As Grammy nominations are revealed, the music world buzzes with excitement, shining a spotlight on the standout talents that have shaped each year’s soundtrack. This year holds some pretty exciting nominations, snubs, and surprises.
The nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards are here! The show is notorious for a few surprising choices when it comes to who gets a shot to win an iconic gramophone trophy. There a plenty of regulars prospering, along with some fresh newcomers making a name for themselves.
SZA is leading the pack with 9 nominations this year, closely followed by a pack of extremely talented ladies. With Boygenius and Victoria Money following up the “SOS” singer, it’s looking to be an award show fueled by girl power. The typical nominee pool is mostly male, but this year the women have taken the majority.
Other leading ladies include Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Brandy Clark, Miley Cyrus, and Billie Eilish, who all hold at least 6 nominations this year across a variety of categories. Most notably, the “big four” categories (record, album and song of the year and best new artist) are taken up by women, holding over 2/3s of the nominations. Jon Batiste is the lone male artist in the top category, holding a nomination for his record “Worship.”
Even in the rap category, which is infamous for being snubbed by the Grammys, the girls performed well. Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, Ice Spice, and Coi Leray all garnered nominations of their own. However, Drake and Travis Scott were notably left out from the nominations this year.
Despite all this female empowerment, there were still a lot of let-downs hidden in this nomination pool. In my opinion, Paramore is the biggest snub of them all for this year. Their album “This Is Why” absolutely deserves a nomination somewhere in the big four categories. But the band did secure a spot in the Best Rock Album category, making it possible for Hayley Williams to be the third woman to ever win. She would be the first female winner of the century.
Another snub hits upcoming artist Renee Rapp. Before this year, Rapp was best known for playing Regina George on Broadway (a role she’ll reprise in the movie version of the “Mean Girls” musical) and Leighton Murray in HBO’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” Recently, she released her debut album “Snow Angel,” and quickly created a cult-like following on TikTok. At the very least, Rapp deserved a Best New Artist nomination considering her powerhouse vocals.
Other snubs in this category include Lauvey and Sabrina Carpenter. Although both of them have been making music for a few years, this past one marked a significant jump in each of their careers.
The pleasant surprises of this year were all the first-time nominees. Noah Kahan has rightfully earned a slot in Best New Artist after going mega-viral and collaborating with Grammy alumni Post Malone, Kacey Musgraves, Lizzy McAlpine, and Hozier. After releasing music for almost a decade, Troye Sivan has finally earned a place in the contenders for Best Music Video and Best Pop Dance Recording. Neutral Milk Hotel, Ryan Gosling, Coco Jones, and Gracie Abrams are all also first-time nominees this year.
Boygenius is the most nominated first-timers this year with 6 nominations for the supergroup. If you want to read more about their debut album “The Record” which garnered this much acclaim, click here!
Even though this year’s nominations list is good, it’s not perfect, with a lot of notable snubs to POC artists. More specifically, Latinx artists. Peso Pluma and Karol G, despite their success on the Billboard Charts, were left out of the running for many categories.
I think the most surprising thing of all though is the lack of Ed Sheeran nominations. Usually, he’s a front-runner, but this year he has earned only one nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. If you want to see a full list of the nominees, click here!