Beyonce tops 2017 Grammy nominations with Lemonade, Drake, Rihanna, Kanye West and Adele all feature

SIA and Keith Urban are set to fly the Australian flag at the Grammys after picking up nominations overnight. But who scored the most nods?

THE Grammy Awards are sipping all of Beyonce’s Lemonade as the singer leads the 2017 Grammy nominations with nine nods.

Beyonce’s nominations include album of the year with Lemonade, and song and record of the year with Formation.

The singer, who already has 20 Grammys, is also the first artist to earn nominations in the pop, rock, R & B; and rap categories in the same year.

Behind Beyonce are Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West, who scored eight nominations each.

Drake has received eight Grammy nominations. Picture: AP

Like Beyonce, Adele is also nominated for album, record and song of the year. For album of the year, Lemonade and 25 — which has sold 10 million copies in a year — will compete against Drake’s multi-hit Views, Justin Bieber’s redemption album Purpose and surprise nominee A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, the third album from respected and rebellious country singer Sturgill Simpson.

Beyonce’s Formation and Adele’s Hello are up against Rihanna and Drake’s Work, Twenty One Pilots’ Stressed Out and Lukas Graham’s 7 Years for record of the year.

Rihanna also received eight Grammy nominations. Picture: AP

7 Years is also up for song of the year — a songwriter’s award — battling Bieber’s Love Yourself, co-written with Ed Sheeran, Mike Posner’s I Took a Pill In Ibiza, as well as Beyonce and Adele’s songs.

Beyonce’s nine nominations include best rock performance (Don’t Hurt Yourself with Jack White), pop solo performance (Hold Up), rap/sung performance (Freedom with Kendrick Lamar) and urban contemporary album (Lemonade).

Some good news for Kanye West who received eight Grammy nominations. Picture: AFP

With 62 nominations over the years, Beyonce is the most-nominated women in Grammy history.

“Artists are feeling emboldened and courageous and just wanting to step out of the predictable boundaries of what they have done. Of course, (Beyonce) is the poster child for that,” Recording Academy CEO and President Neil Portnow said.

Adele, who has five nominations, is up for best pop vocal album (25) and pop solo performance (Hello).

David Bowie, who died in January, picked up four nominations. Picture: Getty

The Grammys will be presented in Los Angeles on February 12.

David Bowie, who died from cancer in January, earned four nominations for his final album Blackstar, including best rock performance, rock song, alternative music album and engineered album, non-classical.

“I think this is beyond sort of the sympathy vote, because sometimes you’ll see those kinds of things happen just ‘cause people feel sorry about it. But listen to (his) album — it’s quite extraordinary,” Mr Portnow said of Bowie.

Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth was a surprise nominee for Album of the Year, particularly given last year he slagged off the Grammys. Picture: Splash

This year the Recording Academy allowed streaming-only recordings — released on paid-subscription platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal but not for sale on iTunes — to be eligible for nominations, giving Chance the Rapper a fair chance. The breakout performer scored seven nominations including best new artist, pitting him against country singers Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini; singer-rapper Anderson Paak; and pop-EDM duo the Chainsmokers, whose recent hits include Closer and Don’t Let Me Down.

Justin Bieber has been nominated for his album Purpose. Picture: AP

Chance the Rapper earned three nominations for best rap song: His hit, No Problem, is nominated, and he has writing credit on the Kanye West songs Famous and Ultralight Beam. West will compete with himself in three categories: best rap song, rap performance and rap/sung performance.

Chance’s Coloring Book and West’s The Life of Pablo are nominated for best rap album along with Drake’s Views, De La Soul’s And the Anonymous Nobody, DJ Khaled’s Major Key and Schoolboy Q’s Blank Face LP.

Musician Magnus Larsson of Lukas Graham, which was nominated for their song 7 Years. Picture: Getty

Sturgill, who had been nominated for best Americana album at the 2015 Grammys, also sees his nine-track album nominated for best country album. Sturgill was in a bit of controversy this year when he posted on Facebook that the Academy of Country Music Awards should not have created an award named after Merle Haggard when he felt they never showed true love to the country outlaw, who died this year. He closed his long post saying: “(Expletive) this town. I’m moving.”

Sturgill’s album is up against Loretta Lynn’s Full Circle, Keith Urban’s Ripcord, Morris’ Hero and Brandy Clark’s Big Day In a Small Town.

Lori McKenna, who won a Grammy this year for co-writing Little Big Town’s Girl Crush, is nominated for best country song for penning Tim McGraw’s Humble and Kind.

She also scored nominations for best Americana album, American Roots performance and American Roots song for her own work.

Acts tying McKenna and Bowie for four nominations include Bieber, Morris, Kirk Franklin, engineer Tom Coyne, and producer-songwriters Max Martin, Greg Kurstin, Benny Blanco and Mike Dean.

Joey and Rory Feek have been nominated for a Grammy. Sadly Joey passed away in March. Picture: Splash

Tyler Joseph, the lead vocalist of Twenty One Pilots and the duo’s main songwriter, scored five nominations for Stressed Out (record of the year, pop duo/group performance) and Heathens (best rock song, rock performance and song written for visual media); Twenty One Pilots, which includes drummer Josh Dun, earned three nods.

Some well-known acts scored their first Grammy nominations, including Solange, Blink-182 and Demi Lovato, who will compete against Adele, Bieber, Sia and Ariana Grande for best pop vocal album.

Aussie Keith Urban was nominated for a Grammy Award. Picture: James Croucher

Amy Schumer earned two nominations, including best spoken word album and comedy album. Deceased nominees include Joey Feek of the duo Joey + Rory (best gospel roots album for Hymns).

About 13,000 Recording Academy members voted in the 84 Grammy categories from 22,000 submissions.

Songs and albums released from October 1, 2015 through September 30 were eligible for nomination.

Amy Schumer, pictured with Goldie Hawn, has been nominated for a Grammy, but not for her spoof of Beyonce’s Formation. Picture: Youtube.

Originally published as Beyonce tops 2017 Grammy nominations with Lemonade, Drake, Rihanna, Kanye West and Adele all feature