The year 2024 has been an impactful one for music, and the Grammys tend to have difficulty keeping up with the musical landscape. The 2025 Grammy nominations lead to discussions on their relevance and predictions for the future winners. In February 2025, we’ll see where the Recording Academy stands in pop culture.
The 2025 Grammy nominations have been long awaited due to the musical significance of this past year. As expected, both Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are recurring in multiple nominations, but this year, Beyoncé made history once again. Her 2024 album “Cowboy Carter” received 11 nominations, bringing her career total to 99. She remains the most nominated artist in Grammy history.
I find this well-deserved, as she is known to explore diverse genres. Last year’s album “RENAISSANCE” was pop, so it was very unexpected for her to release a country album. The album could have gone wrong in many ways, but it seems she found a way to execute it perfectly.
There are also new contenders to the nominations list like Raye, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli xcx. Charli xcx had a significant stylistic shift, earning her 7 nominations this year. Her nominations helped bring hyper-pop, one of my favorite genres, into the Grammys.
Sabrina Carpenter, who recently gained mass popularity, received her first six nominations. She’s been in the music scene for 10 years, but this is the first year that she earned a nomination. I’ve been a fan of her music since 2018, so seeing her blow up like this is pretty amazing.
Chapell Roan is in a similar position as she too has been in the music business for quite some time and was nominated for the first time this year. Like Carpenter, she’s earned six nominations.
Nominations like Swift or Billie Eilish were expected, but there is still room for surprises. One thing I find disappointing about this year’s nominations is the lack of nominations for Ariana Grande. Grande’s album “Eternal Sunshine ” has deeply impacted many listeners. Many have been frustrated by her absence in this year’s Grammy nominations, understandably so.
There were positive surprises as well, such as Raye gaining two nominations. Raye’s song “Oscar Winning Tears” is one of my favorite releases from her, so I’m glad that it got the recognition it deserved.
The 2025 Grammy nominations included the key favorites for the main categories. However, as always, the important question is whether the winners will accurately depict the public’s opinions.
The nominations not only included famous artists but talented upcoming artists as well. To me, this represents balance, and could potentially introduce viewers to their next favorite artist. Though people who tend to watch these shows usually have a prenotion favorite, it still gives those artists recognition.
This year’s nominations have also addressed underrepresented genres, such as blues. The Grammys did a great job of recognizing songwriters and producers alongside the artists within the blues category.
The nominations followed the recent trend of women being the majority of nominees for the major categories. However, there was still a lot of diversity in the nominations this year, in both genres and artists.
The tensions for Album of the Year have continued to rise as multiple albums have significantly impacted pop culture in 2024. For me, Charli xcx’s “Brat” has had the most impact on my life, and I’m rooting for it to win. But albums like Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter”, Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard” and Carpenter’s “Short & Sweet” have been highly influential as well, so the competition is fierce.
Competition is even greater for song of the year. It seemed like each month, a new song shook the world. For me, the answer is obvious: Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” which everyone knows by now. If this song doesn’t win Song of the Year, it will shock me and many others.
The general consensus for recent years is that the Grammys are no longer relevant to the musical world and that the awards don’t reflect public opinion. This year they have yet another chance to redeem themselves and to clean up their reputation. We’ll see how it unfolds on Feb. 2.
