All people will get a trophy! Properly, we don’t need to sound that dismissive of the way in which the Grammys wish to unfold the love. Nevertheless it did appear as if the Recording Academy votership was decided to provide practically all the most important nominees at the least one important award. And never permitting any of the multiply nominated artists a sweep means fewer of them are available in for so-called snubs. Nonetheless, if we’re specializing in the highest three all-genre classes, particularly, in as sturdy a yr of candidates as this one, there are going to be a good quantity of deserving superstars who should have their genre-specific awards to maintain them heat tonight.
Let’s simply level out earlier than we get into the snubs that Selection accurately picked all 4 prime winners: Taylor Swift for album of the yr, Miley Cyrus for report of the yr, Billie Eilish for track of the yr and Victoria Monet as greatest new artist. So can any of these rely as surprises? To a lot of the viewing viewers, perhaps, however to not us, and few different soothsayers in our midst.
So let’s make this a (practically) all-snubs version of Snubs & Surprises… although everybody’s a winner, and many others.
SNUB: Males. It seems they actually aren’t Ken-ough!
Properly, this was a foregone conclusion, even going into the telecast. Within the prime three classes, the one male artist to get even a single nomination was Jon Batiste — and in contrast to 2022, he was not due for a sequence of upsets this time. However a telecast wherein not one male artist wins one of many televised awards? This imbalance is historic… and a few of us like it, figuring out the pendulum will doubtless swing again to an period wherein somebody is tempted to say ladies have to step up.
SNUB: SZA’s slaying streak doesn’t lengthen to the highest classes.
SZA got here into the ceremony with probably the most nominations — 9 — however solely picked up a 3rd of these. “Solely” is a relative factor; most different candidates would kill Invoice, or anybody else, to rack up that many. However her failure to come back by means of in any of the highest all-genre classes was both (a) simply the product of too many juggernauts to reward in a giant approach this yr, or (b) a failure of variety, persevering with within the custom of Beyonce being unable to win album of the yr even as soon as. Anticipate to see these and possibly many different theories mentioned within the hours and days to come back.
SNUB: New artists… MIA on the telecast.
In fact there was a win in the very best new artist class — for Selection cowl star Victoria Monet, as we predicted in these pages. However in watching the telecast, you’d be hard-pressed to know there are any new artists in music in any respect, regardless of probably the most potent lineup in that class in years and years. When you’ve gotten performers as galvanizing as Monet, Noah Kahan (at the moment one of many prime ticket attracts in America along with his sold-out coming tour, with a perennial prime 5 album), Jelly Roll (already a rustic celebrity) and The Conflict and Treaty… not one among them is deserving of a prime-time spot? We might love our Billy Joel, however one thing’s improper with this method.
SNUB: Lana Del Rey: nonetheless a cult artist, in line with the Recording Academy.
Nonetheless Grammy-less for an unshared award of her personal in any case these years, and after 11 nominations. That’s not flash flooding hitting the Los Angeles space tonight: that’s the tunnel beneath Ocean Blvd. overflowing with Lana followers’ tears. However she did share in Taylor Swift’s album win for his or her duet, and her iconography will hardly be tarnished if the Academy didn’t acknowledge what virtually everybody else did: that “Did You Know…” was the very best album of her profession, with in all probability nonetheless larger peaks to come back.
SNUB: Olivia Rodrigo’s barely bitter shutout.
Rodrigo was the opposite largest artist to get shut out this yr, though, not like Del Rey, she already has some silver on her shelf. It’s laborious to think about an album as universally acclaimed and as wildly business as “Guts” may come residence empty-handed, but it did. Solely in contemplating the energy of the competitors does it appear even conceivable that we didn’t simply dream Rodrigo not having an armful. Will this matter a whit when Rodrigo shortly will get underway on the tour that is likely one of the hardest tickets of 2024? Not going — and voters virtually figured that she has about six many years forward of her to rack up wins.
SNUB: Jon Batiste can’t make lightning fairly strike twice.
Batiste was the shock success story two years in the past, and it’s laborious to tug off a shockeroo twice in shut succession, even with as many nominations as he as soon as once more bought this time. However probably the most joyful man in music nonetheless got here away a winner for his tribute to Invoice Withers within the In Memoriam phase, with Oscar competition nonetheless to stay up for — and a at the moment broadly seen documentary that has the potential to vary lives.
SURPRISE: Miley Cyrus lastly wins a Grammy, and cuts to the top of the road.
Possibly we are able to rely “Flowers’” win as report of the yr as a shock. Sure, Selection accurately predicted it, however most different forecasters have been going with the Taylor Swift, SZA or Billie Eilish singles — and never with out good purpose, as a result of not solely have been all three of these sturdy contenders, however Cyrus had by no means gained any Grammy earlier than, not to mention a pinnacle prize. Her cocky self-intro and acceptance speech have been humorous sufficient to provide the telecast a style of what it’d been lacking by shutting her out all these years.
SURPRISE: Phoebe Bridgers educates the Grammys, higher late than by no means.
Once more, given the yr Boygenius had, there was nothing really stunning concerning the 4 awards picked up by Bridgers, three of them with the band. However this stands in radical distinction to the zero she picked up as the most well liked artist of the second her final time on the Grammys, in 2021, contending for the star-making “Punisher.” So, remembering simply how lately the Academy voters bought it utterly improper with regard to Bridgers, it was reassuring to see they are often quick learners — well-semi-fast — when they should.
