2019 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE ONES THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
There is one big question I want to ask before I start: Where are Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande? Almost every media outlet thought Taylor Swift was guaranteed for nominations, and quite frankly for the win, and I thought so too. Then with Ariana Grande being one of the few non-R&B/Hip-Hop/Rap artists to push through on to the charts this year, I expected to see the princess of pop get at least a couple of nominations. Were Reputation and Sweetener either of their best albums? No, but they have very high standards with their other releases. Did I think the Grammy committee would still love them? Yes. Whether you like Grande and Swift or not, there's not been a moment this year where they haven't been the talk of the town. Their albums were very good, they did exceptionally well sales-wise and they're popular with the media, so where were their nominations? Who knows!
I wanted to get that out of the way because I knew it would come up in pretty much every category I talk about. Anyways, down the people that ARE nominated.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
- INVASION OF PRIVACY - CARDI B
- BY THE WAY, I FORGIVE YOU - BRANDI CARLILE
- SCORPION - DRAKE
- H.E.R - HER
- BEERBONGS AND BENTLEYS - POST MALONE
- DIRTY COMPUTER - JANELLE MONAE
- GOLDEN HOUR - KACEY MUSGRAVES
- BLACK PANTHER: THE ALBUM - VARIOUS ARTISTS
It seems this year that the Grammy's have taken a shining to the R&B and Rap albums released this year and I'm not surprised. R&B, Hip-hop and Rap has been HUGELY popular in 2018, with a lot of songs on these albums being played constantly on the radio and therefore constantly at number one on the charts. However, it leaves me wondering, where's the variety in music? Where's the pop? The rock? The indie? The issue is, if it's down to actual music, I couldn't take any of these nominations away because they are good and the public have absolutely loved all of them, I just wish they had more spots to fit in other albums. It just seems the bar for AOTY has gone down in recent years, with a few of these albums being only good rather than exceptional but I guess you can't please everybody!
ONES THAT COULD HAVE BEEN: Pray For The Wicked - Panic! At The Disco. This was my favourite album of the year personally, and I genuinely thought it would be up for some kind of nomination. I could have been satisfied with Best Rock but Mr Brendon Urie was nowhere to be seen!
WINNER PREDICTION: Beerbongs and Bentleys or H.E.R.
RECORD OF THE YEAR
- I LIKE IT - CARDI B, BAD BUNNY & J BALVIN
Invincible, J WhiteDidIt, Craig Kallman & Tainy.
Leslie Brathwaite & Evan LaRay.
Colin Leonard. - THE JOKE - BRANDI CARLILE
Dave Cobb & Shooter Jennings
Tom Elmhirst & Eddie Spear
Pete Lyman. - THIS IS AMERICA - CHILDISH GAMBINO
Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson
Derek "MixedByAli" Ali & Riley Mackin
Mike Bozzi. - GOD'S PLAN - DRAKE
Boi-1Da, Cardo & Young Exclusive
Noel Cadastre, Noel "Gadget" Campbell & Noah Shebib
Chris Athens. - SHALLOW - LADY GAGA & BRADLEY COOPER
Lady Gaga & Benjamin Rice
Tom Elmhirst
Randy Merrill. - ALL THE STARS - KENDRICK LAMAR & SZA
Al Shux & Sounwave.Sam Ricci & Matt Schaeffer
Mike Bozzi. - ROCKSTAR - POST MALONE FT 21 SAVAGE
Louis Bell & Tank God
Louis Bell & Manny Marroquin
Mike Bozzi. - THE MIDDLE - ZEDD, MAREN MORRIS & GREY
Grey, Monsters & Strangerz & Zedd
Grey, Tom Morris, Ryan Shanahan & Zedd
Mike Marsh.
