2024 was a huge year for music, especially pop music, and the year featured iconic “songs of the summer” and an almost endless amount of chart-toppers.
If you follow any mainstream artists on social media, your feed was likely full of heartfelt reaction videos last Friday, and that’s because the 67th annual Grammy nominations were announced.
Here’s a list of some of those nominations as well as my personal picks and hopes for the upcoming awards.
Starting strong with Record of the Year (which is different from Song of the Year) we have “Now and Then” by The Beatles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” by Beyoncé, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, “360” by Charli XCX, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish, “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan, and lastly “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone
This category is highly coveted, and the competition is certainly tight this year. My hope for this category is that the award goes to “360” by Charli XCX. I feel it has recently been sort of swept under the rug what “record of the year” truly means, it’s not just the song, it’s the full production and work that went into the song and the overall sound of it. Of course, all the nominated songs have something unique and special about them, but I feel like “360” is such a strong standout and deserves the award.
Album of the Year is unsurprisingly another close category with the nominations of New Blue Sun by André 3000, Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina 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 Chappell Roan, and The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift.
Last year, the award went to Taylor Swift for her album Midnights. She is currently the artist with the most awards for Album of the Year, but to be honest, I don’t think she deserves it much this year in comparison to some of the other choices.
Instead, I think The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan should take home the trophy. This album has such a unique amalgamation of songs and styles, and it took over the world over the summer. Roan has definitely been getting her flowers for this album recently, but I think Album of the Year would be the cherry on top for the new artist, and it’s definitely deserved.
Personally, I feel like the Song of the Year category has some interesting picks. Now this category awards the songwriters of the songs and gets tripped up with Record of the Year. The nominations for this category are Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile,” Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” and Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” personally feel like weird options for Song of the Year. They don’t mesh well with what we’ve previously seen in this category, but maybe I just haven’t given them their fair listen-throughs.
My favorites out of the options are definitely Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please.” I feel like these two songs are great choices to win. They both have really creative lyrics and are just overwhelmingly fun. They also don’t let their personal genres or general fun overpower genuine songwriting, and they have a good balance of work and fun.
The next category is Best New Artist, which is one of my favorites. I feel like it’s such a special way to honor an artist and really give them appreciation for all of the work and effort they put in. This year the picks are Benson Boone, Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, Khruangbin, Raye, Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, and Teddy Swims.
This category can usually be strange for many mainstream viewers. There are often artists people haven’t heard of, and when they win over the more popular ones, you see the stream of negative posts of people complaining. I imagine getting added to this list is no easy feat.
I love many of these nominations, and Raye and Chappell Roan are definitely high up on my list of deserving winners, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for one of them.
The Grammy’s have roughly 94 categories they nominate and award for, so after covering the main ones that most focus on, here are my three most anticipated that I feel get a bit overlooked:
Best Musical Theatre album is going to be a hot category. It’s shown at the pre-show and not really discussed, but it’s one of my favorites. This year was revolutionary for Broadway, and the cast recordings that came out so nominated are Hell’s Kitchen, Merrily We Roll Along, The Notebook, The Outsiders, Suffs, and The Wiz.
I think the winner will be a close call between The Outsiders and Merrily We Roll Along. Both albums were incredible and did the source material such justice that it would be unfair if they lost.
Best Score Soundtrack is another favorite of mine. The scoring of a movie can really help make or break the tone of a film, and I think all the nominees had excellent scores that executed all the right things. Nominated are American Fiction with Laura Karpman as the composer, Challengers with Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross as the composers, The Color Purple with Kris Bowers as the composer, Dune: Part Two with Hans Zimmer as the composer, and Shōgun with Nick Chuba, Atticus Ross & Leopold Ross as the composers.
These scores are incredible to listen to, but Dune: Part Two and Challengers came out top on my list. I listen to the Challengers score constantly, just as a casual listen, because it is such an incredible techno amalgamation, and it perfectly works with the film. I think it deserves a unanimous win.
Lastly, Best Song for Visual Media includes songs written purely for use in a film. “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” from Twisters: The Album, “Better Place” from TROLLS Band Together, “Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, and “Love Will Survive” from The Tattooist of Auschwitz were all nominated in this category.
To be completely honest, I think “Better Place” from Trolls deserves the win. It is such a fun song and the epitome of what a boy band song should be. The song absolutely blew up after the movie came out, and it totally deserves the awards. On a slightly more serious note, “Can’t Catch Me Now” also deserves a win as it fits so perfectly with the film and is a generally good song.
Once again, the Grammy Awards will be interesting this upcoming year, and I can’t wait to see who wins and takes home the most awards.
