There has been much speculation over recent weeks as to who will be nominated for the coveted ‘Big Four’ prizes at next year’s Grammy Awards – now that the nominations have been announced, whilst many suspicions have been confirmed, there have been some surprises too.
This year’s nominations are dominated by female artists. Lizzo leads the way with eight nominations, although there has been some controversy surrounding her nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for ‘Truth Hurts’. It was originally released as a standalone single in 2017, long before the date thresholds for this year’s ceremony, but because it was not submitted to the Academy at the time, its inclusion on 2019’s Cuz I Love You (Deluxe Edition) made it eligible this time. As well as being nominated in all of the ‘Big Four’ categories (which are Record, Song and Album of the year, as well as Best New Artist), she was also nominated in pop, R&B, and production categories.
The other artist nominated for all the ‘Big Four’ Grammys is Billie Eilish, who has taken this year’s charts by storm and is up for six awards. At only 17 years old, if she won Album of the Year, it would make her the youngest ever recipient, taking over from Taylor Swift who won the accolade for Fearless when she was 20. Swift is up for three awards this time around, including Song of the Year for ‘Lover’, which is the only nomination to have just one credited writer (unsurprisingly, Swift herself). However, the fact that she has not been nominated for Album of the Year – which many critics felt she was a shoo-in to win – has come as one of the biggest shocks this year. Another is the omission of Ed Sheeran – he is nominated in just one category, for Pop Vocal Album (which Lover was also nominated for), despite the immense success of several singles from No.6 Collaborations Project.
Elsewhere, Lil Nas X has had a fantastic year, nominated for Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist among others. He seemed very surprised at the nomination, tweeting this meme in response to the news.
— nope (@LilNasX) November 20, 2019
Lewis Capaldi was also very happy to hear that ‘Someone You Loved’ is nominated for Song of the Year, posting an Instagram story of him dancing (admittedly a bit prematurely) to ‘We Are The Champions’, then writing a song to the same tune about being nominated. The self-proclaimed ‘people’s prefect’ is very much looking forward to going to the Grammys, and you can watch his story here. He has tough competition, though, with the other artists in his category including Lana Del Rey and Lady Gaga as well as those previously mentioned.
Here are all the nominees for the Big Four:
Record of the Year
- ‘Hey, Ma’ – Bon Iver
- ‘Bad Guy’ – Billie Eilish
- ‘7 Rings’ – Ariana Grande
- ‘Hard Place’ – H.E.R.
- ‘Talk’ – Khalid
- ‘Old Town Road’ – Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
- ‘Truth Hurts’ – Lizzo
- ‘Sunflower’- Post Malone & Swae Lee
Album of the Year
- I,I – Bon Iver
- Norman Fucking Rockwell! – Lana Del Rey
- When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? – Billie Eilish
- Thank U, Next – Ariana Grande
- I Used To Know Her – H.E.R.
- 7 – Lil Nas X
- Cuz I Love You (Deluxe Edition) – Lizzo
- Father of the Bride – Vampire Weekend
Song of the Year
- ‘Always Remember Us This Way’ – Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey & Lori McKenna
- ‘Bad Guy’ – Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell
- ‘Bring My Flowers Now’ – Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth & Tanya Tucker
- ‘Hard Place’ – Ruby Amanfu, Sam Ashworth, D. Arcelious Harris, H.E.R. & Rodney Jerkins
- ‘Lover’ – Taylor Swift
- ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ – Jack Antonoff & Lana Del Rey
- ‘Someone You Loved’ – Tom Barnes, Lewis Capaldi, Pete Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn & Sam Roman
- ‘Truth Hurts’ – Steven Cheung, Eric Frederic, Melissa Jefferson & Jesse Saint John
Best New Artist
- Black Pumas
- Billie Eilish
- Lil Nas X
- Lizzo
- Maggie Rogers
- Rosalía
- Tank and the Bangas
- Yola
The complete list of all the nominees can be found here. The Grammy Awards will take place on 26th January, 2020, in Los Angeles.
Listen to Lizzo’s ‘Truth Hurts’ below:
