According to the Recording Academy, nearly half of this year’s top nominees are women and more than half are people of color.
LOS ANGELES – Beyonce has taken herself to the top. Grammy Echelon: The star singer claimed nine nominations on Tuesday, making her – along with her husband Jay Z – the most nominated music act in the awards show’s history.
Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” was nominated for record and song of the year, while “Renaissance” – which forayed into the world of dancehall music – won album of the year. Jay-Z also received five nods this year, now holding a record 88 Grammy nominations for each spouse.
Kendrick Lamar came in second with eight nominations. Adele and Brandi Carlile both received seven nods. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled, The Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill earned six each.
According to the Recording Academy, nearly half of this year’s top nominees — announced by Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and Smokey Robinson — are women and more than half are people of color. The event will be held on February 5 in Los Angeles.
“It makes me very proud, but it also makes me aware of the fact that we have to maintain what we’ve done,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. He said the peer-to-peer voting system has improved and membership has grown, but he still believes more progress can be made.
“This year, I’m happy with the results and the work of the voters,” he continued. “We’ve got almost 13,000 voters now. It’s really important work. I’m glad to think they spent time listening and evaluating the music. I think you see from the type of nominations that they’re just popular music or music. “Not going for a lot of streams. It’s just high-quality music.”
The academy added Five new categories including Special Song for Social Change and Songwriter of the Yearwhich Harvey says will further help diversify the 65th edition of the annual awards.
The Non-Classical Songwriter category will recognize an individual who was the “most competent” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for new work during the qualifying year. It will take a different approach than Song of the Year, which awards songwriters who have written the lyrics or lyrics to a song.
Harvey said the implementation of the songwriter category was a “significant” step for the music industry. Last year, a rule update allowed that any songwriter, producer, engineer or featured artist on a work nominated for Album of the Year could ultimately receive a nomination.
“The Academy and voters are putting a lot of emphasis on songwriting talent, with nominees including The-Dream, Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz,” Harvey said of the new category. Personally, as a songwriter, I’m glad to see it’s such an important part of our process. We realize that songwriting is at the core of our industry. It’s one of the building blocks for every artist’s career.”
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Beyoncé, the most decorated woman in Grammy history with 28 wins, could break the late Hungarian-British conductor George Solti’s record for most awards if she wins four. Solti, who has 31 Grammys, has held the record since 1997.
For the first time in Beyoncé’s illustrious career, she will be nominated in the dance category. His seventh studio project “Renaissance” is up for Best Dance-Electronic Music Album and “Break My Soul” is nominated for Best Dance-Electronic 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,” the Oscars. Includes songs nominated for King Richard” soundtrack.
Meryl received two nominations in the Record of the Year category for the second year in a row for her work on Adele’s “Easy on Me” and Styles’ “Just the Way It Was.” This is their first time being nominated for Album of the Year three times in the same year.
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), Carlyle’s “In These Silent Days,” Coldplay’s “Music of the Realms,” Lamar’s “Mr. Muriel and the Big Steppers,” Lizzo’s “Special” and Styles’ “Harry House.”
Tracks competing against “Break My Soul” for record of the year include Styles’ “Just Like It Was,” Doja Kat’s “Woman,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” ABBA’s “Don’t Shut Me Down, Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous”. “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy, “The Heart Part 5” by Lamar, “About Damn Time” by Lizzo and “You and Me on the Rock” by Carlyle featuring Lucious.
Jay-Z’s three nominations came from DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” a song featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Friday. The track is up for Best Rap Performance and Rap Song of the Year, with Jay-Z also nominated for his writing efforts on Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.” The rapper also received a nod for album of the year for his work on his wife’s “Renaissance” album.
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