Let’s Talk the Grammy’s: Thoughts, Predictions, etc.

By Kayla Harper

 

The 67th annual Grammy awards show will be held on February 2, 2025.  The Grammy’s is arguably the most prestigious and highly-acclaimed award ceremony in the music industry.  Occurring annually, the ceremony gives out roughly 94 awards every year, from genre-specific categories to more general and broad ones.  For the sake of length and time, I am not going to speak on every single award, category, or nominee this year.  However, I would like to talk about a couple of the popular categories -Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year,  Best New Artist, Pop/Duo Group Performance, Pop Vocal Album – which usually spark a lot of conversation and controversy.

 

Album Of The Year

Albums nominated in this category are considered based on overall achievement among the producer(s), engineer(s), songwriter(s), vocalist(s), and other people involved in creating it.  This award recognizes the album as a whole cohesive body of work.  It does not take into consideration chart success or number of sales (most Grammy categories don’t).  The list of nominees in this category for the 2025 ceremony is as follows:

Cowboy Carter – Beyoncé

New Blue Sun – André 3000

Djesse Vol.4 – Jacob Collier

Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter

The Tortured Poets Department – Taylor Swift

The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan

Brat – Charli XCX

Hit Me Hard And Soft – Billie Eilish

Predictions

A lot of people have been tired of seeing her win awards (not her fault), but  The Tortured Poets Department deserves to win Album Of The Year. It showed an artistic growth in Swift and sides of her we haven’t seen yet even after being in the industry 20+ years and the album is both sonically and thematically cohesive; every song works together as a whole piece. However, it’s unlikely she’ll win because Midnights won last year and I can’t see them giving the award to her for two years in a row. To be honest,Midnights should not have won last year, the award should have gone to Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.

As excited as I am that Sabrina Carpenter is nominated for Album Of The Year, Short n’ Sweet is not deserving of this award. It’s not a bad album, it just doesn’t have the same impact and emotional substance that some of the other albums do. It also doesn’t stray far from what she’s done in the past or what has been done by others.  However, it does work well together as a body of work in it’s entirety, so you never know. I feel somewhat similar about Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess; it’s a fabulous album and works well as a collection of songs, it’s just not quite Album Of The Year material.

If it weren’t for the lifestyle and aesthetic around it and heavy TikTok campaigning,  Brat would not have been a successful record. The album itself lacks any depth. It’s cohesive, but almost too cohesive.  I feel similarly about Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, it just didn’t do it for me and definitely doesn’t live up to any of the other albums nominated.

Billie Eilish has the best chance at snagging this award with Hit Me Hard And Soft.  Not only has she been favoured by the Grammy’s in the past, but this album was a beautiful collection of songs and stories combined into one cohesive pieces that flows from start to finish.  This emotional body of work captivated me, as someone who had grown out of Eilish’s music and not gone back since junior high.  If she does walk out with this award on Sunday, it’s well deserved.

Song Of The Year

Another award many artists only dream of is Song Of The Year.  Success in this category is based on “artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position.” (Grammy.com). Highlighting on the songwriting, eligibility for this award includes singles and tracks that were initially released, or achieved success in the Eligibility year. (Grammy.com). This year’s nominees are as follows:

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey

“Birds Of A Feather” – Billie Eilish

“Die With A Smile” – Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars

“Fortnight” – Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone

“Good Luck, Babe” – Chappell Roan

“Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar

“Please Please Please” – Sabrina Carpenter

“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” – Beyoncé

Predictions

Since this award considers songwriting and lyricism and if it were only focused on these aspects,  “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, “Please Please Please”, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “Die With A Smile” should not win.  Looking at these pieces just for the lyrics, they lack the poetic, figurative techniques that make writing clever.  However, as a songwriter myself, taking into consideration not only the depth of the lyrics, it can be just as difficult, if not more difficult to write an upbeat, simplistic song as it is to write an emotionally deep song filled with figurative language.  For this reason, I think songs like “Please Please Please” are still deserving of this award, just maybe not as much as songs like “Fortnight”, “Not Like Us”, “Good Luck, Babe” and “Birds Of A Feather”.

Once again, I would not be surprised if Eilish took home the award.  However, it would be nice to see Swift win in this category with “Fortnight”.  Swift has always declared herself a writer first, before a musician and has been praised for her songwriting and storytelling abilities above all else.  So, it is unfortunate she has never won a Grammy in this category which focuses on songwriting despite being nominated eight times in it.  The Tortured Poets Department is lyrically one of Swift’s strongest to date, with many of the songs, including “Fortnight”, containing substantial extended metaphors, allusions, similes, among other aspects of figurative language.

