SZA leads the race to 2024 Grammy, women dominate 67th Grammy Awards

Los Angeles, Nov 11 (IANS) The list of the 67th Grammy Awards nominees is out and rapper SZA taking the lead with over nine nods. This is followed by Victoria Monét, Phoebe Bridgers, and Serban Ghenea with seven, and Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus, and, Olivia Rodrigo with six.

So from the list of the leading singers it is evident that this time, the woman world is leading the race, with Batiste being the only male artiste to have over six nods. Others haven’t done all that well as no other male performer was able to go above six.

Prior to the 2024 show, the Recording Academy winnowed the Big Four categories from 10 back down to eight nominees, and three new categories were added this year: Best Alternative Jazz Album, Best Pop Dance Recording, and Best African Music Performance.

As per the official website of the Grammy Awards: “The Recording Academy has officially revealed nominations for the 2024 GRAMMYs, which will take place Sunday, Feb. 4, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

“The 2024 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 66th GRAMMY Awards, will air live (8:00-11:30 PM, LIVE ET/5:00-8:30 PM, LIVE PT) on the CBS Television Network and will stream on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs)^.”

Announcing the new categories, they added: “Three new GRAMMY categories will debut at the 2024 GRAMMYs: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording.

“These history-making category additions are part of a larger set of updates and amendments, which go into effect immediately at the 2024 GRAMMYs, aimed at making the GRAMMY Awards process "more fair, transparent and accurate", according to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr.”

For Taylor Swift, the 2024 Grammys can potentially make her the all-time leader for album of the year wins if ‘Midnights’ should prevail in that category in February, according to Variety.

It would be her fourth win as she is currently with the music legends Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, with each of them having three album wins.

She did already set a different record this time though, with the newly announced nominations as Swift became the first person ever to be nominated for song of the year seven times.

On the movie category, director Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ is likely to have a tussle at the Grammys much like it may at the Oscars, with 12 nominations for the music of the film — 11 for the soundtrack album or its songs and one additional one for the Mark Ronson/Andrew Wyatt instrumental score.

Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ landed five nominations all by itself, appearing in two top marquee categories, record of the year and song of the year, as well as pop solo performance, music video and song written for visual media.

Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance the Night’ also got a top nomination, for song of the year. The category of songs written for visual media barely left room for anything else: four of five songs there are from ‘Barbie’, including the aforementioned Eilish and Lipa tracks, plus ‘Barbie World’ and ‘I’m Just Ken’.

For Best New Artists, Gracie Abrams, Fred Again, Ice Spice, Jelly Roll, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, Victoria Monét, and The War and Treaty have emerged as the leads.

On the rock and metal world, Metallica, Foo Fighters, Greta Van Fleet, Queens of the Stone Age, and Paramore are in the race for the Rock Album of the Year.