“A&W,” Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey and Sam Dew, songwriters (Lana Del Rey) “Anti-Hero,” Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift) “Butterfly,” Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson, songwriters (Jon Batiste) “Dance the Night time” (From “Barbie: The Album”) Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Dua Lipa) “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus, Gregory Aldae Hein and Michael Pollack, songwriters (Miley Cyrus) “Kill Invoice,” Rob Bisel, Carter Lang and Solána Rowe, songwriters (SZA) “Vampire,” Daniel Nigro and Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters (Olivia Rodrigo) “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish) ***
Will win: “What Was I Made For?” May win: “Flowers”; “Anti-Hero”
Voters are supposed to contemplate songwriting over manufacturing components on this class… however do they, actually, throughout the board? That’s up for query, eternally. However let’s suppose that almost all of them are placing extra weight on precise songcraft, which, theoretically, not less than, can favor a ballad over a bop. That’s one motive to exit on a limb and consider that Eilish (and her co-writer brother Finneas) may need a barely higher shot at popping out on prime in track of the yr than report of the yr, even when Recording Academy members do assume that she’ll be double-bagging an Oscar and Grammy. With a track this phenomenally well-conceived and heart-tugging, they’ll’t maintain its origins as project writing for Tinseltown in opposition to it, can they?
But, as with the opposite prime 4 classes, absolutely anything might go right here — together with, actually, a win for Cyrus, Swift or SZA. Or, for that matter, a first-time win in one of many prime classes for Rodrigo, who has but to win any of them apart from finest new artist? It feels overdue, even when she is simply on her second album.
