Beyoncé ties Grammy record after leading nominations with 9
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Beyoncé has catapulted herself into the highest-ranking Grammy season: The star singer scooped nine leading nominations Tuesday, making her — along with husband Jay-Z — the most-nominated music act in the history of the awards show made .
Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” was nominated for Album and Song of the Year, while “Renaissance,” which ventured into the world of dancehall music, won Album of the Year. Since Jay-Z was also nominated five times this year, each spouse now holds the record for most Grammy nominations of all time, with 88 apiece.
Kendrick Lamar came in second with eight nominations. Adele and Brandi Carlile both received seven nods. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill recorded six each.
Almost half of this year’s leading nominees – announced by Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and Smokey Robinson – are women and more than half are black, according to the recording academy. The ceremony will take place on February 5 in Los Angeles.
“It makes me very proud, but it also makes me realize that we must uphold the work that’s been done,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of Recording Academy. He said there has been progress in the peer-driven voting system and increased membership, but he still believes more progress can be made.
“This year I am satisfied with the result and the work of the voters,” he continued. “We now have almost 13,000 voters. It’s really important work. I’m glad you took the time to listen to the music and rate it. I think you can see from the nature of the nominations that it’s not just about popular music or music that has a lot of streams. It’s just high quality music.”
The Academy added a special social change song and five new categories, including Songwriter of the Year, which Harvey says will help further diversify the 65th edition of the annual awards.
The “Non-Classical Songwriter” category recognizes an individual who was the “Most Prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a series of new works during a year of participation. It will take a different approach to Song of the Year, which recognizes the songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melody to a song.
Harvey said the implementation of the songwriter category was a “significant” step forward for the music industry. Last year, a rule update allowed any songwriter, producer, engineer, or featured artist on a work nominated for Album of the Year to ultimately receive a nomination.
“The academy and voters really value the craft of songwriting,” Harvey said of the new category, which will see nominations for The-Dream, Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz. “Personally, as a songwriter, I’m excited that this is an important part of our process. We know that songwriting is at the heart of our industry. It’s one of the building blocks of any artist’s career.”
Harvey said his priority is gaining the trust of the music community, including The Weeknd and Drake, who are still unwilling to submit their music. Drake declined to submit his album Honestly Nevermind for the awards, but the Canadian rapper still received four nominations — including Album of the Year for his co-writing efforts on Beyoncé’s Renaissance.
“Anything that has been looked at and discussed in the past, we will continue to look at and improve,” said Harvey. “As we do this work, we hope that all artists feel comfortable and confident with the Academy’s work.”
Beyoncé, the most decorated woman in Grammy history with 28 Grammy wins, could break the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti’s record for most awards won if she wins four awards. Solti, who has 31 Grammys, has held the record since 1997.
For the first time in Beyoncé’s acclaimed career, she was nominated in the Dance category. Her seventh studio project is nominated for Best Electronic Dance Album and “Break My Soul” is nominated for Best Electronic Dance Recording. Other nominations include Best R&B Song for “Cuff It,” R&B Performance for “Virgo’s Groove,” Traditional R&B Performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa,” and Song Written for Visual Media for “Be Alive.” Oscar-nominated song from the King Richard soundtrack.
Other nominees for Album of the Year include: Adele’s “30”, ABBA’s “Voyage”, Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti”, Mary J. Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous” (Deluxe), Carlile’s “In These Silent Days”, Coldplays “Music of the Spheres”, Lamar’s “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, Lizzo’s Special, and Styles Harry’s House. Bad Bunny made history when his album became the first album sung entirely in Spanish to compete in this category.
Tracks competing with “Break My Soul” for record of the year include “As It Was” by Styles, “Woman” by Doja Cat, “Easy On Me” by Adele, “Don’t Shut Me Down” by ABBA and Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous”, Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit”, Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5”, Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and Carlile’s “You and Me On the Rock” with Lucius.
Three of Jay-Z’s nominations came from DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” a song featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Fridayy. The track is nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, as well as Song of the Year, for which Jay-Z was also nominated for his efforts as the writer of Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.” The rapper also received an Album of the Year award for his work on his wife’s “Renaissance” album.
Young Thug and Gunna both received nominations despite currently being locked up in a bitter criminal case. The rappers competed for best rap song and best rap performance in Gunna’s “pushin P” with Thug and Future.
Christina Aguilera’s comeback to Latin music with her self-titled album earned her two nominations for Best Latin Pop Album and Immersive Audio Album. Among the 10 nominees for Best New Artist are Muni Long, Latto and Eurovision winner Maneskin.
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