To the surprise of absolutely no one who knows anything about the music industry, Grammy Awards voters showed mad love for Taylor Swift in the nominations announced Friday for the 66th annual ceremony scheduled to take place Feb. 4.
Somewhat of a surprise, though, Swift fell behind New Jersey R&B singer SZA for total nominations. The "Kill Bill" hitmaker, aka Solána Rowe, landed nine nominations total with her innovative and infectious 2023 album "SOS."
SZA and Swift are among a group of women under 40 who dominated the leading album, song and record of the year categories. Others included Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monáe, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and the Phoebe Bridgers-co-helmed trio Boygenius.
One well-known Minnesota musician, Dan Wilson of Semisonic fame, is up for two awards as a songwriter: country song of the year as the co-writer of Chris Stapleton's "White Horse;" and another for song of the year with former "Late Show With Stephen Colbert" bandleader Jon Batiste's on the single "Butterfly." Wilson already won in the major song of the year category once in 2007 for his work on "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Chicks (then the Dixie Chicks).
The only other Minnesota performer on the list was Bob Dylan for best historical album with "The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments — Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997)."
Wilson is also vicariously involved with Batiste's nomination in the biggest Grammy category, album of the year, with "World Music Radio." Other nominees for album of the year were: Boygenius' "The Record," Cyrus' "Endless Summer Vacation," Del Rey's "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd," Monáe's "The Age of Pleasure," Rodrigo's "Guts," SZA's "SOS" and Swift's "Midnights."
"Midnights" came out in October 2022, just a few weeks too late to be eligible for this past year's Grammys. One of the singles from it, "Anti-Hero" — co-written with her regular producer Jack Antonoff — is also up for record and song of the year.
Swift is now tied with Barbra Streisand for the most nominations by a female artist in the best album category with six. If she wins, she'll be the first artist to earn the honor four times.
Grammy voters largely ignored one of the year's most successful performers, country singer Morgan Wallen, who faced a short backlash in 2021 for being caught on tape saying racial slurs but was rebooted by country music fans to No. 1 over the past year.
In lieu of Wallen's work, the nominees for best country album include Zach Bryan's and Brothers Osborne's self-titled LPs, Kelsea Ballerini's "Rolling Up the Welcome Mat" and Tyler Childers' "Rustin' in the Rain" — none of which showed up in the major categories.
Already a Grammys favorite at only 21, Eilish did not have an eligible album this year, but her song for the "Barbie" movie soundtrack, "What Was I Made For?" — also likely another Oscar contender for her — is up for both the song and record ("recording" of a song) categories.
The best artist category was led by young women, too, with Ice Spice, Gracie Abrams, Victoria Monét and Coco Jones, along with veteran gospel-soul duo the War and Treaty, Fred Again and probable front-runners Noah Kahan and Jelly Roll.
The annual ceremony will be held Feb. 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. To be eligible for consideration, a recording must have been released between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 15, 2023.
Here's a rundown of the year's top categories:
Album of the Year:
"World Music Radio" — Jon Batiste
"The Record" — Boygenius
"Endless Summer Vacation" — Miley Cyrus
"Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" — Lana Del Rey
"The Age of Pleasure" — Janelle Monáe
"Guts" — Olivia Rodrigo
"Midnights" — Taylor Swift
"SOS"— SZA
Record of the Year
"Worship" — Jon Batiste
"Not Strong Enough" — Boygenius
"Flowers" — Miley Cyrus
"What Was I Made For?" [From the Motion Picture "Barbie"] — Billie Eilish
"On My Mama" — Victoria Monét
"Vampire" — Olivia Rodrigo
"Anti-Hero" — Taylor Swift
"Kill Bill" — SZA
Song of the Year
"A&W" — Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Rey & Sam Dew, songwriters (Lana Del Rey)
"Anti-Hero" — Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)
"Butterfly" — Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson, songwriters (Jon Batiste)
"Dance the Night" (From "Barbie the Album") — Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Dua Lipa)
"Flowers" — Miley Cyrus, Gregory Aldae Hein & Michael Pollack, songwriters (Miley Cyrus)
"Kill Bill" — Rob Bisel, Carter Lang & Solána Rowe, songwriters (SZA)
"Vampire" — Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters (Oliva Rodrigo)
"What Was I Made For?" [From the Motion Picture "Barbie"] — Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)
The Associated Press contribute to this report.
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