56th Grammy Award Nominations

Jay-Z leads the pack of the 56th Grammy nominations with nine as the announcement was also full of typically shocking snubs and head-scratching mentions. Jay-Z’s haul left him entirely out of the general field as was Justin Timberlake, who got seven nominations. Newcomers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Pharrell (for his worth with both Daft Punk and Robin Thicke on the two biggest songs of last summer) also came away with seven apiece. Kendrick Lamar surprised with seven nominations as well, including a bid for Album of the Year. That category also saw a surprise nomination for Sara Bereilles and her album The Blessed Unrest. Breakout star Lorde scored in Record of the Year and Song of the Year (“Royals”) but was mysteriously snubbed for Best New Artist. Daft Punk, ending the best year of their multi-decade career, snagged four nominations, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year (“Get Lucky”) and Record of the Year (“Get Lucky”).

Top category nominations:

Album of the Year
The Blessed Unrest, Sara Bareilles
Random Access Memories, Daft Punk
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar
The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Red, Taylor Swift

Song of the Year
“Just Give Me a Reason,” Jeff Bhasker, Pink & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Pink Featuring Nate Ruess)
“Locked Out of Heaven,” Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine & Bruno Mars, songwriters (Bruno Mars)
“Roar,” Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Katy Perry & Henry Walter, songwriters (Katy Perry)
“Royals,” Joel Little & Ella Yelich O’Connor, songwriters (Lorde)
“Same Love,” Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert & Ryan Lewis, songwriters (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Featuring Mary Lambert)

Record of the Year
“Get Lucky,” Daft Punk
“Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons
“Royals,” Lorde
“Locked Out of Heaven,” Bruno Mars
“Blurred Lines,” Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell

Best New Artist
James Blake
Kendrick Lamar
Kacey Musgraves
Ed Sheeran
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Full list of nominees at the Grammy website: http://www.grammy.com/nominees#main