If Beyoncé wins the Grammy for album of the year, she’ll become the first Black woman to do so in the 21st century.Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Welcome to Beyoncé country. When it comes to the 2025 Grammy Award nominations, “Cowboy Carter” rules the nation. She leads the nods with 11, bringing her career total to 99 nominations. That makes her the most nominated artist in Grammy history.
Several Canadians emerged as major contenders for their work on Beyoncé's country-pop smash. Toronto producer Nathan Ferraro land three nominations, including record of the year.
He shared two of his nods with fellow Canadian songwriters Megan Bülow and Elizabeth Lowell Boland in song of the year and best country song.
Among the other leading Canadian nominees is prolific audio engineer and mixer Serban Ghenea, who scored five nods for a slew of big releases in key categories.
Ghenea locked a nomination in record of the year for “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift, as well as nods in album of the year for Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” and Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Halifax-raised hitmaker Cirkut picked up two nominations for his work with Charli XCX on “Brat,”including a mention in the album of the year category. The track “360″ also earned him a nomination for record of the year.
Other Canadian contenders this year include the Weeknd whose appearance on Future’s “We Still Don’t Trust You” found a spot in best melodic rap performance, while Charlotte Day Wilson’s “Cyan Blue” is up for a trophy in the best engineered album, non-classical category.
Post Malone also received his first ever nominations in the country categories this year, having released his debut country album “F-1 Trillion” in August. That one is up for country album and “I Had Some Help,” his collaboration with Morgan Wallen, is nominated for country song and country duo/group performance. They are Wallen’s first ever Grammy nominations.
Malone is just behind Beyoncé, with seven nominations, tied with Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Charli XCX, who earned her first nominations as a solo artist.
Lamar’s ubiquitous diss track released during his feud with Drake, “Not Like Us,” is nominated for record and song of the year, rap song, music video as well as best rap performance. He has two simultaneous entries in the latter category, a career first: Future & Metro Boomin featuring Lamar, “Like That” is up for best rap performance and best rap song.
This is his third time receiving two simultaneous nominations for best rap song.
Taylor Swift and first-time nominees Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan boast of six nominations each.
Top row from left: Beyoncé, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar. Bottom row from left: Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift.The Associated Press
Last year, women artists dominated the major categories. This year, that continues somewhat, but the main trend seems to be a variance of genre. In the album of the year category, alongside “Cowboy Carter” is Andre 3000′s new age, alt-jazz “New Blue Sun” and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier’s “Djesse Vol. 4.” Rising pop stars Carpenter and Roan round it out, with “Short n’ Sweet” and “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” respectively, as well as Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” and Charli XCX’s rave-ready “BRAT.”
Eilish is the only artist to have her first three albums become nominated for album of the year.
Last year, Swift won album of the year for “Midnights,” breaking the record for most wins in the category with four. This year, she becomes the first ever woman to seven career nominations in the category.
“The breadth and the variety of genres represented in the general field feels new and really exciting,” says the Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. He credits an active and evolving voting body for its success. “We’ve been very intentional in how we looked at and tried to rebalance our membership. So not just gender or people of colour, different racial makeup, but also genre equity and trying to make sure that all different types of music in different regions and different locations are being represented in every way possible.”
Only recordings commercially released in the U.S. between Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 were eligible for nominations. The final round of Grammy voting, which determines its winners, will take place Dec. 12 through January 3.
In the best new artist category, Carpenter and Roan will go head-to-head, alongside Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, RAYE, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims.
In the song of the year category, Beyoncé is joined by Eilish with “Birds of a Feather,” Swift and Post Malone with “Fortnight,” Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”, Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile,” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Shaboozey is also a first-time nominee. His “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is the biggest song of the year, having spent more weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other – it is so popular, a remix of the track is also up for remixed recording.
Elsewhere, Shaboozey is nominated in the melodic rap performance category for his feature on Beyoncé’s “SPAGHETTII.” Linda Martell, the first commercially-successful Black woman musician in country, is also featured on the song, delivering the 83-year-old artist her first Grammy nomination.
For record of the year, “Texas Hold ‘Em” will compete against Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” Eilish’s “Birds of a Father,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”, Carpenter’s “Espresso,” Charli XCX’s “360,” and the Beatles last new song, the AI-assisted “Now and Then.”
“We’re trying to make sure we’re keeping up with how music creators and our community are using technology. And in this case, AI enhanced the record and allowed it to be eligible in the categories that it was eligible in,” Mason jr explains.
Dolly Parton scored her 55th career nomination in the audio book, narration, and storytelling recording category for her “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones,” news The Associated Press broke to the country music legend Friday morning. “No! What did I get nominated for?” she cheered over the phone. “Oh, well, that’s cool. I thought it would be for my rock album, I’d take it.
“It feels good. I’m always appreciative of everything. I don’t work for that, but it’s always good to say `you’ve done good work,’ and for somebody to acknowledge that. So, I’m always proud of every award I get and every mention I get. That just makes me feel like I’m doing the right thing.”
She’s up against producer Guy Oldfield, George Clinton, Barbra Streisand and Jimmy Carter, who could become the oldest Grammy award winner in history at 100.
So, what’s missing? Like last year, there’s a huge dearth of Latin music – the fastest growing streaming genre in the United States – across the board, and no representation in the major categories. There are also only four entries in the best Musica Mexicana album category, despite it also being one of the fastest growing genres.
And K-pop, too, seems to be absent. There are no nominations for the BTS members who’ve released solo material this year: RM’s “Right Place, Wrong Person,” J-Hope’s “Hope on the Street, Vol. 1,” and Jimin’s “Muse.” As a boy band, BTS has received five nominations across their career.
“I definitely see room for improvement across many genres and we are continuing to invite people to be a part of the academy,” Mason jr. says. “Without the right representation we don’t get the right results. When I say right, I mean reflective and representative of what’s happening in music today. So, the work continues.”
The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
With files from Canadian Press