Your guide to the 2024 Grammy nominations

Plus, an interview with the viral superstar PinkPantheress, music to lower your blood pressure and more

View this email online November 11, 2023 by Stephen Thompson We dig deep into this year’s Grammy milestones, snubs and more; plus, an interview with the viral superstar PinkPantheress and music to lower your blood pressure. Michael Tran/AFP/Getty Images On Friday, the Recording Academy announced the nominations for next year’s 66th annual Grammy Awards. We at NPR Music scanned the full list of nominees (you can too!) and summed up the highlights (SZA leads all artists with nine nominations; five different musicians could possibly sweep the album, song and record of the year categories). Then we set about digging deeper into the awards’ 94 categories, including three that are brand new, to see which categories jumped out as the most interesting reflections of this year, for good and bad. Here’s a bit of what our critic Ann Powers wrote about the nominees, including her thoughts on what could be an unusually competitive album of the year category: *** This year’s Grammy nominations field promises awards show fans at least one sure thing: stereotype-transcending sartorial excellence. The singer-songwriter trio boygenius, up for six awards including Album and Record of the Year, has a “menswear” game like no other; will the artistic throuple dust off the Western duds for its inevitable acceptance speech? Out-earning Bridgers-Dacus-Baker is the nine times nominated SZA, who adapted the sports-jersey-and-Timberlands look ‘90s male rappers perfected on the cover of her R&B-ruling album SOS.  Likewise, slow-burning newcomer Victoria Monét blurs binaries in the Missy Elliott-worshiping video for “On My Mama,” the hit that helped earn her seven Grammy nods. Add in pantsuit savant Brandy Clark with six across three genres and tux god Janelle Monáe with two including Album of the Year — not to mention top contenders Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, all of whom can tie a Windsor knot — and you have a slate that really sticks it to the male music-industry suits. In fact, the only male artist with multiple major nominations, Jon Batiste, defied formalwear norms in 2022 when he claimed his golden gramophones in a sparkling floor-length cape. Declaring a sea change when it comes to gender equity in music is always risky; more often than not, a year of non-male dominance gives way to one in which Morgan Wallen rules everything. At least for now, though, that chart-annihilating country bro sits in the cheap seats with only one nomination, and country and hip-hop, historically hypermale genres, were overlooked in prime categories. What acknowledgment they did receive pointed firmly toward a new era, one in which Ice Spice’s flow earns true admiration and genre-flexible artists of color like Batiste and the Best New Artist noms the War and Treaty stand proud for Nashville and the rest of the rootsy South. That Latin music was shut out of the top categories, however, is inexplicable — showing a nearsightedness uncharacteristic of the year.  The lack of a male nominee likely to good-naturedly ruin things — lightning likely won’t strike twice for Batiste, and there’s no Silk Sonic to dance its way to the winner’s circle — indicates that the long-overdue shift toward acknowledging music young women love is real. As expert trend spotter (and your gracious usual newsletter author) Stephen Thompson has noted, the biggest sweep may go to the hotly debated avatar of change/no change, Barbie: songs from the Greta Gerwig blockbuster’s soundtrack have a whopping eleven nominations across many categories. Despite the Barbie-world energy, in some ways this is the same old Grammy Awards. The nominations favor established industry favorites; aside from boygenius, even the youngest already have a shelf of awards at home. And in the categories honoring behind-the-scenes work like Producer, Songwriter and Song of the Year, men’s names still outnumber others. (Relevant: former NARAS head Neil Portnow is currently being sued for sexual assault, reflecting an incident that was allegedly covered up for years.) Will Music’s Biggest Night feel revolutionary, or like the same old insiders’ club night, simply with different faces up front?  