The Best and Weirdest Nominations

This year, fun, dance-ready pop music dominated the charts thanks to superstars like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter. Accordingly, the Grammys recognized these leading women across the board, but especially in major categories; each one received nominations in Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. Charli XCX, arguably the queen of 2024’s pop girl summer, received her first nominations as a solo artist, while Carpenter and Roan also nabbed noms in Best New Artist for their massive breakthrough moments. — Maya Georgi

Sure, it’s a relentlessly brutal diss track, but “Not Like Us” is also just a flat-out fantastic song —  multi-layered, casually virtuosic, and insanely catchy, with Kendrick dropping enough hooks for ten more Drake eviscerations.  It’s a sign of how much the Grammys have evolved in recent years that they gave the song its due, including nominations for two of the biggest awards, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.  Will Lamar end up standing on the Grammy stage, telling the crowd to “let me hear you say, ‘OV-ho’”? Probably, and he’ll do the same thing at the Super Bowl. Sorry, Drake.— Brian Hiatt

The Grammys usually come up short when it comes to properly documenting the tone of what happened in hip-hop during the previous year. You can’t say that this year. Women in rap were heavily celebrated throughout 2024, and that dynamic was apparent in this round of Grammy nominations. Doechii was nominated for Best New Artist and Rap Album of The Year. GloRilla’s “Yeah Glo” earned nominations in the Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance categories. Rapsody was nominated for Best Melodic Rap (“3AM” with Erykah Badu) and Best Rap Performance (“Asteroids”). Cardi B and Latto also picked up nominations, as did Beyonce. Despite what detractors might say, there are a wide variety of women doing their thing in every rap scene. Even the Grammys can see that.–Andre Gee 

Sadly, the Grammys continue to silo Latin music off into genre-specific categories, but it’s still nice to see stars like Feid and Young Miko enjoying their first-ever nominations this year. After several major albums, Feid scored his first nod at the Gringo Grammys, making it into the Best Música Urbana Album category for his experimental album FERXXOCALIPSIS. Meanwhile beloved newcomer Young Miko closed out a stellar year by getting recognized in the same category for her debut LP att. They’re worthy contenders in a tight race that includes veterans Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Residente.–Julyssa Lopez

Morgan Wallen’s last two albums — 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album and 2023’s One Thing at a Time — were massive successes, but Grammy voters snubbed both, along with crossover hit singles like “Wasted on You” and “Last Night,” in the wake of a string of personal controversies surrounding the country singer. This year, Wallen becomes a first-time nominee, scoring a pair of nominations for his feature on Post Malone’s inescapable “I Had Some Help.” He did indeed.–Joseph Hudak

Hey Staples Center, what the fuck is up? Charli XCX notched seven Grammy nominations this year, her first since 2015 when she was nominated alongside Iggy Azalea for their collaboration “Fancy.” It’s a fitting end to her big Brat year: an album that reckoned with the avant-pop star’s relationship with success — whether it was on the charts or with institutions like the Grammys — ended up manifesting her most critically acclaimed and commercially successful album yet. Not only does she notch nods in Record and Album of the Year, she’s all over the Pop and Dance categories, as well. Given all the overdue appreciation for her work, she could have her Miley Cyrus moment at this year’s ceremony. And like she teased on “Spring Breakers,” we might see a tear from her eye if they give her that prize.–-Brittany Spanos

It’s not that a No. 1 song being nominated for Best Rap Song is “weird” — it’s just that Ye, f.k.a. as Kanye West, has been pretty weird over the past couple years. In 2022 he self-sabotaged pretty heavily, even by his standards, with anti-semitic remarks that agitated people already annoyed with his MAGA advocacy. A slew of brands parted ways with him, and it seemed like he might be persona non grata with award bodies as well. But then he dropped the anthemic “Carnival” alongside Ty Dolla Sign, Playboi Carti, and Rich The Kid, resulting in his first Billboard chart-topper since his appearance on Katy Perry’s “ET.,” and a nomination, for Best Rap Song. It’s his 76th Grammy nomination. His latest smash also made him the first rapper to reach Number One in three different decades.–A.G.

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was everywhere in 2024, topping the Hot 100 for sixteen total weeks so far. As ubiquitous booze anthems go, it’s hard to top: catchy as hell and a little intense, a party song with soul. Today, it earned Shaboozey, the Virginia-rased son of Nigerian parents, Song of the Year, Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song nominations. But his adventurously rootsy latest album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Goin, makes clear he’s more than one song, as do the other two noms he go today: Best New Artist, and Best Melodic Rap performance, for a co-write on Beyonce’s “Spaghetti,” a nom he shares with lost pioneer Linda Martell.–Christian Hoard

Way back in 1970, Linda Martell smashed a country glass ceiling by becoming one of the very first Black women in the genre. Her album, Color Me Country, was steeped in honky tonk and Martell’s roots in R&B and pop. Soon after, her career was sidelined by intolerance and music-biz fickleness, and Martell became a footnote. But thanks to her cameo in Beyoncé’s “Spaghettii,” which is up for Best Melodic Rap Performance, Martell finally has a shot at redemption a half-century later. Not her first rodeo, but her most important one. –David Browne

