Female artists are set to dominate next year’s Grammy awards with SZA, Phoebe Bridgers, Victoria Monet and Taylor Swift leading the way.
SZA has scored the most nominations with nine overall for her album SOS and the songs from it, covering pop, rap and R&B fields. The singer has so far won one Grammy from her 14 previous nominations. She competes in the record of the year category with Billie Eilish, boygenius, Jon Batiste, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Victoria Monet.
Victoria Monet, Phoebe Bridgers and the mixing engineer Serban Ghenea all follow with seven nominations apiece. Monet is also nominated in the category of best new artist alongside others including Ice Spice and Jelly Roll.
Both song and record of the year categories are almost entirely female with just Batiste as the male nominee in both. Batiste won five key Grammy awards in 2022.
Swift, with six nominations, could potentially make Grammys history if she wins album of the year, which would make her the first artist ever to win in that category four times. Rodrigo, who has previously won three Grammy awards, has scored six nominations for her album GUTS and the song Vampire.
The Barbie album has also made a strong showing with 12 nominations and songs from Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Dua Lipa featuring prominently. Songs from the soundtrack make up four out of the five nominees for best song from visual media.
Nominees beyond the world of music include Meryl Streep, Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and Dave Chappelle, for audiobook, storytelling or comedy awards.
This year sees three new categories: best African music performance, best alternative jazz album and best pop dance recording. Kylie Minogue and Troye Sivan are among the nominees for the latter category.
Notable snubs include country singer Morgan Wallen, who scored just one nomination for Last Night for best country song. The song has spent 16 weeks at No 1 in the US this year.
Earlier this year, Beyonce become the most awarded artist in Grammys history, winning four awards at the 65th ceremony and bringing her total to 32. Harry Styles took home album of the year for Harry’s House.
The 66th Grammy awards will take place on 4 February with a host yet to be announced.
