This year’s Grammy nominations are out! And it has fans surprised and shocked.
Yet some nominations weren’t all that surprising: Kendrick Lamar was awarded nine nominations, the most of the year. Given his success at last year’s Grammy Awards for his Drake diss track “Not Like Us”, this should not come as a shock.
Alex Warren’s massive hit “Ordinary” dominated the charts this year, but Warren earned only a Best New Artist nomination. Fans of this up-and-coming artist were shocked that his work did not earn him a nomination for Song of the Year or Record of the Year. Similarly, Justin Bieber’s wildly praised “Daisies” (which earned a nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance) didn’t land the top-category recognition fans believed it deserved.
Tyler, The Creator earned nominations across rap and alternative categories for his stylistic range and genre-blurring song construction. This more experimental genre of rap as a whole had an overall strong showing this year: Lamar’s GNX, Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out, and Tyler’s Chromakopia all made album of the year.
In terms of Best New Artist nods, two standout surprises were girl group Katseye and prominent TikTok star turned pop star Addison Rae. A Grammy nomination review is not complete without touching on KPop Demon Hunters, the blockbuster Netflix movie. Critics seem to be divided on where the songs from the film fit into the Grammy scheme; despite the popularity of its music, the movie received limited recognition outside songwriting categories.
One of the biggest surprises was with Lorde, whose album Virgin received no nominations; fans felt like this was a robbery.
Another act that took home its fair share of nominations was rock band Turnstile, which was praised with five nominations spanning rock, alternative, and metal.
So, with some surprises and some classic award show favorites up for major awards at this year’s Grammys, the ceremony promises a great night of celebrating music.