Rapper Kendrick Lamar, pop superstar Taylor Swift and Canadian R&B experimentalist the Weeknd led the field in the 2016 Grammy Award nominations, collectively taking 25 nods in this year’s industry-bestowed honors.
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Taylor Swift, of course, and the Weeknd also earned top nominations.
Lamar’s politically charged album is nominated in an especially diverse category alongside Swift’s blockbuster “1989”, the Weeknd’s breakthrough collection “Beauty Behind the Madness”, Alabama Shakes’ sonically adventurous “Sound & Color” and country singer-songwriter Chris Stapleton’s powerfully reflective “Traveller”.
“Record of the year nominees include “Blank Space”, “Thinking out Loud”, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk“, the Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Really Love” from D’Angelo and the Vanguard”. This year’s nominated songs are Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”, Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”, Little Big Town‘s “Girl Crush”, Wiz Khalifa‘s “See You Again” and Ed Sheeran‘s “Thinking Out Loud”. Final-round GRAMMY ballots will be mailed December 16 and the preeminent award for excellence in music will be presented Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and broadcast on the CBS Television Network from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).
The Song of the Year prize is a songwriting award.
But Swift was ahead in the four most-watched categories, with nominations in all of them except Best New Artist. Adele’s album, which has sold more than 4 million copies in just two weeks, will be in line for its share of Grammy nominations next year.
Isbell, the Mavericks, Punch Brothers, and Harris and Crowell also scored nominations for Best American Roots Song along with the Don Henley and Merle Haggard collaboration “The Cost of Living” from Henley’s Cass County. Her other nominations are for pop solo performance, pop duo or group performance, pop vocal album and music video.
Justin Bieber – who marked a comeback this year with the hits “Sorry” and “What Do You Mean” – is nominated for best dance recording for his other hit, “Where Are U Now” with Skrillex and Diplo. In order to qualify for the 58th annual awards, recordings must have been released between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015.
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No one could deny the dominant kind of year enjoyed by local acts Courtney Barnett and Tame Impala these past 12 months, a fact made all the more concrete by their inclusion in the crop of talented folks revealed as nominees for next year’s Grammy Awards ceremony.