It’s taken nearly half a century, but the Recording Academy has finally recognized Nick Cave, the musician. Although the singer-songwriter was nominated in the Best Recording Package category for his Carnage album with Warren Ellis and in the Best Music Film category for One More Time With Feeling, a documentary about the making of his Skeleton Tree album (which should have been nominated for a Grammy), Cave’s uniquely moving and sometimes scary contributions to music have never fully been celebrated. Until now. The band’s 18th album Wild God is up for Best Alternative Music Album and the record’s lead track, “Song of the Lake,” is up for Best Alternative Music Performance. Finally. —Kory Grow

Pete Rock is one of a handful of people most responsible for shaping the sound of golden-era hip-hop in the Nineties. The lithe, soulful beats he crafted for “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.),” Nas’ “The World Is Yours,” and Biggie’s “Juicy” remix alone earned him an uncontestable spot in music history. But he notched those accomplishments in an era when the Grammys were still struggling to comprehend rap as an artform, so he’s never been nominated before. This year, the producer linked up with his old friend Common to make an album that’s a shining example of the hip-hop traditions they both love. It’s sweet recognition to see The Auditorium, Vol. 1 nominated for Best Rap Album (a category that didn’t even exist until 1996), and “When the Sun Shines Again” get a nod in Best Rap Performance. —Simon Vozick-Levinson

There’s a cowboy and a Carter (but no Beyonce) in the Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording category this year, since former president Jimmy Carter’s Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration is up against Dolly Parton’s Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. The battle royale is even more fascinating since the centenarian is also up against Funkmaster General George Clinton, for his …And Your Ass Will Follow and Barbra Streisand for My Name Is Barbra. The wildcard is All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words, a mélange of memories by the Fab Four. —K.G.

Vybz Kartel was one of the biggest names in dancehall before he was convicted of murder in 2014 and imprisoned under a life sentence, and he remained just as big throughout his incarceration. He still managed to release new music en masse behind bars, including the album Party With Me this spring. This summer, Kartel was freed from prison when his conviction was overturned – and now, he could attend the 2025 Grammys as a first-time nominee for it.–Mankaprr Conteh

If the Grammys got it right (always a toss up), it was only a matter of time before Tems earned some nominations as a solo performer. Until today, the Nigerian pop star’s nods and wins have come elsewhere: Future’s sample of her heavenly 2020 song “Higher” on his own rap track “Wait For U” got her a Grammy as a credited artist, and she got nominations for her hitmaking feature on Wizkid’s “Essence”,’ her appearance on Beyone’s Renaissance, and her songwriting on Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up.” Finally, off the back of her 2024 debut album, Born in the Wild, Tems’ got three nominations all her own this year– Best Global Music Album, Best African Performance for “Love Me Jeje,” and Best R&B song for “Burning.”–M.C.

The flute has had some Grammy moments over the years, with woodwind-forward artists like Lizzo and Jethro Tull earning notable nominations (infamously, in Tull’s case). But André 3000’s New Blue Sun is a full 87 minutes of ambitious, ambient flautism. It’s not exactly your standard Album of the Year fare, but as wildcard nominations go, you could do worse than one of the greatest rappers of all time reinventing himself to dive into an odyssey that’s sunny, contemplative and weirdly inspiring.–C.H.

During its 30-year run as a band, Sonic Youth dismantled rock & roll conventions (and guitar tunings), championed an upstart named Kurt Cobain and injected outsider art into the mainstream by way of their album covers. One thing they never accomplished, though, was garnering a Grammy nomination. This year, that oversight ends — to a degree — with cofounder Kim Gordon landing not one but two nods: Best Alternative Music Album for her clattering second solo set, The Collective, and Best Alternative Music Performance for one of its tracks, “Bye Bye.” It would’ve been a cool thing had Sonic Youth itself had been nominated back in the day for Sister, Daydream Nation, or Dirty, but sometimes you take progress where you can find it. –-D.B

With his latest album, Heis, Rema knew he had a major sonic shift in Afrobeats on his hands. “For the past years, I’ve been light and jovial. I’m quite intense this time,” he told us ahead of the album that’s earned him a Best Global Album nomination, alongside Tems’ Born in the Wild. “One thing that you will hear in the future is just the rawness and realness — how raw Afrobeats has been before the whole globalization, but in a new way.” The man known for the sugary sweet crossover hit “Calm Down” with Selena Gomez, changed gears this time out, teetering between hero and villain on Heis. He broke from the genre’s mundane with dark, sharp, thrilling percussion, haunting production, and witty taunts. This Grammy nod – his first – is well deserved.–M.C.

Alissia, producer for the likes of BJ the Chicago Kid, Jamila Woods, and Rae Khalil ended one of the Grammys’ most disappointing droughts by becoming the first woman nominated for Producer of the Year since Linda Perry got the nod back in 2019. Production itself is one of the most male-dominated roles in all of music, and no woman has ever taken home the Producer of the Year Grammy. Before Perry’s nomination, the last woman to have been nominated was Lauren Christy back in 2004 as a member of the production trio The Matrix. But in a Grammy year where women are dominating the major categories, it’s a welcome sign of potential progress.–Ethan Millman

The Beatles broke up 54 years ago, and John Lennon died in 1980, but those inconvenient facts didn’t prevent the Beatles’ “final song,” “Now and Then” — built upon a Lennon demo cleaned up with A.I. — from landing a Record of the Year nomination. That means for once, today’s Beatle-level stars, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, get to battle it out directly with their predecessors for the very first time, as do Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, and Chappell Roan.–Brian Hiatt