Grammy Awards reduce big four categories to 8 nominees for 2024

After the expansion of the Grammy Awards' big four categories to 10 nominees in 2022, the Recording Academy has decided to reduce this number to 8 in 2024.

The big four Grammy categories consist of Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. These categories were previously limited to eight nominees each up until 2022, when they were expanded to 10 nominees. Up until 2018, there were only 5 nominees per category.

The Recording Academy has since decided to reverse this decision, announcing on Friday that the number of nominees for all four categories be lowered to eight for next year’s Awards.

The number of nominees for the Album of the Year award will further dwindle as a result of a newly introduced eligibility rule: A featured musician, producer, songwriter, or engineer on an album will need credits on at least 20 percent of a nominated album to get the nod. For 2022, that percentage fell from the usual 33 percent to zero, meaning any contributor would get in on the nomination.

Three new categories were added by the Academy earlier this week: Best Alternative Jazz Album, Best Pop Dance Recording, and Best African Music Performance.

Two categories—producer of the year, nonclassical; and songwriter of the year, nonclassical—have also been moved into the general field. This means all voting members can now vote on them. It is the first time the Academy has added new categories to the general field since 1959.

The Grammys have also updated their rulebook to prohibit AI-generated music from being nominated or winning awards without a significant element of Human Authorship.

Last year's awards saw success for the likes of Harry Styles and Lizzo. Harry’s House took Album of the Year, Lizzo’s ‘About Damn Time’ won Record of the Year, ‘Just Like That’ by Bonnie Raitt won Song of the Year, and Samara Joy was crowned Best New Artist.