The pop music landscape is rife with superstars (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé), headline-grabbing beefs (Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar, et. al.), and a freshly minted slew of hitmakers such as Sabrina Carpenter , Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Shaboozey. Fittingly, each of the aforementioned artists — with the exception of Drake, who stopped submitting his music to the Grammy Awards some time ago — received numerous nominations when next year’s Grammy nominees were announced Friday.

That’s not to say that everything went exactly as planned. And there are plenty of subplots and storylines to uncover while we wait for the Grammys to air on February 2, 2025:

1. It’s been a huge year for women in pop. Remember in 2018 when Neil Portnow, then director of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said women needed to “step up” after that year’s Grammys were overwhelmingly won by men? Yeah, he sucked. This year, women dominate the major categories: in the record of the year, song of the year and album of the year categories, six of the eight nominees are female headliners, although several share the same displays with their male counterparts. And, although the group of best new artists is split 50-50, the big favorites (Roan and Carpenter) are both women.

2. As expected, Beyoncé leads the pack. The two most nominated musicians of all time share a house: As of Friday, Beyoncé and Jay-Z were tied with 88 nominations each, while Beyoncé holds the all-time record for Grammy wins with 32 Today, Queen Bey has 99 nominations to her name, like. Cowboy Carter and an assortment of his songs racked up 11 nods at the top of the pack. It helps Cowboy Carter spans multiple genres and attracts many collaborators, making it eligible in more categories than, say, Chappell Roan, which lacks eligible collaborations and has not submitted any entries in any genre outside of pop.

3. Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter join a select group. The Grammys feature four general cross-genre categories, collectively known as The Big Four: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. In the history of the awards, only 13 artists have been nominated in all four categories in the same year – the latest being Olivia Rodrigo, three years ago. (FINNEAS sort of did it that year too, but that didn’t count; he was nominated for Best New Solo Artist, but his other Big Four nominations that year were for his sister, Billie Eilish.) latest round of nominations, Roan and Carpenter are in the running for each of the Big Four; if either manages to sweep, she will become only the third artist to do so, after Christopher Cross in 1981 and Eilish in 2020.

4. Wait, Sabrina Carpenter – whose Short and sweet is his sixth album — he’s ready for best new artist? Yes, the Best New Artist category could really use a name change, perhaps to something like “Best Breakthrough Artist,” because novelty here is truly in the eye of the beholder. But Carpenter had a big break in 2024, so she was eligible. (The rules are more byzantine than that, but that’s the point.) The same goes for fellow contestant Khruangbin, who has been producing albums since 2015 but has recently become popular enough to fill stadiums.

5. Speaking of confusing categories… Grammy viewers have long been baffled by the difference between the record and the song of the year. Turns out so are the Grammys voterswho heard Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and nominated it for song of the year, but not record of the year. The song of the year is an award for the composition, while the record of the year is an award for the whole: the production, the interpretation, the atmosphere. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is great; it’s a lot of fun. But it’s more of a “record of the year” kind of song than a “song of the year” kind of song.

6. The year record field includes a very old song. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” famously interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 hit “Tipsy,” but the Recording Academy went even further in the top category of the awards. John Lennon wrote and recorded his demo of The Beatles’ “Now and Then” around 1977, but the song wasn’t finished and released until late 2023. Naturally, it was released to a huge amount of fanfare, even if it’s more curiosity than curiosity. classic; Still, it’s one of eight songs nominated for record of the year in 2025. If it wins, it will be the first time a Beatles song has won a Grammy since… February 2024, when a remastered reissue 1966’s “I’m Only Sleeping” won Best Music Video.

7. Album of the Year features two extreme dark horses. Six of the eight nominees for album of the year were almost mortal hairs: Beyoncé’s Cowboy CarterSabrina Carpenter Short and sweetthat of Charli XCX Kidthat of Billie Eilish HIT ME HARD AND SOFTChappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess and that of Taylor Swift The Department of Tortured Poets. These six albums have dominated 2024 – not only in terms of sales and streaming, but also in terms of their overall cultural footprint. The next two? Not so much.

One is that of Jacob Collier Djesse Vol. 4which marks Collier’s first nomination for album of the year since the one for which he got, uh, Djesse Vol. 3. Thanks to NPR Music Editor Jacob Ganz, who called the nomination “filling the jazz place but with a Jon Batiste smile,” the nod to Collier seems odd coming from such a large group of powerful suitors. However, it is not as unexpected as the nomination for André 3000 New blue sun – which is, remember, an epic collection of instrumental flute odysseys. OutKast was of course a Grammy staple, and many people were curious about André’s first record in 17 years. But… the album of the year? Really?

8. Of course, there were snubs. Getting left out of a field of five, six, or eight nominees isn’t technically a “snub” — it’s just math, really — but there were still some surprises among this year’s Grammy omissions. year. Dua Lipa Radical optimism didn’t perform as well as its predecessor, and the field of women in pop was unusually large and strong this year, but its lack of nominations seems notable. (See also: Ariana Grande, who earned three nominations but was left out of the Big Four.) Fans might be surprised to see Zach Bryan absent from the field, given his record-breaking performance in 2024, but he refused to submit. none of his music for consideration, so he is excluded. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all will be Vampire Weekend, whose Only God was above us was considered a lock to be nominated in several categories – perhaps even album of the year – but was shut out of all of them.

9. Speaking of which, Ye’s Grammy star may finally be disappearing. The artist formerly known as Kanye West has been nominated for 75 Grammys and won 24. Even a long string of controversies has failed to dampen the Grammys’ enthusiasm for him, given that Donda was nominated for album of the year just three years ago. But Ye’s latest album, the Ty Dolla $ign collaboration Vultures 2only yielded one nomination, for best rap song (“Carnival”). Ye is matched or surpassed by an impressive assortment of women, as this year’s rap categories include nominations for Cardi B, Doechii, GloRilla, Beyoncé (joined by Linda Martell), Latto and Rapsody (featuring Erykah Badu).

10. Never overlook Taylor Swift. Wait, you just read 12 paragraphs and only A did one of them mention Taylor Swift? Is this even legal? Really, how dare you? Swift racked up six additional nominations this year, bringing her tally to 58 overall, with 24 wins, including four Album of the Year nods. She got it back seventh nomination for Album of the Year (for The Department of Tortured Poets), is up for song and record of the year (for “Fortnight”) and… hey, where are you going?

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