Pop star Beyonce leads Grammy nominations
Pop diva Beyonce on Tuesday led nominations for next year’s Grammy Awards but faced tough competition from fellow chart-topping artists including Adele.
Beyonce received nods in nine categories for the music industry’s biggest night including Album of the Year for “Lemonade,” her contemplative look at African-American women that she intertwined with a movie.
Beyonce will face off at the February 12 awards in three of the most prestigious categories against English balladeer Adele, whose “25” has been one of the top-selling albums of the 21st century. Besides Album of the Year, Beyonce and Adele go head-to-head for Record of the Year, which recognizes individual tracks, and Song of the Year, which looks at songwriting.
Adele was nominated in the two categories for her powertrack of lost love “Hello,” while Beyonce is in the running for “Formation,” a bouncy track that marks her deepest foray into hip-hop.
The 59th Grammy Awards will be presented at a gala in Los Angeles after voting by 13,000 music professionals.
If she wins in all categories, Beyonce would break the record for most Grammys by a female artist. Beyonce has won 20 Grammys over her career but has never won Album of the Year, despite being nominated twice in the category.
Two of hip-hop’s biggest names, Kanye West and Drake, were each nominated in eight categories as was R&B sensation Rihanna.
West, a media celebrity who recently was hospitalized after a reported breakdown, took advantage of a change in Grammy rules to consider streaming-only releases.