Album of the year The nominees: World Music Radio by Jon Batiste the record by boygenius Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey The Age Of Pleasure by Janelle Monáe GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo Midnights by Taylor Swift SOS by SZA Why the category matters: Jon Batiste can stay at the lobby bar for this announcement; same with Janelle Monáe, probably. The biggest question is will the full flowering of the Age of Taylor Swift guarantee that her relatively modest Midnights will win despite heavy competition from her peers and protegés? Impact-wise, the three top seeds are boygenius’s the record, which made the indie group true rock stars; Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS, strong evidence that the teen phenom has staying power; and SZA’s SOS, fully deserving for its artistry and abiding presence on multiple charts. Still, this win could be a shocker — Lana Del Rey might fully enter her doyenne period with a win, or this might be boygenius’s moment, the right way to reward a three-songwriter team with a woman producer. Any way it goes, expect tears and fond shoutouts to every competitor from the stage. —Ann Powers The deeper into the nominations you dig, the more there is to get fired up — or puzzled — about. Head to NPR Music to catch up on all the thrills, snubs, overhyped misfires and genuinely promising developments in categories including best rock and country songs, best alternative jazz and música Mexicana albums and best new artist, plus the whole slate of rap and classical categories.  Newsletter continues after sponsor message More to hear, read and watch Many expected the U.K. artist PinkPantheress to score some Grammy nominations, but she got shut out — this year, at least. Still, the viral sensation is having a monster year, and she’s just dropped her first full-length album, Heaven Knows. Hazel Cills recently interviewed the star, whose short, punchy songs have made her a TikTok sensation and a go-to featured performer. Speaking of PinkPantheress, her new album kicks off this week’s New Music Friday roundup, which also features new records from Cat Power, Mon Laferte, Aïsha Devi, mxmtoon, Chris Stapleton, Lila Blue, Aesop Rock and a 25th-anniversary reissue by R.E.M. If you’re looking for music to lower your blood pressure, you can pretty much never go wrong with the 88-year-old Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Tom Huizenga reviewed Pärt’s new album, Tractus, which “seems to put an arm around you and whisper, ‘In troubled times, music can help.’” If I may furiously cosign Tom’s words, I listen to Arvo Pärt for the same reason I watch The Great British Baking Show or The Great Pottery Throw Down: They slow the blood, make the world feel more peaceful, and make me feel better, pretty much every time. The Grammy nominations weren’t this week’s only awards-themed news. Wednesday’s Country Music Awards broke a bit of new ground as they awarded song of the year to a Black songwriter for the first time in their history. The song in question: “Fast Car,” the 1988 Tracy Chapman classic re-popularized by Luke Combs. In 1973, an American orchestra visited China for the first time. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s visit followed Richard Nixon’s trip the year before, and was similarly intended to smooth out the relationship between the two countries. This week, the orchestra returned to mark the 50th anniversary — and, if all goes really well, thaw U.S.-China relations one more time. The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys performed at the 2023 International Bluegrass Music Association festival in Raleigh, N.C., and WUNC Music was there to capture it. Tiny Desk Michael Zamora/NPR Over the course of more than 1,100 Tiny Desk concerts, we’ve had a few repeat performers. But we give the returners ground rules: We want something radically different, for starters. Chicago rapper Noname took that idea and ran with it, as she followed her 2017 Tiny Desk debut (back when she was performing songs from her first album) with a wide-ranging set that included prominent guests. In fact, she even premiered an unreleased single from her hip-hop supergroup Ghetto Sage, and brought in Smino and Saba to round out the trio. Also this week: We published two very different farewells from the Tiny Desk. First, the retiring Emerson String Quartet gave one of its last-ever performances with pieces by Beethoven, Walker and Ravel. Then we brought in Samia, a terrific singer-songwriter whose appearance marked the last Tiny Desk concert produced by our mostly beloved, now-retired colleague, Bob Boilen.  One More Thing Barbra Streisand’s new memoir, My Name Is Barbra, is nearly 1,000 pages long. If you’re looking for a shorter investment, the EGOT winner recently spoke to the great and good Terry Gross. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? 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