Grammy Nominees 2021 round-up

The nominations for the 63^rd Grammy Awards were announced on November 24^th, in preparation for the ceremony to be held at the end of January next year…

I have to say, my personal highlight of the stream was seeing President of the Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr. tell Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion that they’d been nominated live on stream.

Now, the Grammys have an insane number of categories, so I’m not going to be able to cover every single one in this article. So, I’m just going to cover the main four here: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. All of which are held by Billie Eilish, some of which are shared by her brother Finneas O’Connell.

Beyoncé leads the nominations this year, earning nine. Whilst Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Roddy Rich each scored six.

Album of the Year

Album of the Year is a pretty self-explanatory category. The award goes to the performer, featured performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and mixers. It is currently held by Billie Eilish for her 2019 hit When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

The nominations are:

Chilombo – Jhené Aiko

Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition) – Black Pumas

Everyday Life – Coldplay

Djesse Vol.3 – Jacob Collier

Women in Music Pt. III – Haim

Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa

Hollywood’s Bleeding – Post Malone

Folklore – Taylor Swift

Record of the Year

The difference between ROTY and SOTY is a point of contention every year. Record of the Year is awarded to honour artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence. The category has nothing to do with album sales or chart performance. It is awarded to the performing artist, producer, recording engineer and/or mixer. It is currently held by Billie Eilish for ‘Bad Guy”.

The nominations are:

Black Parade – Beyoncé

Colors – Black Pumas

Rockstar –Dababy ft. Roddy Ricch

Say So – Doja Cat

Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish

Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa

Circles – Post Malone

Savage – Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyoncé

Song of the Year

Not to be confused with Record of the Year this award goes to the person or people who wrote the song. It’s all about the song itself. It is currently held by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for Bad Guy.

The nominations are:

Black Parade – Denisia Andrews, Beyoncé, Stephan Bray, Shawn Carter, Brittany coney, Derek James Dixie, Akil King, Kim “Kaydence” Krysiuk and Rickie “Caso” Tice, songwritiers (by Beyoncé)

The Box – Samuel Gloade and Rodrick Moore, songwriters (by Roddy Ricch)

Cardigan – Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift, songwriters (by Taylor Swift)

Circles – Louis Bell, Adam Feeney, Kaan Gunesberk, Austin Post and Billy Walsh, songwriters (by Post Malone)

Don’t Start Now – Caroline Ailin, Ian Kirkpatrick, Dua Lipa, and Emily Warren, songwriters (by Dua Lipa)

Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (by Billie Eilish)

I Can’t Breathe – Dernst Emile II, H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas, songwriters (by H.E.R.)

If The World Was Ending – Julia Michaels and JP Saxe, songwriters (by JP Saxe ft. Julia Michaels)

Best New Artist

The rules for who counts as a new artist is always a little confusing. But the Grammys defines it as an award for “a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist.” This does not necessarily mean the first album released by that artist. The award is currently held by Billie Eilish after her astronomical rise last year.

The nominations are:

Ingrid Andress

Phoebe Bridgers

Chika

Noah Cyrus

D Smoke

Doja Cat

Kaytranada

Megan Thee Stallion

A full list of all the Grammy nominations can be found on the Grammy website.

By Robbie Nichols

Feature Image Credit: GRAMMY