Beyoncé, Adele, Kendrick Lamar lead 2023 Grammy nominations

Beyoncé, Adele, Kendrick Lamar, Brandi Carlile, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Mary J. Blige and more are all in the running to collect music's top prizes this coming February at the 65th annual Grammy Awards.

Beyoncé picked up four awards last year, bringing her total to 28 and making her the most decorated woman in Grammy history. At the 2023 ceremony, she will have nine opportunities to add to this total: The 41-year-old star is the top nominee for this year's edition, with all but one of her nods coming for her No.1 album Renaissance.

She leads a pack that includes Kendrick Lamar, with eight nominations; Adele and Brandi Carlile, with seven apiece; and Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled and the producer and songwriter The-Dream, with six each, the Recording Academy announced this evening (1pm Los Angeles time).

The awards will be held on Feb. 5 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles in what the Academy is surely hoping will be its return to normal after two years of delays and complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Beyoncé’s nominations are in each of the three big all-genre categories — album of the year, plus record and song of the year for her single 'Break My Soul' — as well as in the dance/electronic field and in R&B, where her tracks 'Virgo’s Groove' (R&B performance), 'Plastic Off the Sofa' (traditional R&B performance) and 'Cuff It' (R&B song) were all recognised.

She is also up for best song written for visual media for 'Be Alive, from the film King Richard.

Beyoncé now has a career total of 88 nominations — tying Jay-Z, her husband, for the most received by any artist in the history of the awards. Jay-Z had held the record with 83 nods, but earned five more this year, for contributions to Renaissance and DJ Khaled’s God Did.

If Beyoncé takes three awards in February (which seems like a given) she will match the classical conductor Georg Solti for the most Grammy wins by any artist. The living legend is tied for second place in that race, with Quincy Jones.

Surprisingly, Beyoncé has won only once in any of the four most prestigious categories: as a credited songwriter of 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),' which took song of the year in 2010.

The artist will once again face Adele in multiple contests, including album of the year, which Renaissance going up against Adele’s 30. Record and song of the year will also see the fierce competition between 'Easy On Me' and 'Break My Soul'.

In 2017, Adele’s 25 beat Beyoncé’s Lemonade in a contest for album of the year. Accepting the award, a tearful Adele said, “I’m very grateful and gracious, but my artist of my life is Beyoncé.”

This year’s other nominees for album of the year include Kendrick Lamar, for Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, his return after five years; Styles’s Harry’s House; Lizzo’s Special; Carlile’s In These Silent Days; Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous; Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres, Bad Bunny’s excellent Un Verano Sin Ti and ABBA's Voyage. It marks the Swedish foursome’s first new album in 40 years.

Un Verano Sin Ti was a streaming blockbuster and the year’s best-selling album so far. It's the first release performed entirely in Spanish to be up for album of the year. Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican star, is the top nominee at the Latin Grammys on Thursday, with 10 nominations.

Record of the Year will see 'Easy On Me' and 'Break My Soul' compete against Styles' 'As It Was', Lizzo's hit 'About Damn Time', Doja Cat's 'Woman', Lamar's 'The Heart Part 5', Carlile's 'You and Me on the Rock' featuring Lucius, ABBA's 'Don't Shut Me Down', Blige's 'Good Morning Gorgeous' and Steve Lacy's breakout hit and US No.1 'Bad Habit'.

Taylor Swift’s 'All Too Well (10 Minute Version)', DJ Khaled’s 'God Did', Bonnie Raitt's 'Just Like That', Gayle's 'abcdefu', 'The Heart Part 5', 'About Damn Time', 'As It Was', Easy On Me' and 'Break My Soul' are also up for the songwriters' award Song of the Year.

The ballot for best new artist includes up-and-comers and established stars like Anitta, Omar Apollo, Domi & JD Beck, Samara Joy, Latto, Maneskin, Muni Long, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle and Wet Leg.

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, who won both record and song of the year in the most recent ceremony for their soul throwback project Silk Sonic, declined — “gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually” — to submit their album An Evening With Silk Sonic.

And the Weeknd has kept to his promise, made in 2021 when After Hours failed to receive any nominations, to boycott future submissions. Drake, who withdrew his name from the 2022 awards after the nominations were announced, has four nods as a featured artist or writer this time.

Last year, the Recording Academy eliminated most of its nominating committees — anonymous groups of academy-appointed experts who whittled down the choices of its voting members to decide which artists made the cut in dozens of categories.

The ballots include only the selections by the 11,000 music professionals who are voting members of the academy, Harvey Mason Jr., the organisation’s chief executive, said in an interview.

“With the nomination committees being removed, it’s a pure vote from our voter members,” Mason said. “The top vote-getters get the nominations. That’s it, end of story, period.”

Among the other changes this year is a new award, songwriter of the year (non-classical), intended to recognise writers who create songs for other artists to perform. The addition was long sought by the class of professional songwriters.

In its first year, nominations for the new songwriter award have gone to Amy Allen (for songs performed by Lizzo, Styles and others); Nija Charles (Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa, Beyoncé); Tobias Jesso Jr. (Adele, Styles); The-Dream (Beyoncé, Brent Faiyaz); and Laura Veltz (Maren Morris, Demi Lovato).

Ozzy Osbourne is nominated for best rock album, alongside the Black Keys, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Machine Gun Kelly, Idles and Spoon.

Alternative music performance includes Wet Leg, Arctic Monkeys, Florence + the Machine, Big Thief and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers and God Did are up for best rap album, alongside Future’s I Never Liked You, Jack Harlow’s Come Home the Kids Miss You and Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry.

Miranda Lambert, Luke Combs, Ashley McBryde and Maren Morris will face the 89-year-old Willie Nelson for best country album.

Mel Brooks and Lin-Manuel Miranda will compete in the best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording category alongside Questlove, Viola Davis and Jamie Foxx.

Viola Davis has received a #GRAMMYs nomination for Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording.

If she wins, she will officially become an EGOT winner. pic.twitter.com/6m3QGtYVZT

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) November 15, 2022

Major snubs thus far are Rosalía for MOTOMAMI and K-pop acts like Blackpink.