While we all saw nominations for major artists like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and SZA coming, the Recording Academy still managed to keep us on our toes with a number of shocking decisions. There are some artists we were pleasantly surprised to see get nods, while others were left off the list, despite our best guess at who would receive recognition. Here are our picks for the biggest surprises and most frustrating snubs from the 2024 Grammy Award nominations.
The Grammys haven’t always been a great friend to Lana Del Rey. 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! was her most acclaimed album up to that point, and it got nods for album and song of the year, but she left the ceremony empty-handed. This year’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd scored noms across alternative and pop categories, including a Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with previous Album Of The Year winner Jon Batiste. 2024 may finally be the year Lana takes home a trophy. [Drew Gillis]
Looking back on 2023, the biggest forces in pop culture are Taylor Swift and Barbie. But while Swift secured an Album of the Year nomination for Midnights, the Mark Ronson-produced Barbie soundtrack missed out. Presumably, that’s because it’s hard for a film soundtrack to compete with a solid list of (mostly) solo artists in that category. But overall Barbie: The Album had a good showing, with Billie Elish’s “What Was I Made For?” and Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night” cracking major categories, a nom for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media, and basically sweeping the Best Song Written for Visual Media category. Barbie is sure to win somewhere, just not for AOTY. [Mary Kate Carr]
Sam Smith has won five out of the seven times they’ve been nominated for a Grammy, including both Song and Record Of The Year for the smash hit “Stay With Me” in 2014 and a trophy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance last year for “Unholy.” Yet this year, not even a collaboration with Madonna could snag Smith a nomination. All that previous Grammy love makes Smith getting shut out this year for their album Gloria feel like a snub. [Mary Kate Carr]
Country music had a huge year on the charts, for better or worse, but that didn’t translate into Grammy attention. Most disappointing of these snubs was Zach Bryan, the country guy who makes people say “I’m not a huge country fan, but that guy’s okay.” “I Remember Everything” was a number-one hit and featured previous Album Of The Year winner Kacey Musgraves, so we expected a little more attention from the Recording Academy. [Drew Gillis]
There’s a certain type of guy who lives in Brooklyn who loves Fred again.., but it was a bit of a surprise to find out so many of those guys were on the Grammy nominating committee. Jokes aside, it’s kind of shocking that an electronic musician who debuted a few years ago made his way into the Best New Artist category ahead of several up-and-coming pop stars. Not a bad surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. [Drew Gillis]
While it’s always fun to see less mainstream musicians crack the Best New Artist category, it’s nevertheless a surprise when some of the year’s buzziest young performers don’t make the cut. Ice Spice getting the nod but not PinkPantheress, with whom she collaborated on the popular “Boy’s A Liar Pt. 2,” is one example. Reneé Rapp, who had the biggest female debut album of the year with Snow Angel (and is the face of the new Mean Girls musical), also missed out on a Best New Artist nom.
Disney Channel alum Sabrina Carpenter also missed out on a nomination in this category despite a big year opening for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour (perhaps bumped in favor of another DCOM star, Coco Jones). Then there’s country singer Lainey Wilson, who scored nominations for Best Country Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance but missed out on the Best New Artist category, though her collaborator Jelly Roll made the cut. [Mary Kate Carr]
In the past decade, the Grammys have often loved to throw a legacy rock act into the general categories. It comes as a bit of a snub, then, that the Foo Fighters—and rock in general—didn’t snag any general award nominations, and were instead relegated to the genre categories. [Drew Gillis]
Victoria Monét has long been a known name in the music industry; she’s cowritten a number of Ariana Grande’s biggest hits, and her 2019 album Jaguar is a hidden gem among pop fans. That’s why it was a pleasant surprise to see Monét snag nominations for not just Best New Artist but an honest-to-goodness Record Of The Year nomination for her simmering “On My Mama.” It’s hard to think anyone worked longer or harder to place in this category this year. [Drew Gillis]
Another miss for the year’s big country successes, Luke Combs scored a Best Country Solo Performance nomination for his cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” but nothing for his original work. That’s a snub for his album Gettin’ Old as well as the track “Love You Anyway.” (Nor did he get a nod for collaborations with Ed Sheeran and Riley Green.) “Fast Car” also didn’t crack the Record of the Year nominations despite its chart dominance, maybe because Grammy voters prefer the original version. [Mary Kate Carr]
Drake & 21 Savage secured a Best Rap Album nod for their collaborative album “Her Loss” with attention in some of the other hip-hop-specific categories, but the album failed to crack the major categories of Album, Song, or Record of the Year. (Contenders from the album include “Spin Bout U,” which was nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, and “Rich Flex,” which was nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song). Clearly, chart success doesn’t always equal awards attention, but Drake’s cultural dominance seems like it would’ve gotten him a shot in at least one of the big three. The competition this year was apparently just too strong. [Mary Kate Carr]
Tyla is in the process of a major breakthrough, thanks in no small part to TikTok and a well-received performance on The Tonight Show a couple weeks ago. Her song “Water” is undeniably great, so it was a treat to see someone on the precipice of truly breaking out grab a nomination for Best African Music Performance. Hopefully it’s the first of many nominations to come from her. [Drew Gillis]
As we’ve already noted, when it comes to the Billboard charts, 2023 was the year for country music. Curiously, that’s not reflected in the major categories at all. Even more surprising is that the best-selling country singer of the past few years, Morgan Wallen, was not only shut out of the major categories but most of the country categories as well. His album One Thing At A Time failed to receive a Best Country Album nod; “Last Night,” the longest-charting number one song of the year, nabbed Wallen his only nomination, for Best Country Song (but missed out on Best Country Solo Performance). Wallen’s crossover success would normally earn an artist a better showing at the Grammys, but his lingering racism scandal might’ve made Grammy voters wary of rewarding him. [Mary Kate Carr]