Get ready for the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, where the music industry's biggest stars and up-and-coming talents will gather in Los Angeles. But here's where it gets controversial: Who will take home the coveted awards? Let's dive into the top nominees and their journeys to the show.
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar leads the pack with nine nominations this year, most notably for his album 'GNX'. 'Luther', a collaboration with SZA, is up for both Record and Song of the Year. The pair's stadium tour over the summer marked Lamar's first, while SZA celebrated the success of her beloved 2022 album, 'S.O.S.'
Lola Young
British singer and songwriter Lola Young had a breakthrough with her diaristic hit 'Messy'. However, the attention it brought was sometimes hard to manage. After collapsing onstage at a festival last fall, Young will return to the stage at the Grammys, where she's up for Best New Artist and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny spent years traveling the world, but he returned home to Puerto Rico with his album 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' ('I Should Have Taken More Photos'), which earned six nominations. He challenges the notion that artists must adhere to traditional norms, saying, 'You don't have to do the same thing that the old artists did in the past. You can do it with a new feeling, with a new slang, with a new everything. There's no rules.'
Addison Rae
As a dancer, Addison Rae was one of TikTok's best-known stars. However, convincing the music industry she was ready to become a serious artist took some effort. Her debut album, 'Addison', led to a Best New Artist nomination. 'I have this luxury now to be able to play and explore,' she said. 'To be weird or be introspective or be playful and curious and like a chameleon.'
Olivia Dean
Olivia Dean's 'Man I Need' has been climbing the Hot 100, making the British soul singer and songwriter one of the most-talked-about musicians of the moment. Her latest album, 'The Art of Loving', came out after the eligibility window for this year's Grammys, but she is up for one major honor: Best New Artist. With this album, Dean said she 'really wanted to reach people.'
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has seven nominations this year, including in the three top categories she has yet to win: Album, Record, and Song of the Year. Her latest solo album, 'Mayhem', came to life onstage, where she drew sharp connections between her past and present 'while demonstrating a significant leveling up in the cohesion and polish of her stage show,' as our critic Lindsay Zoladz wrote. 'Dark pop is in, but Gaga is mother.'
Sombr
ShaneBoose, who records and performs as Sombr, struck a chord with 'Back to Friends', a song tracking the emotional mess of a fractured situationship. Before landing on the song, the native New Yorker was adrift in Los Angeles, 'falling in with the wrong crowds' and becoming 'a loser' — a term he defines, opaquely, as 'the person my mom tells me not to become.' He found the right collaborator, and now he has his first Grammy nod, for Best New Artist.
Clipse
For over two decades, Pusha T and Malice — the brothers in the rap duo Clipse — have been hip-hop's purists, the moralists, the keepers of a traditionalist flame that remains alive with possibility. Returning with their first album in 16 years, there was frustrating territory to navigate. 'All the red tape, all the politics. I don’t like nothing about it, but I’m cool because I’ve seen it before,' Malice said. 'The only thing I’m elated about is to make the kind of music that we make and just to be arm in arm with my brother.'
Doechii
The rapper and singer Doechii earned her first Grammy last February, taking home Best Rap Album for her mixtape 'Alligator Bites Never Heal'. Now her song 'Anxiety' is vying for five awards, including Record and Song of the Year. The Times critic Lindsay Zoladz described the track as 'essentially an expressionistic musical rendering of a panic attack' while reviewing Doechii’s New York show.
Hayley Williams
The Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams earned her first Grammy nominations as a solo artist this year, in rock and alternative music categories. 'I don’t typically like to do the thing that people expect or want me to do,' she said. 'I think that’s probably not always a great thing about me. So I did feel a bit defeatist about finally giving into this thing that I had been resisting, like, my whole life.'
Leon Thomas
Justin Vernon, the frontman and creative engine of Bon Iver, had a very memorable Grammy night in 2012, when he surprised a lot of viewers by winning Best New Artist (defeating Nicki Minaj). This time, he has two nominations in alternative music categories for his latest album, 'Sable, Fable'. 'If there’s been a talent I’ve had, it’s been just following my instincts,' he told Popcast.
Bon Iver
The R&B singer and songwriter Leon Thomas is coming into the Grammys with more nominations than any of his competitors for Best New Artist: six. Thomas, who won his first Grammy in 2024 as a writer on SZA’s 'Snooze', scored his first major solo hit last year with 'Mutt', the title track of his latest album. It’s a moody and somewhat self-deprecating tune that seamlessly blends new-school swag with more traditional R&B atmospherics.
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan was crowned Best New Artist at the Grammys last February, and delivered a performance of her hit 'Pink Pony Club' that brought the audience to its feet. She returns on Sunday with a nod in one of the biggest categories — Record of the Year — as well as Pop Solo Performance for 'The Subway', a single she released after her breakthrough album, 'The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.'
Turnstile
'There is something exciting about being able to make music in a way where there’s no formula, there’s no expectation,' the Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates said. That's reflected in the Baltimore hardcore band's Grammy nods this year: five nominations in rock, alternative, and metal categories for its most recent album, 'Never Enough.'
But here's where it gets controversial: Who will take home the coveted awards? Will the established stars prevail, or will the up-and-coming talents make their mark? And this is the part most people miss: The Grammys are not just about the awards; they're about the music and the artists who inspire us. So, who will you be cheering for? And what do you think about the controversial nominations? Share your thoughts in the comments!
