The Grammys are Sunday, so that means plenty of network TV face time for some of the biggest names in music.
Taylor Swift, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, and Miley Cyrus have multiple nominations in a year when the major categories are dominated by women. The list of performers includes Joni Mitchell, U2, Billie Eilish, Luke Combs, Billy Joel, Travis Scott, Dua Lipa, and Burna Boy.
Many Philadelphia acts have an opportunity to grab a career-defining golden gramophone in Los Angeles. Ninety-four Grammys — a record number — will be given out, most distributed during an afternoon ceremony streamed on Grammy.com that precedes the CBS and Paramount Plus telecast that begins at 8 p.m.
Philly-connected trio boygenius is in the running for six Grammys as a group, plus one more for member Phoebe Bridgers. Philly rappers Black Thought and Lil Uzi Vert are also up for awards, as are bandleader Adam Blackstone, Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and others.
Nominations and predictions: Album of the year
Jon Batiste, World Music Radio; boygenius, The Record; Miley Cyrus, Endless Summer Vacation; Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; Janelle Monae, The Age of Pleasure; Olivia Rodrigo, Guts; Taylor Swift, Midnights; SZA, SOS.
Will win: Midnights. The Taylor tide is high. Midnights isn’t Swift’s best album and it came out so long ago — in October 2022, at the beginning of the eligibility period — that she’s had time to release two re-recorded albums since then.
But let’s be real: It’s Swift season. The Wyomissing, Pa., native and her unstoppable “Eras Tour” own the moment. It’s hard to imagine the Recording Academy not rewarding her omnipresence by breaking her tie with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon as a three-time winner and awarding her fourth AOTY trophy, just a week before she’ll be back on CBS watching Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. (Jon Batiste, a surprise winner in 2021 and the only man in the field, has an outside chance of an upset.)
Should win: SZA, without a doubt. SOS is a dazzling, genre-fluid tour de force, clearly the album of the year.
Nominations and predictions: Record of the year
Jon Batiste, “Worship”; boygenius, “Not Strong Enough”; Miley Cyrus, “Flowers”; Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?”; Victoria Monét, “On My Mama”; Olivia Rodrigo, “Vampire”; Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”; SZA, “Kill Bill.”
Will win: “Flowers.” Cyrus’ hit is super catchy, and its universal “I can love me better than you can” theme of self-reliance is as American as Ralph Waldo Emerson. And Cyrus is an entertainment lifer and longtime music industry favorite.
Should win: “Not Strong Enough” or “Kill Bill.” Boygenius’ well-crafted expression of solidarity would be a worthy winner, as would SZA’s Tarantino-inspired revenge fantasy.
Nominations and predictions: Song of the year
Jon Batiste, “Butterfly”; Lana Del Rey, “A & W”; Miley Cyrus, “Flowers”; Dua Lipa, “Dance The Night”; Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?”; Olivia Rodrigo, “Vampire”; Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”; SZA, “Kill Bill.”
Will win: “What Was I Made For?” Eilish swept the four major categories in 2020. And she and her brother Finneas are a highly regarded team poised to take this songwriter’s award. Plus, there’s the Barbie effect. “What Was I Made For?” has already won a Golden Globe, with a best song Oscar in its future.
Should win: “A & W.” The shape-shifting lead single off Del Rey’s seventh album is an adventurous collage that finds the Los Angeles songwriter, who’s never won a Grammy, at the top of her game. Critics took years to acknowledge Del Rey’s talent fully. Now the Grammys can catch up.
Nominations and predictions: Best new artist
Gracie Abrams, Fred again.., Ice Spice, Jelly Roll, Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, Victoria Monét, The War And Treaty.
Will win: Victoria Monét. She’s yet to be a household name. Still, the Recording Academy has rewarded the Atlanta-born singer — who got her start teaming with South Jersey producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins and writing songs for Ariana Grande and others — with seven nominations. (The other not-so-well-known artist who piled up nominations is country singer Brandy Clark, who plays the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville on March 14, with six.)
Should win: With her full length debut Jaguar II and hit single “On My Mama,” Monét, who played the Made In America festival in Philly in 2022, is a strong choice. Hip-hop sensation Ice Spice and Kahan, an earnest songwriter who works hard to convey authenticity, are Monét’s biggest challengers.
Which Philly acts are Grammy contenders?
The best bet is boygenius. (Though are they still even a partially Philadelphia band? Lucy Dacus came here from Richmond, Va., in 2019 but has reportedly since moved to Los Angeles.)
Nonetheless, let’s prognosticate. The band’s breakout year — including a sold-out show at the Mann Center in September — lifted the trio of Bridgers, Dacus, and Julien Baker from an indie supergroup to the Grammy spotlight.
“Not Strong Enough” has a fighting chance to topple the boys in Foo Fighters, Black Pumas, Arctic Monkeys, and Metallica for best rock performance. And Bridgers’ collab with SZA on “Ghost In The Machine” could take best pop duo or group performance. Though Swift and Ice Spice’s “Karma” is also in that category.
Roots rapper Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter’s poetic ode to hip-hop “Love Letter” is up for best rap performance. In a just world, he would win, but expect Drake and 21 Savage to take it for “Rich Flex.” Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock,” which was engineered by Philly’s Ben Thomas, has a nod for best rap song.
This could be Adam Blackstone’s year. Nominated once in 2023, the bass player and bandleader is up for two awards in 2024, with Legacy: The Instrumental Jawn for jazz instrumental album and “Vulnerable (Live)” for jazz performance. And Camden’s Tye Tribbett, a two-time Grammy winner, is a serious contender for best gospel album for All Things New: Live in Orlando.
Philadelphians are competing in three classical categories. The Crossing Choir has won Grammys the last three years and is nominated again for choral performance with Carols After a Plague.
Remarkably, the Grammy the Philadelphia Orchestra won in 2022 was its first. The ensemble can repeat in orchestral performance for Florence Price’s Symphony No. 4 and William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony. Conductor Nézet-Séguin is also nominated for Terence Blanchard’s Champion with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
Finally, Philly visual artist Perry Shall is up for best recording package for his trippy black-light design of The Arcs’ Electrophonic Chronic. There are no big-name acts in the category, so there’s a good chance the Philly illustrator could come home with a Grammy.
