Unrequested Opinion on Grammys 2025

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Grammy nominations for 2025 are out. As someone who, over his teenage years, was dazzled by the glitz and glamour of the most prestigious night in music, and who has thereafter been hit by the disillusion and disappointment that actually this is just a game of whose label’s got a bigger penis, I think I am the perfect person to talk about it. Unsolicited, unasked, and unbothered.

So let’s get into it. First of all, Beyoncé got 11 nominations. I want to be somewhat outraged by this but I have to admit that Cowboy Carter was one of the best albums of 2024, although I do think that Renaissance was slightly better, so if any album was to be given more nominations than Thriller by Michael Jackson, I would’ve personally liked it to be the latter.

Taylor Swift got 6 nominations, including a few for Fortnight, which I thought was a totally mediocre song, although obviously nobody can argue that her album The Tortured Poets Department was one of the biggest of the year. So I understand her best album nod. Although now the battle is on to see who actually gets this award this year. We are all familiar with the strange phenomenon that every year Beyoncé also gets nominated for that award, some s*** goes down and somebody cries on stage thanking her anyway. Considering the fact that this year Miss Charli XCX is also nominated for best album for Brat, as well as 6 other nominations, I am looking forward to seeing who will be on stage thanking Bey. I have a sneaking suspicion that this recurring skit will be going on for a while longer. I really do hope that Miss XCX brings home a few awards, it would be a reward for the honesty and lightheartedness of her record. And I would love to see her in sunglasses accepting a Grammy with a cigarette in her hand. It’s not that serious.

Jacob Collier got nominated for Djesse Vol. 4 for album of the year. I am not really a fan of this one, as it all just sounds like an exercise in virtuosity and also went under the radar culturally, apart from a viral TikTok moment for one of the songs. But every year there’s always a nomination in the category which seems to have completely evaded public consciousness, as if to try and say that it’s an award based on merit, while we all know that the actual best music of the year isn’t even on the Academy’s radar.

Chappell Roan got 6 nominations, including all the big four: best album, best song, best record, and best new artist. Understandable, and I am very excited to see if she will perform and what she will get up to on ceremony night. I do think that Americans are somewhat obsessed with this mythological idea of the Midwest and anybody escaping it, however, I think that Chappell is a good singer, a very cool performer, and the first organic popstar in a long time, so I get the hype.

Sabrina Carpenter also received 6 nominations, and while I definitely think that her song Espresso was one of the biggest songs of 2024, I really do not understand the nominations for her album, which I thought was pretty standard and unremarkable, as well as her new artist nod. I know that the Recording Academy always has to clarify that this particular category depends on an artist’s ability to rise to the surface against all odds, regardless of how many albums they may have published. Still, it seems like it’s just a matter of having a big year and having never been nominated before. But anyway, who am I to judge how labels want to reward themselves.

Billie, Kendrick, and Post Malone all received 7 nominations, and while I understand Billie’s and Kendrick’s, although Billie’s L’Amour De Ma Vie being nominated for best dance record is a little off, I don’t really think that Post Malone had a particularly impactful year, compared to earlier in his career.

To finish off this unrequested opinion piece, I have to admit that I’ve never heard A Bar Song (Tipsy), I don’t like that new Beatles track, I don’t get Gracie Abrams, Benson Boone, or Teddy Swims, and I hope KAYTRANADA wins. Oh, and I hope Doechii wins best new artist.