We now have nearly 13,000 voters. This is really important work. I’m glad to think they spent time listening to the music and evaluating. I think you see by the type of nominations that they don’t just go for popular music or music that has a lot of streams. It’s just high quality music.
The academy added a special song for social change and five new categories, including songwriter of the yearwhich Harvey says will help further diversify the 65th Annual Awards.
The Non-Classical Songwriter category will recognize an individual who has been the “most prolific” non-performing, non-producer songwriter for a body of new work in a year of eligibility. It will take a different approach than Song of the Year, which rewards songwriters who have written lyrics or melodies for a song.
Harvey said the establishment of the songwriter category is a “significant” step forward for the music industry. Last year, an update to the rules allowed any songwriter, producer, engineer or featured artist of a work nominated for album of the year to earn a nomination.
“The academy and voters place great importance on the art of songwriting,” Harvey said of the new category, in which nominees include The-Dream, Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz. “Personally, as a songwriter, I’m glad to see that this is an integral part of our process. We realize that songwriting is at the heart of our industry. It’s one of the building blocks of the career of each artist.
Harvey said his priority is to earn the trust of the music community, including The Weeknd and Drake, who are still unwilling to submit their music. Drake declined to submit his “Honestly Nevermind” album for the awards, but the Canadian rapper still received four nominations, including album of the year for his co-writing efforts on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.”
“Everything that’s been reviewed and discussed in the past, we’re going to continue to review and improve on it,” Harvey said. “As we do this work, our hope is that all artists feel comfortable and confident with the work of the academy.”
Beyoncé, the most decorated woman in Grammy Awards history with 28 wins, could break the late Hungarian-British bandleader Georg Solti’s record for the most awards if she wins four awards. Solti, who has 31 Grammys, has held the record since 1997.
For the first time in Beyoncé’s acclaimed career, she was nominated in the dance category. His seventh studio project is up for Best Electronic Dance Music Album and “Break My Soul” is nominated for Best Electronic Dance Recording. Other nominations include Best R&B Song for “Cuff It,” R&B Performance for “Virgo’s Groove,” Traditional R&B Performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa,” and Song Written for Visual Media for “Be Alive.” Oscar-nominated song from “King Richard’s Soundtrack.
Other Album of the Year nominees include: Adele’s ’30’, ABBA’s ‘Voyage’, Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’, Mary J. Blige’s ‘Good Morning Gorgeous’ (Deluxe) , “In These Silent Days” by Carlile, “Coldplay” Music of the Spheres”, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers”, “Special” by Lizzo and “Harry’s House” by Styles. Bad Bunny made history, his album becoming the first entirely sung in Spanish to compete in the category.
Tracks competing with “Break My Soul” for Record of the Year include Styles’ “As It Was”, Doja Cat’s “Woman”, Adele’s “Easy On Me”, “Don’t Shut Me Down” by ABBA, “Good Morning Gorgeous” by Blige. “, “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy, “The Heart Part 5” by Lamar, “About Damn Time” by Lizzo and “You and Me On the Rock” by Carlile with Lucius.
Three of Jay-Z’s nominations came thanks to DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” a song featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Fridayy. The track is up for Best Rap Performance and Rap Song with Song of the Year, which was also nominated by Jay-Z for his songwriting efforts on Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.” The rapper also received an Album of the Year nomination for his work on his wife’s “Renaissance” album.
Both Young Thug and Gunna received nominations despite being locked up in a criminal racketeering case. The rappers are up for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance through Gunna’s “pushin P,” featuring Thug and Future.
Christina Aguilera’s return to Latin music with her self-titled album earned her two nominations for Best Latin Pop Album and Immersive Audio Album. Among the 10 nominees for Best New Artist are Muni Long, Latto and Eurovision winner Maneskin.
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