Beyoncé has established herself in the highest Grammy echelon: The star singer claimed a heady nine nominations on Tuesday, tying her — along with her husband Jay-Z — as the most nominated music act in the awards show’s history.
Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” snagged record and song of the year nominations again, while “Renaissance” — which branched out into the world of dancehall music — took an album of the year nod. Jay-Z is also nominated five times this year, with each spouse holding the all-time record for the most Grammy nominations at 88.
Kendrick Lamar came in with the second most nominations with eight. Adele and Brandi Carlile both received the nod seven times. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill each took six points.
Nearly half of this year’s major nominees — announced by the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and Smokey Robinson — are women and more than half are people of color, according to the Recording Academy. The ceremony will be held on February 5 in Los Angeles.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said, “It makes me very proud, but it also alerts me to the fact that we have to keep up the work we’ve done.” He said progress has been made in peer-driven voting systems and increased membership, but he still believes more progress can be made.
“This year, I’m pleased with the result and the work the voters did,” he continued. “We have around 13,000 voters now. Really important work. I’m glad to think that he spent time listening to and appreciating the music. I think you see from the type of nominations that they’re not only going for popular music or music that has a lot of streams. It’s just high quality music.
The academy added five new categories, including a special song for social change and songwriter of the year, which Harvey says will help diversify the 65th edition of the annual awards.
The non-classical songwriter category would recognize an individual who was the “most prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a body of new work during the eligibility year. It will take a different approach than Song of the Year, which rewards songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melody of a song.
Harvey said that the implementation of the songwriter category is a “significant” step for the music industry. Last year, a rules update allowed that any songwriter, producer, engineer or featured artist nominated for Album of the Year could eventually earn a nomination.
Harvey said of the new category, “The Academy and voters are placing a high importance on the craft of songwriting, with nominees including The-Dream, Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz.” Naturally, as a songwriter, I’m glad to see that it’s such an important part of our process. We feel that songwriting is at the heart of our industry. It is one of the building blocks for every artist’s career. ,
Harvey said his priority is to earn the trust of the music community, including The Weeknd and Drake, who are yet to release any of their music. Drake declined to submit his album “Honestly Nevermind” for the awards, but the Canadian rapper still received four nominations — including Album of the Year for his co-writing efforts on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.”
“Everything that has been looked at and talked about in the past, we will continue to look at and improve on,” Harvey said. “As we do that work, our hope is that all artists feel comfortable and confident with the work the Academy does.”
Beyoncé, the most decorated woman in Grammy history with 28 wins, could break Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti’s record for most awards if she wins four. Solti, who has 31 Grammys, has held the record since 1997.
She was nominated in the dance category for the first time in Beyoncé’s acclaimed career. Their seventh studio project is up for Best Dance-Electronic Music Album and “Break My Soul” is nominated for Best Dance-Electronic Recording. Other nominations included Best R&B Song for “Cuff It”, Best R&B Performance for “Virgo’s Groove”, Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa” and Best Visual Media for “Be Alive”. Contains a song written for King Richard” soundtrack.
Other nominated albums of the year included: Adele’s “30,” ABBA’s “Voyage,” Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,” Mary J. Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous” (Deluxe), Carlile’s “In Silent Days,” Coldplay’s “Territory of Music,” Lamar’s “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” Lizzo’s “Special” and Styles’ “Harry House” ” Bad Bunny made history, with their album becoming the first album sung entirely in Spanish to compete in the category.
Tracks competing with “Break My Soul” for record of the year include Styles’ “As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” ABBA’s “Don’t Shut Me Down,” Blige “Good Morning Gorgeous” is included. ,”Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and Carlile’s “You and Me on the Rock” featuring Lucious.
Jay-Z’s three nominations came via DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” which features Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Friday. The track is up for rap song with best rap performance and song of the year, with Jay-Z nominated for his writing efforts on Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul”. The rapper also received a nod for Album of the Year for his work on his wife’s “Renaissance” album.
Young Thug and Gunna both received nominations despite currently being locked in a criminal case. Gear up for the best rap song and rap performance through rapper Gunna’s “Pushin P” featuring Thug and Future.
Christina Aguilera’s return to Latin music with her self-titled album earned her two nominations for Best Latin Pop Album and Immersive Audio Album. Muni Long, Latto and Eurovision winner Menskin are among the 10 nominees for Best New Artist.