Lamar put out a thoughtful piece of work with “To Pimp a Butterfly” and it seemed like the Weeknd came out of nowhere with “Beauty Behind the Madness”. Earned It, also on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, was nominated for best R&B song, best R&B performance and best song written for visual media.
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D’Angelo netted a “Record of the Year” nod. The cast recording for Broadway smash “Hamilton”, the subversive, pro-immigration musical about Alexander Hamilton from “In The Heights” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was nominated for “Best Musical Theater Album”.
Helen Reddy (1 Grammy): The singer won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1972 for her track I Am Woman and used the moment to deliver a memorable feminist statement during her acceptance speech: “I would like to thank God because She makes everything possible”.
And the category has two albums by young acts rejuvenating beloved old styles: Chris Stapleton’s Traveller, full of scuffed-up country tunes, and Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes, a road-tested outfit that implicitly stands for the value of hand-played rock’n’roll.
Lamar is the leading nominee with 11, followed by Swift and the Weeknd, who earned seven nominations each. Taylor Swift tied Tesfaye with seven nominations. The nomination and voting process is done by people who rarely listen to enough music to consider their perspective anywhere near comprehensive, and who gets nominated has less to do with the best music of the year and more to do with networking, marketing, and the status quo.
Song of the Year: Lamar’s “Alright” is up against Swift’s “Blank Space”, Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush”, Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again”, and Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”. In both 2013 and 2014 combined, Taylor Swift’s Red, a decidedly pop album, was the only thing approaching country in the category.
Best pop solo performance: Kelly Clarkson, “Heartbeat Song”; Ellie Goulding, “Love Me Like You Do”; Ed Sheeran, “Thinking Out Loud”; Taylor Swift, “Blank Space”; The Weeknd, “Can’t Feel My Face”.
Swift’s domination of awards shows and of the music business in general continues with this group of Grammy nominations. And Grammy voters obviously did; the album has zero presence among the nominations. I imagine Justin will be in the audience on February 15, 2016…that’s when the 58th annual Grammy Award ceremony takes place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The other nominees are J. Cole with “Apparently”, Drake with “Back to Back”, Fetty Wap with “Trap Queen”, Lamar with “Alright”, and former American Idol judge Nicki Minaj featuring Drake and Lil Wayne with “Truffle Butter”. Both Bieber and Adele’s new albums will qualify for Grammy nominations next year since they were released after September 30 – the final day for eligibility this year. It sold almost 2 million physical copies in its first week and became the best-selling album of the year in its first three days alone.
We’re in the middle of award season for films but also for music, as the Grammy nominations were announced this morning.
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Home features two ragas, one of which is a creation of her late father Ravi Shankar.
