The Grammy nominations, which made some major changes this year that boosted nomination totals from five to eight in the general field, found a lot to celebrate for female performers as women landed four of those titles. Janelle Monáe (Dirty Computer), Kacey Musgraves (Golden Hour), Brandi Carlile (By the Way, I Forgive You) and Cardi B (Invasion of Privacy) all hit the top.
Black Panther scored the first Album of the Year for a soundtrack since 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which won. With that, Kendrick Lamar is the most-nominated artist of the year, with 8. Drake was next with seven and Lady Gaga came in with five – from both A Star Is Born (“Shallow”) and the titular song from her album Joanne.
Major snubs came in the form of megastars Taylor Swift, a two-time Album of the Year winner, and Ariana Grande shut out of the top four categories. Both were predicted to show up there but did manage to show up in Pop Album with Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello (another general field shut out), Kelly Clarkson and P!nk. Jay-Z and Beyoncé in collaboration as The Carters also missed out of Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year but did show up in three non-general field categories.
The 61st annual Grammy Awards air February 10th on CBS and be broadcast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Here are the nominations in the General Field. You can see the full list at grammy.com.
1. Record Of The Year Award to the Artist and to the Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s) and mastering engineer(s), if other than the artist.
I LIKE IT Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin Invincible, JWhiteDidIt, Craig Kallman & Tainy, producers; Leslie Brathwaite & Evan LaRay, engineers/mixers; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer
THE JOKE Brandi Carlile Dave Cobb & Shooter Jennings, producers; Tom Elmhirst & Eddie Spear, engineers/mixers; Pete Lyman, mastering engineer
THIS IS AMERICA Childish Gambino Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, producers; Derek “MixedByAli” Ali & Riley Mackin, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
GOD’S PLAN Drake Boi-1Da, Cardo & Young Exclusive, producers; Noel Cadastre, Noel “Gadget” Campbell & Noah Shebib, engineers/mixers; Chris Athens, mastering engineer
SHALLOW Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper Lady Gaga & Benjamin Rice, producers; Tom Elmhirst, engineer/mixer; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer
ALL THE STARS Kendrick Lamar & SZA Al Shux & Sounwave, producers; Sam Ricci & Matt Schaeffer, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
ROCKSTAR Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage Louis Bell & Tank God, producers; Louis Bell & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
THE MIDDLE Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey Grey, Monsters & Strangerz & Zedd, producers; Grey, Tom Morris, Ryan Shanahan & Zedd, engineers/mixers; Mike Marsh, mastering engineer
2. Album Of The Year Award to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s), Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and Mastering Engineer(s) credited with at least 33% playing time of the album, if other than Artist.
INVASION OF PRIVACY Cardi B Leslie Brathwaite & Evan LaRay, engineers/mixers; Belcalis Almanzar & Jorden Thorpe, songwriters; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer
BY THE WAY, I FORGIVE YOU Brandi Carlile Dave Cobb & Shooter Jennings, producers; Dave Cobb & Eddie Spear, engineers/mixers; Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters; Pete Lyman, mastering engineer
H.E.R. H.E.R. Darhyl “Hey DJ” Camper Jr, H.E.R. & Jeff Robinson, producers; Miki Tsutsumi, engineer/mixer; Darhyl Camper Jr & H.E.R., songwriters; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer
BEERBONGS & BENTLEYS Post Malone Louis Bell & Post Malone, producers; Louis Bell & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Louis Bell & Austin Post, songwriters; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
DIRTY COMPUTER Janelle Monáe Chuck Lightning & Janelle Monáe Robinson & Nate “Rocket” Wonder, producers; Mick Guzauski, Janelle Monáe Robinson & Nate “Rocket” Wonder, engineers/mixers; Nathaniel Irvin III, Charles Joseph II, Taylor Parks & Janelle Monáe Robinson, songwriters; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer
GOLDEN HOUR Kacey Musgraves Ian Fitchuk, Kacey Musgraves & Daniel Tashian, producers; Craig Alvin & Shawn Everett, engineers/mixers; Ian Fitchuk, Kacey Musgraves & Daniel Tashian, songwriters; Greg Calbi & Steve Fallone, mastering engineers
BLACK PANTHER: THE ALBUM, MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY (Various Artists) Kendrick Lamar, featured artist; Kendrick Duckworth & Sounwave, producers; Matt Schaeffer, engineer/mixer; Kendrick Duckworth & Mark Spears, songwriters; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
3. Song Of The Year A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
ALL THE STARS Kendrick Duckworth, Solána Rowe, Al Shuckburgh, Mark Spears & Anthony Tiffith, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar & SZA)
BOO’D UP Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai & Dijon McFarlane, songwriters (Ella Mai)
GOD’S PLAN Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels & Noah Shebib, songwriters (Drake)
IN MY BLOOD Teddy Geiger, Scott Harris, Shawn Mendes & Geoffrey Warburton, songwriters (Shawn Mendes)
THE JOKE Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
THE MIDDLE Sarah Aarons, Jordan K. Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Marcus Lomax, Kyle Trewartha, Michael Trewartha & Anton Zaslavski, songwriters (Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey)
SHALLOW Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
THIS IS AMERICA Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)
4. Best New Artist An artist will be considered for Best New Artist if their eligibility year release/s achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and notably impacted the musical landscape.
Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.