It will be a diva duel at the 59th annual Grammy Awards: Hip-hop queen Beyonce is headed for a face-off with British pop superstar Adele in three of the four top categories.
Meghan Trainor, the 2016 best new artist recipient, announced nominations in the four so-called general field slots on Tuesday “CBS This Morning.”
Beyonce’s widely praised million-selling collection “Lemonade” is pitted against Adele’s 10 million-seller “25” in the Album of the Year category. Beyonce’s politically-edged hit “Formation” (written by Beyonce, Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan and Michael L. Williams II) and Adele’s ubiquitous single “Hello” (penned by Adele and Greg Kurstin) will compete for honors as Song of the Year, a writer’s award, and Record of the Year, awarded to artist, producers, engineers and mixers.
Overall, Beyonce leads the nominations with nine bids, followed by Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West, with eight apiece. Chance The Rapper grabbed seven noms.
Filling out the Album of the Year slot are pop singer Justin Bieber’s “Purpose,” Canadian rapper Drake’s “Views,” and alternative country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson’s “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.”
Also up for Record of the Year are Danish pop quartet Lukas Graham’s “7 Years,” R&B singer Rihanna’s “Work” (a collaboration with Drake) and Ohio pop twosome Twenty One Pilots’ “Stressed Out.”
Other Song of the Year nominees include pop singer Mike Posner’s “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” Bieber’s “Love Yourself” (written by Bieber, Benjamin Levin and Ed Sheeran), and Lukas Graham’s “7 Years” (penned by Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Pilegaard and Morten Ristorp).
Competing for the Best New Artist crown are country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini, DJ duo The Chainsmokers, Chicago hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper, country singer-songwriter Maren Morris and Southern California rapper Anderson .Paak.
The year’s dueling divas are no strangers to Recording Academy voters. With a track record dating back to her days as a member of the R&B act Destiny’s Child, Beyonce has reaped 20 Grammy wins, but only one of them has been in a so-called “big four” general-field category – she took Song of the Year honors in 2009 as co-writer of her hit “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).” She has otherwise prevailed in rap and R&B slots.
A 10-time winner, Adele is a rarity among Grammy winners, for she has found success in all four of the major categories: Named Best New Artist in 2009, she took home Album, Record and Song of the Year laurels in 2012 for her sophomore album “21” and its hit single “Rolling in the Deep.” “25” is her second consecutive album to go ten-times-platinum, a sales achievement without equal
A potential spoiler in the big fields could be Drake, an oft-nominated star with just one Grammy win to date, for best rap album “Take Care” in 2013.
But, in the run-up to today’s nominations, most Grammy-savvy pundits have viewed 2017’s competition for the major awards as a two-horse race, between a hip-hop veteran long denied triumph in the most prestigious categories and the young Brit superstar who has pulled off almost unimaginable commercial feats in the space of just five years.
The year’s other major nominees are troubled rapper Kanye West (with eight nods, but again shut out of the big awards, except for featured artist work on Drake’s “Views”), Rihanna (eight), Chance the Rapper (seven) and twenty one pilots vocalist Tyler Joseph (five).
One widely lauded and emotionally received album is consigned to nominations in genre categories: The title track of David Bowie’s album “Blackstar,” released two days before the veteran British star’s death in January, received nods for best rock performance and best rock song, while the collection was tabbed as best alternative music album.
Nominated as non-classical producer of the year were Greg Kurstin (for tracks by Sia, Adele, Tegan and Sara and Ellie Goulding), Benny Blanco (for his work with Bieber, Major Lazer, Francis and the Lights, Tony Lanez and Cashmere Cat), Max Martin (for numbers by Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, Pink, Katy Perry and Adele), Nineteen85 (for tracks by DJ Khaled, Drake, PartyNextDoor, James Vincent McMorrow, dvsn and Drake) and Ricky Reed (for songs by Meghan Trainor, Phantogram, 5 Seconds of Summer, Fitz and the Tantrums and DJ Snake).
Acknowledged in the best score soundtrack for visual media slot were “Bridge of Spies” (Thomas Newman), “Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight” (Ennio Morricone), “The Revenant” (Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto), “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (John Williams) and two separate volumes of music from the Netflix series “Stranger Things” (Kyle Dixon and Michael Klein).
Receiving nods as best compilation soundtrack for visual media were “Amy,” “Miles Ahead,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “Suicide Squad” and the HBO series “Vinyl.”
In the running for best song written for visual media are “Can’t Stop the Feeling” (from “Trolls”), “Heathens” and “Purple Lamborghini” (from “Suicide Squad”), “Just Like Fire” (from “Alice Through the Looking Glass”), “Try Everything” (from “Zootopia”) and “The Veil” (from “Snowden”).
Collecting nods as best musical theater album were multiple Tony winner “Kinky Boots,” the Steve Martin-Edie Brickell collaboration “Bright Star,” revivals of “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Color Purple” and pop singer Sara Bareilles’ “Waitress.”
The 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards will air live on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. James Corden will serve as the show’s host, which will be broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Source: Variety.com