More women make list of Grammy noms

Cardi B actually made some music news on Friday, too.

She earned five Grammy nominations Friday, the same day she appeared in court on assault and reckless endangerment charges related to an August Brawl at a strip club.

After criticism over last year’s testosterone-dominated Grammys, the Recording Academy was relying on a younger, more diverse voting body to bring some inclusion to the Grammys — and the nominations reflect a step forward.

Five of the eight nominees for album of the year are women — Cardi B, for “Invasion of Privacy,” Janelle Monae for “Dirty Computer,” country star Kacey Musgraves for “Golden Hour,” newcomer H.E.R. for “H.E.R.” and Brandi Carlile for “By the Way I Forgive You.”

Buoyed by his work on the the “Black Panther” soundtrack, Kendrick Lamar led the pack of this year’s nominees overall with eight award nods, including album, song and record of the year. He’s followed by Drake, who earned seven nominations, three of them in the top categories.

Folk-rock crooner Carlile is the most nominated woman in this year’s award show, with six nods — three of them in major categories, as well as additional nominations in the American Roots category.

Lady Gaga, fresh off two Golden Globe nominations Thursday for her widely praised turn in a “Star is Born,” also scored five Grammy noms for her soulful duet with Bradley Cooper titled “Shallow.”

Last year’s show saw just one woman (Lorde) nominated for record or album of the year.

Alessia Cara, who took home the Best New Artist trophy, was the only woman to win an award during 2018’s main event — when Bruno Mars swept the song, record and album of the year categories and Ed Sheeran beat four women for best pop song.

Recording Academy President Neil Portnow initially blamed women for not making enough music to win and challenged them to “step up,” then quickly backtracked.

Months later, the Academy announced it would expand the best new artist and song, record and album of the year categories to eight nominees each in the hopes of adding some variety to its show.

Nine hundred new voting members, specifying those who are either female, nonwhite, under 40 years old or some combination of those, were invited to the governing body, and a 16-member team — including 13 women — was created as a task force on inclusion and diversity.

Mac Miller was posthumously nominated for his first Grammy award on Friday, exactly three months after his accidental overdose death. The late artist’s critically acclaimed “Swimming” is up for best rap album.

The 61st annual Grammys will air on CBS on Feb. 10.