The nomination announcement ceremony for the 66th annual Grammy Awards was streamed live online Friday, Nov. 10. Kim Petras, St. Vincent, Muni Long, Samara Joy, Vince Gill, Arooj Aftab, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Jon Bon Jovi announced some of the nominees from different categories, however, most of the nominees were announced on the Grammy’s website. All of the nominations for categories in the general field were announced, along with a few other categories such as Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Rock Album, Best Melodic Rap Performance and many others. Only 24 of the 94 total categories were announced on the livestream.
This year, the Big Four categories- Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Best New Artist -were trimmed down from 10 nominees to eight, while all other categories still have just five. Taylor Swift, Jon Batiste, Miley Cyrus, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo were all nominated for Song, Record and Album of the year. Gracie Abrams, Fred Again.., Ice Spice, Jelly Roll, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, Victoria Monét and The War And Treaty were all nominated for Best New Artist.
SZA was nominated for nine Grammy awards, making her the most nominated artist this year, and Phoebe Bridgers and Victoria Monét follow close behind with seven nominations each. Bridgers’ collaboration with SZA, “Ghost In The Machine,” earned her one more nomination than her fellow bandmates in Boygenius, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. The track was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Three new categories, Best Alternative Jazz Album, Best Pop Dance Recording and Best African Music Performance, were added to the list this year. Among those nominated for these new categories are Louis Cole of Clown Core and Knower for his solo jazz album “Quality Over Opinion,” David Guetta’s “Baby Don’t Hurt Me,” and Arya Starr for “Rush.”
Metallica received a few nominations this year for their album “72 Seasons,” for Best Metal Performance, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Album. Arctic Monkeys (“Sculptures Of Anything Goes”), Black Pumas (“More Than A Love Song”), Boygenius (“Not Strong Enough”) and Foo Fighters (“Rescued”) were also nominated for Best Rock Performance.
It wouldn’t truly be Grammys season without some general upset over nominees and winners. This year, many are scratching their heads at the fact that Olivia Rodrigo’s “ballad of a homeschooled girl” was nominated for Best Rock Song. One user on TikTok, @jeal0usginger, wrote, “maybe… use the space for actual rock artists?”
Many have also noticed a lack of rap and country nominations this season. Ice Spice is the only rapper to receive a Grammy nomination in the general field, and there are no rap songs or albums nominated in this field either. Jelly Roll is the only country artist to receive nominations in the general field as well. It’s not exactly shocking to see hip-hop artists get snubbed by the Recording Academy (recall the infamous “1989” over “To Pimp a Butterfly” incident of 2015), but to see hip-hop artists receive so few acknowledgements this year is disheartening.
The award ceremony will take place Feb. 4, 2024 at 8pm Eastern Standard Time.
