Beyoncé, Charli XCX, Post Malone among top Grammy contenders
Grammys 2025: Beyoncé is this year’s most-nominated artist. FILE PHOTO
LOS ANGELES – From the Beatles’ first nomination in 28 years to big nominations for Beyoncé, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, Sunday’s 67th annual Grammy Awards are expected to provide plenty of surprises for music fans.
After a year that saw a pop renaissance and continued dominance by women across genres, the 2025 Grammy nominees followed suit. Beyoncé is this year’s most-nominated artist, with her 11 new nods bringing her Grammy resumé to a whopping 99 nominations.
Pop’s newest reigning queens, Carpenter and Roan, enter the ring with six nominations each, and are the only two artists nominated for Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist.
Grammys 2025: Sabrina Carpenter has six nominations. FILE PHOTO (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)
Six of the eight leading nominees Sunday are women. Female artists dominate both the Record Of The Year and Album Of The Year categories, as well as over a dozen other categories, including Best Pop Vocal Album, Best R&B Performance and Best Latin Pop Album.
Beyoncé’s countrified “Cowboy Carter” scored a nomination for the top Album of the Year prize, a category that also includes “New Blue Sun” by André 3000, “Short n’ Sweet” by Carpenter, “Brat” by Charli XCX, “Djesse Vol. 4” by Jacob Collier, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” by Billie Eilish, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” by Roan and “The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift.
The nomination for Swift gives her a career total of seven nominations in the Album of the Year category, breaking a tie with Barbra Streisand for the most nominations in that category by a female artist. Beyoncé’s nomination is her fifth in the category, the most ever for a Black artist, but she has never won the prize.
The nod for Eilish, meanwhile, makes her three-for-three in her career. Her first two albums were also nominated, and she won the prize in 2021 for her debut release “Everything I Wanted.”
Grammys 2025: Billie Eilish (left) and Sabrina Carpenter score spots in the categories of Album, Record and Song of the Year. FILE PHOTOS
Beyoncé, Eilish and Swift all scored spots in the categories of Album, Record and Song of the Year, along with Roan and Carpenter.
With her 11 nominations this year, Queen Bey now has a record-setting 99 career Grammy nods, the most by any artist.
The Record of the Year category also features a nomination for a little known British four-piece called The Beatles, who were chosen for their recently released track “Now and Then.” Paul McCartney has dubbed the song “the final Beatles record.”
Also nominated in the category were “Texas Hold ‘Em” by Beyoncé, “Espresso” by Carpenter, “360” by Charli XCX, “Birds of a Feather” by Eilish, “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, “Good Luck, Babe!” by Roan, and “Fortnight” by Swift and Post Malone.
Nominations for Song of the Year, a prize awarded to the songwriters, went to Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die with a Smile,” Swift and Malone’s “Fortnight,” Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” and Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold `Em.”
Charli XCX, Eilish, Lamar and Malone each collected seven nominations, while Carpenter, Roan and Swift all earned six.
Meanwhile, Eilish notched her third Album Of The Year nomination in a row with “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” making her the first artist to have their first three albums nominated in the category.
Carpenter and Roan will compete in the Best New Artist category with Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, RAYE, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims.
If either Carpenter or Roan manage to sweep the awards in all four of the top Grammy categories, it would be the first time it has happened since Christopher Cross pulled off the feat in 1981.
The longest time between nominations this year goes to the Black Crowes, who received their first nod in 34 years for “Happiness Bastards,” their first album in 14 years. They earned their first Best Rock Album nomination, as they’d only ever been nominated once previously, for Best New Artist in 1991.
The Rock, Metal & Alternative Music Field spawned a few long-awaited nominations for veteran acts. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth fame scored the first nominations of her career with her second solo album, “The Collective,” which is up for Best Alternative Music Album, and its lead single, “Bye Bye” which is up for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Pearl Jam celebrated their first nominations since 2011 with their 12th studio album, “Dark Matter,” which received a nod for Best Rock Album as well as Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance for its title track.
Elsewhere, Usher earned his first nomination for his own work in 10 years with a Best R&B Album nod for “Coming Home,” and Eminem earned his first nod for Best Rap Album (a category he’s won six times) in 10 years with “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace).”
A series of special performances will highlight the Grammy telecast, including a star-studded salute to the life and legacy of Quincy Jones, musical tributes honoring the city of Los Angeles, and the annual In Memoriam segment.
Set to appear are performers Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Cynthia Erivo, Herbie Hancock, Jacob Collier, Janelle Monáe, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Stevie Wonder and others.
The event aims to raise additional funds for Los Angeles wildfire relief efforts and honors first responders who risk their lives to protect others, producers said.
The 67th Grammy Awards will be presented Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles and broadcast live on CBS beginning at 5 p.m.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation said street closures around Crypto.com Arena will begin as early as 1 a.m.
The awards recognize material that was released between Sept. 16, 2023, and Aug. 30, 2024. (CNS)
