women handily dominate Grammy nominations

The Grammy Awards, the trophies of the American music industry, will be presented on Sunday February 4 in Los Angeles. The nominations are dominated by female artists, a sign of a changing era.

For a long time, musicians and critics have deplored the excessive absence of female artists at the Grammy Awards, the awards of the American music industry. The year 2024 should be the year of change. Sunday 4 February (during the night from Sunday to Monday time French), they are almost guaranteed to win the most prestigious prizes, reflecting a change in mentalities and a diversifying scene. “The last time we witnessed such a tidal wave of women was in 1999, twenty-five years ago,” underlines the magazine She recalling that Lauryn Hill “had taken away almost everything in its path” and that no man had been nominated in the Best Album category the year.

In 2023, the ceremony crowned Beyoncé, who became the most awarded artist with a total of 32 awards throughout his career, but the top prize for album of the year had eluded him in favor of British popstar Harry Styles. This year, the charismatic Jon Batiste, who triumphed in 2022 (best album in particular), is the only male artist to compete in the premier categories of recording and album of the year. Here are five elements to understand why this 66th Grammy Awards ceremony is unprecedented.

1Record nominations for SZA

R&B and soul singer SZA scored, with nine categories, the most nominations for the next Grammy Awards. With his tube Kill Billinspired by the films of Quentin Tarantino, and his second album SOSSZA, 34 years old, will be able to try to win the Grammy in key categories like song and recording of the year, as well as best album. Revealed by her first studio opus Ctrl in 2017, SZA has since established herself as a big name in R&B and collaborated with hip-hop heavyweights like Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

The competition will mainly come from other female artists, such as the pop steamroller from country Taylor Swift (6 categories), the former Disney muse Olivia Rodrigo, “revelation of the year” 2022 who signed an album – Guts – highly acclaimed by critics (6 categories), or even Billie Eilish (6), rocker Phoebe Bridgers (7, including 6 with her supergroup Boygenius) and rising R&B star Victoria Monét (7).

2They dominate the main categories

For album of the year alone, which will include Taylor Swift, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo during the 66th ceremony in Los Angeles, seven of the eight nominees are women or gender fluid artists. “It used to be that female pop stars were the talk of red carpets. Now they’re driving the conversation about the Grammys themselves.”, notes Kristin Lieb, professor at Emerson University specializing in music marketing and gender identities. “This is a significant change. We talk more about the talent and charisma of women than about their bodies and their outfits.she adds to AFP.

Taylor Swift, who has achieved global mega-star status, SZA, with her 9 nominations, and Olivia Rodrigo, whose rock sounds are critically acclaimed, compete for both best album and recording of the year , awarded for the overall performance of a security. Just like Miley Cyrus and the supergroup Boygenius, the trio formed by Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, which created a sensation with its cocktail of poetic pop-folk and indie rock.

Janelle Monhase, Billie Eilish and rising star Victoria Monét are also there in the most prestigious categories (best album, recording or song). However, men also appear in the leading group of nominations, in particular the sound engineer Serban Ghenea (7 categories) who mixed Taylor Swift’s album Midnightjazzman Jon Batiste (6) – the only man to survive in the top categories – or even producer Jack Antonoff, who also obtained 6 nominations for his work with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.

3 The Year of Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift, breaking all records with her re-recorded albums and tour The Eras Tourcould make a little more history if she wins the album of the year award with her tenth opus Midnights, which would make her the artist to have won this most prestigious category the most times. She would surpass Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, and Stevie Wonder, already crowned, like her, three times.

4 The essential “Barbie”

The other phenomenon to watch out for on February 4 at the Grammy Awards will be the cinema blockbuster barbieincluding the titles of the original soundtrack What Was I Made For?” (Billie Eilish) and Dance The Night (Dua Lipa) compete for song of the year, against Anti-hero (Taylor Swift) and the energetic Vampire (Olivia Rodrigo).

Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster took over the category of best song for a visual media, with four titles out of the five nominated. In total, barbie totals 11 nominations compared to 8 at the Oscars. The film nevertheless set a record in the film industry by becoming the first feature film directed by a female director to have exceeded one billion at the worldwide box office.

5 A clear evolution in ten years

This record presence of women in the premier categories is notable on a statistical level. From 2012 to 2022, only 13.9% of nominees in major categories were women, according to a study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative think tank at the University of Southern California. These figures could resonate with the controversial remarks of the former boss of the Recording Academy, the organization representing the American music industry and organizer of the Grammys, Neil Portnow. In 2018, he said that women artists only had to “to move” if they wanted more recognition.

In November, he was the subject of a legal complaint, accused of having drugged and raped an artist in 2018, which he denies. In reacting to the announcement of the nominations in November, the current boss of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr., simply noted that “women made some damn good music” And “our voters were clearly convinced”.

However, Kristin Lieb remains cautious about the evolution of mentalities, both in the industry and for critics. However, she believes that the evolution is impressive, both because it concerns women, as well as gender fluid or queer artists like the trio Boygenius, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish and Janelle Monhase. Another expert, Christine Wisch, who teaches a course at Indiana University on the history of women in music since the medieval era, hopes that eventually“we will be able to observe art for what it is” and said to himself “Looking forward to the idea that one day gender will no longer be a subject and we will no longer be surprised that women are in the majority.”