Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd Top 58th GRAMMY Nominations

Erik Anderson December 7, 2015

**KENDRICK LAMAR LEADS WITH 11 NOMINATIONS; SWIFT AND THE WEEKND RECEIVE SEVEN NODS EACH**

The Recording Academy announced nominations today for the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards, reflecting a diverse blend of talented music makers as determined by The Academy’s voting membership.

This year, Kendrick Lamar leads nominations with 11, followed by Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, who each earn seven. Additionally, music producer/songwriter Max Martin receives six nominations and mastering engineer Tom Coyne, rapper Drake, and engineers/mixers Serban Ghenea and John Hanes each earn five nominations.

The eclectic nature of this year’s nominations is exemplified in the Album Of The Year category, where nominees range from the alternative and soulful rock of Alabama Shakes and Lamar’s thought-provoking jazz-infused rap to the classic country sounds of Chris Stapleton, the pop emergence of Swift, and the genre-bending R&B style of The Weeknd.

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” class=”” width=””]”The diversity in the creative community is what makes music a universal language, and it’s gratifying to see the vibrancy of today’s artistic landscape reflected in this year’s nominations — a testament to The Academy’s voting members,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. “Artists are pushing boundaries in exciting ways, making it an exceptionally strong year for music.”[/box]

Following are the nominations in the General Field categories:

Record Of The Year
“Really Love” — D’Angelo And The Vanguard
“Uptown Funk” — Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars
“Thinking Out Loud” — Ed Sheeran
“Blank Space” — Taylor Swift
“Can’t Feel My Face” — The Weeknd

Album Of The Year
Sound & Color — Alabama Shakes
To Pimp A Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar
Traveller — Chris Stapleton
1989 — Taylor Swift
Beauty Behind The Madness — The Weeknd

Song Of The Year
“Alright” — Kendrick Duckworth, Mark Anthony Spears & Pharrell Williams, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)
“Blank Space” — Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)
“Girl Crush” — Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose, songwriters (Little Big Town)
“See You Again” — Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz, songwriters (Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth)
“Thinking Out Loud” — Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge, songwriters (Ed Sheeran)

Best New Artist
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly
Meghan Trainor

Following is a sampling of nominations in the GRAMMY Awards’ other 29 Fields:

For Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, the nominees are “Ship To Wreck” by Florence & The Machine; “Sugar” by Maroon 5; “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars; “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift Featuring Kendrick Lamar; and “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth.

The nominees for Best Dance Recording are “We’re All We Need” by Above & Beyond Featuring Zoë Johnston; “Go” by the Chemical Brothers; “Never Catch Me” by Flying Lotus Featuring Kendrick Lamar; “Runaway (U & I)” by Galantis; and “Where Are Ü Now” by Skrillex And Diplo With Justin Bieber.

The Best Rock Performance nominees are “Don’t Wanna Fight” by Alabama Shakes; “What Kind Of Man” by Florence & The Machine; “Something From Nothing” by Foo Fighters; “Ex’s & Oh’s” by Elle King; and “Moaning Lisa Smile” by Wolf Alice.

The nominees for Best Alternative Music Album are Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes; Vulnicura by Björk; The Waterfall by My Morning Jacket; Currents by Tame Impala; and Star Wars by Wilco.

For Best Rap Album, the nominees are 2014 Forest Hills Drive by J. Cole; Compton by Dr. Dre; If Youre Reading This Its Too Late by Drake; To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar; and The Pinkprint by Nicki Minaj.

The nominees for Best Urban Contemporary Album are Ego Death by the Internet; You Should Be Here by Kehlani; Blood by Lianne La Havas; Wildheart by Miguel; and Beauty Behind The Madness by The Weeknd.

The Best Country Album nominees are Montevallo by Sam Hunt; Pain Killer by Little Big Town; The Blade by Ashley Monroe; Pageant Material by Kacey Musgraves; and Traveller by Chris Stapleton.

The nominees for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical are Jeff Bhasker, Dave Cobb, Diplo, Larry Klein, and Blake Mills.

For Best Music Video, the nominees are “LSD” by ASAP Rocky; “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)” by the Dead Weather; “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar; “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift Featuring Kendrick Lamar; and “Freedom” by Pharrell Williams.

For more nominations go to www.grammy.org.

This year’s GRAMMY Awards process registered more than 21,000 submissions over a 12-month eligibility period (Oct. 1, 2014 – Sept. 30, 2015). GRAMMY ballots for the final round of voting will be mailed on Dec. 16 to The Recording Academy’s voting members. Ballots are due back to the accounting firm Deloitte by Jan. 15, 2016, when they will be tabulated and the results kept secret until the 58th GRAMMY Awards telecast.

The 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held Feb. 15, 2016, at Staples Center in Los Angeles and broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT). For updates and breaking news, visit The Recording Academy’s social networks on Twitter and Facebook.

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Erik Anderson

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.