Black pride occupies centre stage as Beyonce leads Grammys with nine nominations
Beyonce poses with her Grammy trophies in the press room during the 59th Annual Grammy music Awards. File/AFP
Beyoncé is bringing 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.
Beyoncé 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 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.
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Beyoncé’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, Beyoncé becomes the second-most nominated act in the history of the awards show with 79 nominations.
Beyoncé 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 Beyoncé’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.
Beyoncé’s domination this year came as a surprise since the singer did not release a new album. Other surprises, well snubs, include pop star the Weeknd being completely 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 Beyoncé 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 last 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.
Tracks competing with Beyoncé’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’ "Colours” 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.
Several songs that emerged following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor were nominated for Grammys, including Lil Baby’s "The Bigger Picture” (best rap song, best rap performance), Anderson .Paak’s "Lockdown” (best melodic rap performance, best music video), Mickey Guyton’s "Black Like Me” (best country solo performance) as well as Beyoncé’s "Black Parade.”
"I think it’s meaningful. I think it’s reflective of what’s gone on in our world," Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording’s interim president and CEO, said of multiple protest songs earning nominations this year. "Musicians and artists and writers and producers, they write about what’s going on in their lives. We tend to be fairly emotional people. When there’s things happening, it’s going to come out in our music and our art."
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, multi-genre 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.
Female performers also dominated in best country album, including Andress, Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark and Ashley McBryde.
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.”
Other first-time nominees include the Strokes, Megan Thee Stallion, Michael Kiwanuka, Jay Electronica and Harry Styles, who became the first One Direction member to earn a Grammy nomination.
