Swift (who, like the Weeknd, collected seven nominations) and British pop singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran scored in three of the top four general field categories: record, album and song, with Sheeran nominated in the album category not for his own album but for his participation on the Weeknd’s latest.
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Elsewhere, “See You Again”, the Furious 7 anthem which definitely did not make me cry in front of a woman I liked, has a nomination for Song of the Year. In terms of well-roundedness, look no further than Album of the Year: Alabama Shakes representing the indie rock/Apple commercial crowd, Chris Stapleton as the appointed country representative, the year’s most political record and two of its biggest, Max Martin-led pop records.
And Stratford’s Justin Bieber is nominated for best dance recording and is listed in Diplo’s nomination for Producer of the Year, non-classical for the track Where Are Ü Now. He also observed that the cast album for the Broadway hit “Hamilton”, which uses a variety of musical genres in its score, didn’t get an album of the year nomination.
Melbourne future-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote were nominated for best R&B performance for their song Breathing Underwater.
In this year’s most anticipated comeback album, D’Angelo’s album, Really Love, was nominated for nominated for record of the year.
Best new artist: Courtney Barnett, James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly, Meghan Trainor.
The Grammys will air live on February 15, 2016. Kendrick Duckworth, Mark Anthony Spears and Pharrell Williams are nommed for Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”.
Best urban contemporary album: “Ego Death”, The Internet; “You Should Be Here”, Kehlani; “Blood”, Lianne La Havas; “Wildheart”, Miguel; “Beauty Behind the Madness”, The Weeknd.
Lamar – who hails from the gangsta rap capital of Compton in southern California but unlike many stars has had few personal controversies – examines the state of USA race relations on “To Pimp a Butterfly”, with mockery of Washington politicians and explorations on his search for inner strength.
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Best country album: “Montevallo“, Sam Hunt; “Pain Killer“, Little Big Town; “The Blade“, Ashley Monroe; “Pageant Material“, Kacey Musgraves; “Traveller”, Chris Stapleton.