Again, matching with the albums, R&B and Rap seem to be taking the lead here. All very popular radio tracks, with Brandi Carlisle's being the only one I hadn't heard before myself. It seems to be the Grammy's are well and truly going along with the voice of the public, and maybe it's because the public have taken liking to the genuine best albums of the year but I've always counted on the Grammy's to go a little bit out there; this year, they seem to have gone with the flow of the general public with their song choices. I'm not sure how I feel about 'I Like It' or 'God's Plan' being featured, because other than their popularity I didn't things the songs were actually THAT great but, the committee must have seen something in there.
ONES THAT COULD HAVE BEEN - God is a Woman - Ariana Grande. I was surpirsed to see Grande's ode to women not feature in the nominations for record of the year (or song of the year), especially with the amount of critical and public acclaim it got.
WINNER PREDICTION: Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, This is America - Childish Gambino.
SONG OF THE YEAR
- ALL THE STARS - KENDRICK LAMAR & SZA
- BOO'D UP - ELLA MAI
- GOD'S PLAN - DRAKE
- IN MY BLOOD - SHAWN MENDES
- THE JOKE - BRANDI CARLILE
- THE MIDDLE - ZEDD, MAREN MORRIS AND GREY
- SHALLOW - LADY GAGA AND BRADLEY COOPER
- THIS IS AMERICA - CHILDISH GAMBINO
I don't have much to say here that's different from Record of The Year, but it's nice to see a relatively unknown artist in the form of Ella Mai feature with the other huge names on the list.
WINNER PREDICTION: (Yet again) Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, This is America - Childish Gambino.
BEST NEW ARTIST
- CHLOE X HALLE
- LUKE COMBS
- GRETA VAN FLEET
- H.E.R.
- DUA LIPA
- MARGO PRICE
- BEBE REXHA
- JORJA SMITH
Not to bring feminism into this too extensively but look at all those women's names! It's great to see in a year where ladies have taken over the charts that the newcomers to the business are strong women from various genres! Other than that though, I'm pretty happy with these newcomer nominations. It's a variety in genre and music and most of the names on here will well and truly benefit from the promotion of winning the award! I'm also very excited to see a band I know in the form of Greta Van Fleet there. Finally, the rockier stuff is being represented!
ONES THAT COULD HAVE BEEN: Ella Mai. Baring in mind she's nominated for song of the year, I was surprised not to see her here too!
WINNER PREDICTIONS: Dua Lipa, Greta Van Fleet or H.E.R.
ROCK AND INDIE
Obviously, there's a HELL of a lot of Grammy's categories, so I'm not going to talk extensively about them. However, I will discuss the Rock and Indie categories a little as they haven't really been represented in the major categories.
For Rock Song I would LOVE to see Bring Me The Horizon's 'Mantra' take the crown; as someone who is British and loves rock music, it would be great to see a British rock band with a win at the Grammys. However, all of the songs on the list are absolutely solid choices and I wouldn't mind any of them winning.
Rock Album I'd be lying if I said I didn't want my childhood favorites Fall Out Boy to take the crown. Their most recent album was experimental but it paid off and saw them headling some huge festivals and go on an incredibly successful world tour. However, it wouldn't surprise me if Greta Van Fleet snuck in and took it out from under them!
Regarding Alternative Album, I was genuinely surprised to see the Arctic Monkeys there. Sure, their album was great but baring in mind they've only been nominated three times in the past and their outstanding success AM only got one for a performance of Do I Wanna Know, it seems odd to have them nominated for an album that just wasn't up to their usual standard. I doubt they'll win the award though; I predict it'll go to St Vincent!
That's pretty much the end of my thoughts on the Grammys. As I said previously, it didn't go the way I expected. There were some releases I thought at least deserved a nomination but I'm sure the Grammy committee know far more than I do about what makes good music. The lack of rock and indie in the big four was a little disappointing but other than Pray For The Wicked, this year has been a little slow for rock releases.
Again, I may not like it, but I get it.
See all the nominations HERE
Watch the Grammys on February 10th 2019.
Written by Ruby Crowhurst
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