Get in the groove for music’s biggest night
Performers, tributes and more on tap Sunday.
Everything you need to know for Sunday’s Grammy Awards
“Music’s biggest night” returns on Sunday when the 61st annual Grammy Awards bring together many of the industry’s most respected names for the Recording Academy’s annual celebration of the best music of the year.
The 2019 Grammys unveiled an impressive pool of nominees in December, with Kendrick Lamar leading the pack of nominees with eight nominations, followed by Drake with seven, and Brandi Carlile and producer Boi-1da with six each.
What you need to know: What time and how to watch
The 2019 Grammys will broadcast live from Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Sunday, airing on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST.
The show will be available to stream live online for viewers with participating cable providers, CBS All Access subscriptions or live TV packages through streaming services including YouTube TV and Hulu live TV.
Before the Grammys ceremony begins, CBS’ Grammy Red Carpet Live will broadcast fashion highlights. How are the 2019 Grammys different than last year?
This year, the Recording Academy expanded the Grammys’ four major categories (album, record and song of the year, and best new artist) from five to eight nominees, making room to acknowledge a broader range of artists and genres.
The Recording Academy also claims to have made greater efforts this year to diversify its voting body of roughly 12,000, reaching out to women and people of color about becoming new members while requiring longtime members to re-qualify based on recent work. Notable 2019 Grammy nominees
Kendrick Lamar scored eight nominations this year, including album of the year for the “Black Panther” soundtrack and record and song of the year for the album’s “All the Stars” single.
Lamar is coming off an almost equally successful 2018 Grammys, where he earned seven nominations for his “Damn” album. Drake earned the second-most nominations this year with seven and will compete against Lamar for album of the year with his “Scorpion” release, and for record and song of the year with his “God’s Plan” single.
After a controversial 2018 Grammys in which only one female artist was nominated for album of the year (Lorde for “Melodrama”) and very few women were awarded trophies during the televised awards, this year’s pool of nominees skews heavily female.
Five of the eight nominees for album of the year for 2019 are women: rapper Cardi B (”Invasion of Privacy”), folkrock singer Brandi Carlile (”By the Way, I Forgive You”), R&B newcomer H.E.R. (“H.E.R.”), genre-bending Janelle Monae (”Dirty Computer”) and country star Kacey Musgraves (“Golden Hour”).
For best new artist, six of the eight nominees are women: Chloe x Halle, H.E.R., Dua Lipa, Margo Price, Bebe Rexha and Jorja Smith, along with Luke Combs and Greta Van Fleet.
And female-driven hits by Lady Gaga (”Shallow,” with Bradley Cooper), SZA (”All the Stars,” with Kendrick Lamar) and Maren Morris (”The Middle,” with Zedd and Grey) also dominated major categories, each nominated in both record and song of the year. Alicia Keys is the host
Alicia Keys will host this year’s awards, replacing James Corden, who hosted the show in 2017 and 2018.
Keys will be the first woman to host the Grammys since 2005, when Queen Latifah was the master of ceremonies. The awards went hostless from 2006 to 2011 before LL Cool J became the awards’ recurring host from 2012 to 2016 and then Corden took over in 2017.
Keys is a 29-time Grammy nominee and 15-time winner.
Her most recent win came in 2013 in the R&B album category for “Girl on Fire.” Grammys performers
The star-studded lineup of performers includes many of the 2019 nominees: Monae, Musgraves, Carlile, H.E.R., Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Dan + Shay and Post Malone.
Additional artists scheduled to perform include Miley Cyrus and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Diana Ross will perform a retrospective of her hits as part of a Grammys celebration of her contributions to music.
Other Grammys events
The most famous Grammys event of the week is Clive Davis’ star-studded pre-Grammys gala, which the legendary producer hosts with the Recording Academy the night before the awards.
This year’s gala Feb. 9 will honor Clarence Avant, a former label executive and artist manager in addition to his work in radio and music publishing.
He is known to many in the industry as the “Godfather of Black Music.”
The Recording Academy also will honor Dolly Parton as their 2019 Person of the Year for MusiCares, the Recording Academy’s charity that supports musicians in critical times of financial need.