A ‘Black Parade’ Grammys: Beyoncé leads with 9 nominations
NEW
YORK (AP) — Beyoncé is bringing her Black parade to the Grammys: The
pop star’s anthem about Black pride scored multiple nominations Tuesday,
making her the leading contender with nine.
Beyoncé picked up
song and record of the year bids with “Black Parade,” which she released
on Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates when the last enslaved
African Americans learned they were free. The song, which reached the
Top 40 on the pop charts, is also nominated for best R&B song and
best R&B performance.
Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” film that
highlighted Black art, music, history and fashion is up for best music
film while “Brown Skin Girl,” a song dedicated to dark- and
brown-skinned women, is nominated for best music video. The singer also
earned three nominations for her slick guest appearance on Megan Thee
Stallion’s No. 1 hit “Savage,” including record of the year, best rap
performance and best rap song.
A winner of 24 Grammys, Beyoncé
becomes the second-most nominated act in the history of the awards show
with 79 nominations. She is tied with Paul McCartney, who earned a
nomination this year for best boxed or special limited edition package.
Beyoncé
is only behind her husband Jay-Z and Quincy Jones, who have both earned
80 nominations each. Jay-Z picked up three nominations this year for
his contributions to Beyoncé’s songs: He co-wrote “Black Parade” and
“Savage,” thus earning nominations for song of the year, best R&B
song and best rap song. Jay-Z has won 22 Grammys throughout his career.
Beyoncé’s
domination this year came as a surprise since the singer did not
release a new album. Other surprises, well snubs, include pop star the
Weeknd being completely shut out and earning zero nominations despite
having a No. 1 album, multiple hit singles and winning the coveted Super
Bowl halftime performance slot. Luke Combs, who dominated the country
charts and set records on streaming services this year, was also
surprisingly shut out of nominations.
When Harvey Mason Jr., the
Recording’s interim president and CEO, was asked if he was surprised the
Weeknd didn’t earn a single nomination, he told The Associated Press:
“You know, there’s so many nominations and there’s only so many slots,
it’s really tough to predict what the voters are going to vote for in
any given year. I try not to be too surprised.”
The Weeknd tweeted
later Tuesday an angry response to his snub: “The Grammys remain
corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” He did
not elaborate further.
Instead, multiple nominations went to
Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Roddy Ricch, who each earned six nominations
and followed Beyoncé as the second-most nominated acts.
Lipa, who
won two Grammys last year, earned bids for album of the year with
“Future Nostalgia” as well as song and record of the year for her hit
“Don’t Start Now.” Swift, whose last two albums didn’t garner
nominations for album of the year, is competing for the top prize with
her surprise album “folklore.” If she wins, she would become the first
female artist to win album of the year three times.
Other album of
the year nominees include: Post Malone’s multi-hit “Hollywood’s
Bleeding”; Coldplay’s “Everyday Life,” which featured world music sounds
and politically-charged lyrics; HAIM’s sophomore release “Women In
Music Pt. III”; Jhené Aiko’s atmospheric R&B project “Chilombo”;
English musician Jacob Collier’s multi-genre release “Djesse Vol. 3”;
and the deluxe edition of Black Pumas’ self-titled debut album.
Tracks
competing with Beyoncé’s “Black Parade” and “Savage” for record of the
year include DaBaby and Ricch’s “Rockstar,” Malone’s “Circles,” Lipa’s
“Don’t Start Now,” Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” Black Pumas’
“Colors” and Doja Cat’s “Say So.” The latter track was produced by
controversial music figure Dr. Luke, and he earns his first Grammy
nominations since 2014, the year his former collaborator Kesha accused
him of sexual assault. Dr. Luke, who used the moniker Tyson Trax on the
credits for Doja Cat’s song, has vigorously denied the allegations.
“Black
Parade,” “Don’t Start Now,” “Everything I Wanted” and “Circles” are
also nominated for song of the year — a songwriter’s award — along with
Swift’s “cardigan,” Ricch’s “The Box,” JP Saxe and Julia Michaels’ “If
the World Was Ending” and H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe,” her protest anthem
addressing police brutality.
Several songs that emerged following
the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor were
nominated for Grammys, including Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture” (best
rap song, best rap performance), Anderson .Paak’s “Lockdown” (best
melodic rap performance, best music video), Mickey Guyton’s “Black Like
Me” (best country solo performance) as well as Beyoncé’s “Black Parade.”
