On Friday, nominations for the 2025 Grammys were announced and with it came a lot of surprises and new contenders. It also broke records with a certainly not new contender, Beyonce. Beyonce surpassed her husband, Jay-Z, to become the most nominated artist in Grammy history, with 99. She received 11 nominations this year for her album, Cowboy Carter.
Other Grammy darlings had strong years as well. Taylor Swift received six nominations and Billie Eilish received seven. Newcomers also had big openings to the Grammy stage, Sabrina Carpenter received six nominations, including Best New Artist. Fellow Best New Artist nominee Chappell Roan also received six. The girls had a great year overall, making up six of eight of the Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year nominees.
Left out of the main categories, however, was Ariana Grande, who was considered a contender for Album of the Year with eternal sunshine. She also received no nominations for “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” which was one of the biggest hits of the year.
Album of the Year had two big surprises, with nominations for Andre 3000’s New Blue Sun, a fully instrumental flute album. Also receiving a nomination was Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4, which was poorly received by audiences and currently holds a user score of 36 on Album of the Year.
This year, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan joined a league only 13 other artists have achieved, nominations in all the main categories in one year. Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet scored a nomination for Album of the Year, with Carpenter getting nominated for two different songs for Record and Song of the Year, with “Espresso” and “Please Please Please”, respectively.
Charli XCX also had her first big year at the Grammys, receiving seven nominations for her huge album Brat.
Surprising snubs took place outside the main categories as well, specifically in the rap and R&B categories. Megan Thee Stallion, with her album MEGAN and single “HISS” went without a single nomination, despite “HISS” going number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Nicki Minaj and her album Pink Friday 2 received no nominations, adding on to her already controversial Grammys history as she has never won a Grammy in her career.
Rap also had some disappointing nominations with J. Cole and Eminem. Eminem’s album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) is considered by many to be one of his worst and not worthy of a Best Rap Album nomination in comparison to other artists. J. Cole also received a controversial Best Rap Album nomination for his album Might Delete Later which includes a diss against Kendrick Lamar that was received so poorly that he apologized for it days later.
The Grammys also continue to nominate Chris Brown for some ungodly reason. The R&B categories were pretty weak considering the year some artists had. Chris Brown should definitely not be here.
Jack Antanoff was also left out of the Producer of the Year category, despite having production credits on two of the Album of the Year nominees, and winning the category for the last three years.
Now, the question is; who is going to win? Well, it’s time for way too early predictions.
For all of the main categories, there are eight nominees, some with a better chance than others. In Album of the Year, the nominees are as follows: New Blue Sun by André 3000, Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter, Brat by Charli XCX, Djesse Vol. 4 by Jacob Collier, Hit Me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan, and The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift.
Starting off with the albums that have nearly no chance of winning the Grammy, Andre 3000’s New Blue Sun and Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4. These two albums were a shock to many to even get nominated as Andre 3000’s album is fully instrumental and Jacob Collier’s album is fully bad. Many didn’t even consider them as options for a nomination and they definitely are not going to win the nomination either.
Now, all that’s left is just a battle of the girls, with newcomers and seasoned pros alike. All of them have a chance, but some have their faults.
Starting with least likely to win is Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet. Carpenter gave us a very solid pop album to solidify herself as a main pop girl who is here to stay. However, the album itself did not make as much noise as its singles and wasn’t groundbreaking enough to be Album of the Year. Her potential is there, however, and we will see her in this category again in the near future.
Next is Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. A similar story to Carpenter, her singles were year-defining, but the album itself took a while to establish itself on its own. A fantastic album nonetheless and a win would finish off the fantastic first year that Roan has had in the public eye.
Now, the best of the best, all of the remaining albums have a great chance to win Album of the Year and are all deserving.
If any album were to define this year, it would be Charli XCX’s Brat. “Brat summer” was an era all on its own and Charli capitalized on it in every way. That includes the Grammy-nominated remix of “Guess” with fellow nominee Billie Eilish. The song capped off the epic year the “Brat” era had, and without it, we probably wouldn’t see Brat in this category. Brat was used in many companies’ marketing campaigns, as well as the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris. But, will the Academy equate the era’s success to the music itself? We’ll find out in February.
Speaking of eras, the next album belongs to the queen of eras, Taylor Swift. This February, at the last Grammys, Swift announced her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. It’s now nominated for Album of the Year, her seventh nomination in the category, the most for a female artist ever. She also has the most wins in the category of any artist in history, with four. She won for the fourth time this past February with Midnights and because of that, it’s unlikely she’ll take it for a second year in a row. It also received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, considered by many to be one of her weaker albums.
However, that is not shown in its numbers. It had the second-biggest debut of all time on the Billboard charts, only behind 2017’s Album of the Year winner “25”. It also was the most streamed album in a single day on Spotify, smashing the record with more than 300 million streams in 24 hours. This album may have only stayed within the fanbase in the months following its release, but Swift has one of the largest fanbases in music history so even if it only stayed popular in her bubble, it’s still a massive bubble, an Album of the Year sized bubble.
Coming up just short is Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter. Cowboy Carter received 11 nominations and is absolutely a top competitor, but controversy is going to hold it back from winning. For starters, her husband, Jay-Z, took time out of his Grammy’s acceptance speech this year to ‘call out’ the Grammys for Beyonce never winning Album of the Year. Beyonce is the winningest artist in Grammys history, with 29 wins, but she has never won for Album of the Year. She controversially lost to Adele in 2017, where Adele took time out of her speech to praise Beyonce’s Lemonade. Her album, Renaissance, also surprisingly lost in 2023, to Harry Styles’s Harry’s House.
This year, if the Academy were to give Beyonce the win, it would seem like a pity win following Jay-Z’s rant at this year’s Grammys. It also didn’t have the moment needed for Album of the Year. The album had its success in the month it came out but hasn’t really been discussed since then, especially when compared to some of the other nominees. The album is sonically perfect with some of the best vocals of Beyonce’s career, but controversy and a lack of longevity will cause her to come up just short again.
That leaves just one album, this year’s Album of the Year, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft.
Eilish is a Grammy darling, winning nine since her Grammy debut five years ago, where she swept the “Big 4” categories of Album, Record, Song and Best New Artist, with her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
This year, she released her third studio album, along with its massive hit “Birds of a Feather.” The album is a ten song masterpiece and is arguably Eilish’s best. Even its non-singles are massive hits with “Wildflower” currently charting in the top ten on the global Spotify charts despite not being a single.
The album had no pre-released singles but when the album was released, “Lunch” was the lead single. However, it became very apparent that “Birds of a Feather” was going to be a hit song. Currently, it has nearly 1.5 billion streams on Spotify and is No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at No. 2.
Eilish continues to never miss on her albums, all three of them have been nominated for Album of the Year, and this one is no exception.
It will be a battle and most have their deserving qualities, but right now Hit Me Hard and Soft IS Album of the Year.
