2024 Grammy Nominations: A guide to the best, worst and most surprising nominees
The just-released nominations list for the 66th annual Grammy Awards, to be held Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, promises awards show fans one thing: stereotype-transcending sartorial excellence. The singer-songwriter trio boygenius, up for six awards including album and record of the year, has a "menswear" game like no other; will the artistic throuple dust off the Western duds for its inevitable acceptance speech? Out-earning Bridgers-Dacus-Baker is the nine times nominated SZA, who adapted the sports-jersey-and-Timberlands look '90s male rappers perfected on the cover of her R&B-ruling album SOS. Likewise, slow-burning newcomer Victoria Monet blurs binaries in the Missy Elliott-worshiping video for "On My Mama," the hit that helped earn her seven Grammy nods. Add in pantsuit savant Brandy Clark (six nominations across three genres) and tux god Janelle Monaé (two including album of the year) — not to mention top contenders Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, all of whom can tie a Windsor knot — and you have a slate that really sticks it to the old music-industry suits. In fact, the only male artist with multiple major nominations, Jon Batiste, defied formalwear norms in 2022 when he claimed his golden gramophones in a sparkling floor-length cape.
This supposedly surface-level read of the year's nominations reveals something more important than a huge pre-Grammys workload for the house of Armani. Declaring a sea change when it comes to gender equity in music is always risky; more often than not, a year of non-male dominance gives way to one in which Morgan Wallen rules everything. At least for now, though, that chart-annihilating country bro sits in the cheap seats with only one nomination, and country and hip-hop, historically hypermale genres, were overlooked in prime categories. What acknowledgment they did receive pointed firmly toward a new era, one in which Ice Spice's flow earns true admiration and genre-flexible artists of color like Batiste and the best new artist noms the War and Treaty stand proud for Nashville and the rest of the rootsy South. That Latin music was shut out of the top categories, however, is inexplicable — showing a nearsightedness uncharacteristic of the year.
