Beyoncé reigns over grammy nominations…but can she win?

The pop-R&B superstar is now tied with her husband Jay-Z for most nominations in Grammy history. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift nabs song of the year nod for the 10-minute ‘All Too Well.’

Beyonce. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The pop-R&B superstar is now tied with her husband Jay-Z for most nominations in Grammy history. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift nabs song of the year nod for the 10-minute ‘All Too Well.’

Will Beyoncé—one of the most celebrated music stars of the 21st century—finally conquer the Grammy Awards? That’s the question looming over next year’s ceremony, which takes place Feb. 5 in Los Angeles and is shaping up to be the most competitive in years.

The Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys, announced its nominations on Tuesday. Pop-R&B superstar Beyoncé has more nominations than any other artist, with nine nods, including in top categories like album of the year (for “Renaissance,” her highly-regarded homage to dance music) and record and song of the year (for “Break My Soul,” its lead single).

That brings her to a total of 88 career-wide nominations. Beyoncé is now tied with her husband Jay-Z for the most nominations in Grammy history. (He picked up five this year.) Beyoncé is already the most-awarded female Grammy winner, with 28 awards. If she wins four more, she will break the record for most Grammy wins of any recipient.

Despite her extremely long list of nods and wins, Beyoncé has only won one of the four most prestigious Grammys (album of the year, song and record of the year, best new artist) in her roughly 25-year career as a solo artist and member of R&B group Destiny’s Child. In 2010, she won song of the year for her chart-topper “Single Ladies.” In other words, nearly all of Beyoncé’s wins have been in lower-profile genre-specific categories such as best R&B performance and best urban contemporary album.

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“I think she’s had a great year,” said Harvey Mason Jr., president of the Recording Academy. Asked if this could be the year Beyoncé receives the recognition many in the music business have long sought for her, he joked: “Every year feels like it’s Beyoncé’s year.”

Other heavily nominated artists this year include Kendrick Lamar (eight); Adele and Americana singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile (seven each); and Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled, Future, mastering engineer Randy Merrill, Harry Styles and R&B producer and singer-songwriter The-Dream (six each).

Kendrick Lamar. Photo by Erika Goldring/FilmMagic

When Beyoncé competed with her critical and commercial smash “Lemonade” back in 2017, she lost album of the year, the top prize, to Adele. The British vocal powerhouse, in one of the more memorable moments in recent Grammys history, reluctantly accepted her award, praising “Lemonade” and referring to Beyoncé as the “artist of my life.”

Beyoncé and Adele are now vying for the award again, which is especially competitive this year: Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar is nominated for “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” It’s the fourth consecutive time a Kendrick Lamar studio album has earned this nod—he’s never actually won. If he does, “Mr. Morale” would make history as the first rap album to win album of the year since Outkast in 2004—a head-scratching drought given rap’s domination of pop music over the past decade.

Meanwhile, pop star Harry Styles, who is also nominated for album of the year, for “Harry’s House,” has become one of live music’s biggest draws. His album’s lead single, “As It Was,” has, like The Weeknd’s recent hit “Blinding Lights,” been ubiquitous, a rarity in today’s atomized, fragmented music-listening culture. Then there’s Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny. His album, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” is a streaming juggernaut and currently the biggest album of 2022 in the U.S., by consumption metrics, even though it’s performed in Spanish. It is the first album categorized as Latin to ever compete for album of the year.

Making things more complicated is the Grammys’ expansion of nominations, starting last year, to 10 nominees from eight for the top awards. That helps the Recording Academy bestow recognition on a more diverse and inclusive array of nominees. But it also leads to vote-splitting that makes it harder for artists to take prizes home.

Mason said “this year is very competitive” but attributed that partly to the increased diversity of the nominees for the top awards.

Nearly half of this year’s leading nominees are women, and more than half are people of colour, Mason said. Again this year, many artists from R&B and hip-hop are vying for top awards, compared with earlier years. There’s also less traditional or mainstream rock than in prior eras.

Taylor Swift. Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV

Another shift: Most of this year’s nominees for best new artist are non-household names, as opposed to superstars who are widely known and simply awaiting coronation by Grammy voters.

Among the nomination highlights: Taylor Swift is up for four awards, including song of the year, for her 10-minute version of “All Too Well.” The fan-favorite track appears on her recent rerecording of her 2012 album “Red.” While she’s won album of the year three times, including last year, Swift has never won song of the year. The 10-minute version of “All Too Well” is eligible because it contains more than 50% fresh material, effectively making it a new song for award purposes. (Swift’s latest album, “Midnights,” was released after the Grammys’ eligibility window.)

Hip-hop soul singer Mary J. Blige, who performed at the Super Bowl halftime show earlier this year, earned high-profile nominations for album of the year and record of the year; rapper Pusha T is up for best rap album. Indie-rock act Big Thief has a nod for best alternative music album. One potential source of grumbling may be the lack of major nominations for Spanish pop singer-songwriter Rosalίa, whose “Motomami” album is the most positively-reviewed record of the year, according to reviews aggregator Metacritic.

Nominations for this year’s 91 awards were culled from 16,741 eligible entries. There are five new award categories, including “songwriter of the year, non-classical,” which is similar to “producer of the year, non-classical” and an attempt to boost recognition of songwriters. Another new category is “best score soundtrack for videogames and other interactive media.” There’s also a new “best song for social change” award, whose winner will be announced in February.

It’s a non-regular award, similar to a lifetime achievement award. As such, the Recording Academy on Tuesday was not planning to release the nominees for it. But Academy officials are discussing whether to issue a short-list of the nominees, so that more musicians can be recognised, Mason said.

Here’s a list of nominees in the top four categories:

Record Of The Year

• “Don’t Shut Me Down” — ABBA 
• “Easy On Me” — Adele 
• “Break My Soul” — Beyoncé 
• “Good Morning Gorgeous” — Mary J. Blige 
• “You And Me On The Rock” — Brandi Carlile Featuring Lucius 
• “Woman” — Doja Cat 
• “Bad Habit” — Steve Lacy 
• “The Heart Part 5″ — Kendrick Lamar 
• “About Damn Time” — Lizzo 
• “As It Was” — Harry Styles 

Album Of The Year 

• “Voyage” — ABBA 
• “30” — Adele 
• “Un Verano Sin Ti” — Bad Bunny 
• “RENAISSANCE” — Beyoncé 
• “Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe)” — Mary J. Blige 
• “In These Silent Days” — Brandi Carlile 
• “Music Of The Spheres” — Coldplay 
• “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” — Kendrick Lamar 
• “Special” — Lizzo 
• “Harry’s House” — Harry Styles 

Song Of The Year

• “abcdefu” — GAYLE 
• “About Damn Time” — Lizzo 
• “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (The Short Film)” — Taylor Swift
• “As It Was” — Harry Styles
• “Bad Habit” — Steve Lacy
• “BREAK MY SOUL” — Beyoncé 
• “Easy On Me” — Adele
• “God Did” — DJ Khaled Featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy 
• “The Heart Part 5” — Kendrick Lamar
• “Just Like That” — Bonnie Raitt

Best New Artist

• Anitta 
• Omar Apollo 
• DOMi & JD Beck 
• Samara Joy 
• Latto 
• Måneskin 
• Muni Long 
• Tobe Nwigwe 
• Molly Tuttle 
• Wet Leg