“I
think it’s meaningful. I think it’s reflective of what’s gone on in our
world,” Mason Jr. said of multiple protest songs earning nominations
this year. “Musicians and artists and writers and producers, they write
about what’s going on in their lives. We tend to be fairly emotional
people. When there’s things happening, it’s going to come out in our
music and our art. It only makes sense that those types of songs would
be nominated and celebrated by our voters. It really resonated with
people. You listen to some of those songs and can’t help but be moved.”
Megan
Thee Stallion, who released her highly anticipated debut album last
week after finding success with hit singles and mixtapes since 2018,
scored four nominations including best new artist. She will compete with
rapper-singer Doja Cat, pop singer Noah Cyrus, country singer Ingrid
Andress, multi-genre DJ-producer Kaytranada, rappers Chika and D Smoke,
and indie rocker Phoebe Bridgers, who earned four nominations and helped
female acts dominate in the rock categories.
Nominees for best
rock performance and best rock song include Bridgers, Fiona Apple, HAIM,
Grace Potter, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and Big Thief, led by
Adrianne Lenker. Female performers also dominated in best country album,
including Andress, Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark and Ashley McBryde.
The foursome Little Big Town, which features two female vocalists, round
out the five nominees.
Howard, who released her first solo album
“Jaime” last year, earned five nominations, including bids in R&B
and American Roots categories. Eilish, DaBaby, John Beasley, David Frost
and Justin Bieber — nominated for three pop awards and a country one
for “10,000 Hours” with duo Dan + Shay — earned four nominations each.
K-pop
kings BTS earned their first-ever Grammy nomination after years of
having success on the pop charts. They will compete for best pop
duo/group performance with their No. 1 hit, “Dynamite.”
Other
first-time nominees include the Strokes, Megan Thee Stallion, Michael
Kiwanuka, Jay Electronica and Harry Styles, who became the first One
Direction member to earn a Grammy nomination. He’s up for best pop vocal
album with his second solo release “Fine Line,” best pop solo
performance for “Watermelon Sugar” and best music video for “Adore You.”
Several
acts earned posthumous nominations, including John Prine (best American
Roots performance, best American Roots song), Nipsey Hussle (best rap
performance), Leonard Cohen (best folk album) Pop Smoke (best rap
performance) and songwriter LaShawn Daniels (best gospel
performance/song).
And A-list entertainers hoping to reach EGOT
status are getting a chance to earn their Grammy Award, including Renée
Zellweger, who is nominated for best traditional pop vocal album for
“Judy” — a performance that won her a second Academy Award — while Meryl
Streep is nominated for best spoken word album for “Charlotte’s Web.”
Streep’s competition includes MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, journalist Ronan
Farrow and “Jeopardy!” record-holder Ken Jennings, who is nominated for
reading “Alex Trebek — The Answer Is…” Tiffany Haddish, Jerry
Seinfeld, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan and Bill Burr are nominated for
best comedy album.
Kanye West, who has won 21 Grammys, only scored
a single nomination this year — for contemporary Christian music album
for “Jesus Is King.” Others who were snubbed include country performers
the Chicks and Morgan Wallen, R&B singers Summer Walker, Teyana
Taylor, Chris Brown and Brandy, and late rapper Juice WRLD.
Songs
and albums released between Sept. 1, 2019 and Aug. 31, 2020 were
eligible for nominations this year. Winners will be announced at the
live show on Jan. 31.
Trevor Noah to host 2021 Grammy Awards
NEW YORK (AP) — “The Daily Show” host and comedian Trevor Noah has been tapped to host the 2021 Grammy Awards.
The
Recording Academy made the announcement hours before the nominees for
the upcoming show are revealed. It would mark Noah’s first time hosting
the Grammys, which will be held Jan. 31.
Earlier this year, Noah
competed for his first Grammy Award: The 36-year-old Emmy winner was
nominated for best comedy album with “Son of Patricia,” but lost to Dave
Chappelle.
“Despite the fact that I am extremely disappointed
that the GRAMMYs have refused to have me sing or be nominated for best
pop album, I am thrilled to be hosting this auspicious event,” Noah said
in a statement. “I think as a one-time GRAMMY nominee, I am the best
person to provide a shoulder to all the amazing artists who do not win
on the night because I too know the pain of not winning the award! (This
is a metaphorical shoulder, I’m not trying to catch Corona). See you at
the 63rd GRAMMYs!”
Alicia Keys was the most recent Grammys host. Past hosts include James Corden and LL Cool J.