Beyonce’s Black pride work Grammy gold
NEW YORK — Beyonce is taking her Black parade to the Grammys: The pop star’s anthem about Black pride scored multiple nominations Tuesday, making her the leading contender with nine nominations.
Beyonce picked up song and record of the year bids with “Black Parade” which she released on Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned that they were free. The song, which reached the Top 40 on the pop charts, is also nominated for best R&B song and best R&B performance.
Beyonce’s “Black Is King” film that highlighted Black art, music, history and fashion is up for best music film while “Brown Skin Girl,” a song dedicated to dark- and brown-skinned women, is nominated for best music video. The singer also earned three nominations for her slick guest appearance on Megan Thee Stallion’s No. 1 hit “Savage.”
A winner of 24 Grammys, Beyonce becomes the second-most-nominated act in the history of the awards show with 79 nominations.
Beyonce is only behind her husband, Jay-Z, and Quincy Jones, who have both earned 80 nominations each. Jay-Z picked up three nominations this year for his contributions to Beyonce’s songs: He co-wrote “Black Parade” and “Savage,” thus earning nominations for song of the year, best R&B song and best rap song. Jay-Z has won 22 Grammys throughout this career.
Beyonce’s domination this year came as a surprise since the singer did not release a new album. Other surprises include pop star the Weeknd being shut out and earning zero nominations despite having a No. 1 album, multiple hit singles and winning the coveted Super Bowl halftime performance slot. Luke
Combs, who dominated the country charts and set records on streaming services this year, was also surprisingly shut out of nominations.
Instead, multiple nominations went to Taylor Swift,
Dua Lipa and Roddy Ricch, who each earned six nominations and followed Beyonce as the second-most-nominated acts.
Lipa, who won two Grammys last year, earned bids for album of the year with “Future Nostalgia,” as well as song and record of the year for her hit “Don’t Start Now.” Swift, whose past two albums didn’t garner nominations for album of the year, is competing for the top prize with her surprise album “folklore.” If she wins, she would become the first artist to win album of the year three times.
Other album of the year nominees include: Post Malone’s multihit “Hollywood’s Bleeding”; Coldplay’s “Everyday Life”; HAIM’s sophomore release “Women In Music Pt. III”; Jhene Aiko’s atmospheric R&B project “Chilombo”; English musician Jacob Collier’s multigenre release “Djesse Vol. 3”; and the deluxe edition of Black Pumas’ self-titled debut album.
Tracks competing with Beyonce’s “Black Parade” and “Savage” for record of the year include DaBaby and Ricch’s “Rockstar,” Malone’s “Circles,” Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now,” Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” Black Pumas’ “Colors” and Doja Cat’s “Say So.”
“Black Parade,” “Don’t Start Now,” “Everything I Wanted” and “Circles” are also nominated for song of the year — a songwriter’s award — along with Swift’s “cardigan,” Ricch’s “The Box,” JP Saxe and Julia Michaels’ “If the World Was Ending” and H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe,” her protest anthem addressing police brutality.
Megan Thee Stallion, who released her highly anticipated debut album last week after finding success with hit singles and mixtapes since 2018, scored four nominations including best new artist. She will compete with rapper-singer Doja Cat, pop singer Noah Cyrus, country singer Ingrid Andress, multigenre DJ-producer Kaytranada, rappers Chika and D Smoke, and indie rocker Phoebe Bridgers, who earned four nominations and helped female acts dominate in the rock categories.
Nominees for best rock performance and best rock song include Bridgers, Fiona Apple, HAIM, Grace Potter, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and Big Thief, led by Adrianne Lenker. Female performers also dominated in best country album, including Andress, Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark and Ashley McBryde. The foursome Little Big Town, which features two female vocalists, round out the five nominees.
K-pop kings BTS earned their first-ever Grammy nomination after years of having success on the pop charts. They will compete for best pop duo/group performance with their No. 1 hit, “Dynamite.”
Songs and albums released between Sept. 1, 2019, and Aug. 31, 2020, were eligible for nominations this year. Winners will be announced at the live show on Jan. 31.