Best New Artist

This category is not necessarily recognizing an artist who is brand new, releasing their debut in the eligible year, but rather an artist who has achieved breakthrough success in the eligible year. Nominations for this year are as follows:

Benson Boone
Sabrina Carpenter
Doechii
Khruangbin
Raye
Chappell Roan
Shaboozey
Teddy Swims

As someone who works at a record store, I am exposed to a wide variety of old and new artists across all genres.  Over the course of the year, I discover a lot of new artists, or “breakthrough” artists through the requests we get from our customers for their albums.  Only recently have I been getting requests for Teddy Swims and realized his popularity.  Khruangbin has been selling many records all year round. Despite being the songwriter behind many of your favourite hits, Raye has only just started recieving recognition for her solo work with the popularity of her 2023 release, My 21st Centure Blues (one of my personal favourite albums). Benson Boone anad Shaboozey definitley broke through this year, however, they only really seemed to have one hit song each.  If I’m being completely honest, I have yet to hear about Doechii.

The artists on this list most deserving of this award are Sabrina Carpenter and/or Chappell Roan.  These two have seen a true breakthrough in their careers this year.  Topping the music charts with their singles, playing sold-out shows and becoming household names.  Not only have they had a hit song, or sold many records, these two have seen growth and success in all areas of their careers this year.  I can see either one of them walking away with this award on Sunday and I hope I do!

Pop/Duo Group Performance

Eligibility for this category includes single tracks only which were new collaborative pop recordings released within the eligible year.  This award recognizes artistic excellence between the collaborators, most likely taking into consideration how well their voices, lyrics and production works to create a meaningful song. The nominees are as follows:

“Us.” – Gracie Abrams Featuring Taylor Swift

“LEVII’S JEANS” – Beyoncé Featuring Post Malone

“Guess” – Charli XCX and Billie Eilish

“the boy is mine” – Ariana Grande, Brandy and Monica

“Die With A Smile” – Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars

I could honestly see any of these songs winning in this category.  Especially “Guess” and “the boy is mine”.    I was not a fan of the amount of non-country artists attempting country albums this year.  I’m not saying artists should stay in one genre, in fact, I encourage them to switch it up and develop their skills further by branching out into different genres.  However, in the instance of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, it seemed more like an attempt to ride on the trendiness and popularity of country music this year, rather than a real attempt at exploring and mastering the art of the genre.  This is why Cowboy Carter or any of it’s songs should win one of these coveted awards.

I would love to see “Us.” take home the award for Pop/Duo Group Performance this year.  As a long-term Gracie Abrams fan, it’s still hard for me to believe that she is a two-time Grammy nominated artist.  I had really hoped she would take home the award for Best New Artist at the 66th annual Grammy awards last year, however, she has really broken through this year becoming a household name.  It would be really special to see her win her first Grammy after the most exciting and successful year of her career. Not only that, but “Us.”  is an exceptional collaboration between Swift and Abrams, making effective use of their vocals to create underlying harmonies and depth throughout the verses of the song, building up to a lyrically, and musically powerful bridge.  The song conveys the emotions it sets out to well.

Pop Vocal Album

This category is restricted to new pop vocal albums released within the eligible year considered to most influential in the music industry.  The nominees are as follows:

Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter

Hit Me Hard And Soft – Billie Eilish

eternal sunshine – Ariana Grande

The Rise and Fall Of  A Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan

The Tortured Poets Department – Taylor Swift

It’s really hard for me to make a prediction in this category, with the exception of eternal sunshine, I feel like all these albums had a huge influential impact on pop music this year.  The Tortured Poets Department is a sombre and primarily melancholy body of work, but resembles Lana Del Rey’s style.  It influential to pop music in the way that it strays from the traditional upbeat, unserious themes heard in most mainstream pop.

However, it’s highly likely that Short n’ Sweet or The Rise and Fall Of  A Midwest Princess will win this award.   Both Chappell Roan and Carpenter, have released exceptional pop albums that are somewhat nostalgic in the way that they resemble pop music from past decades (80s, 90s, 00s).  Additionally, both Chappell Roan and Carpenter are incredibly talented vocally, offering extraordinary adlibs, harmonies etc. throughout their albums.  I would be satisfied if either of these albums won this award.

That concludes my predictions and thoughts prior to the 67th annual Grammy awards.  They will be airing this Sunday, February 2, 2025.  I’m excited to see who ends up winning in each category. Please remember that all these artists are so deserving and that even being nominated for one of these awards is an incredible honour, so lets not spread hate to voters or winners this year (if it were my way Twenty One Pilots would have received a couple nominations and Clancy would win Album Of The Year, but it’s not).

Also keep in mind these are my personal thoughts and opinions which I am entitled to, no need to be upset if you disagree… I would love to hear your thoughts as well so feel free to leave those in the comments below!