She’s unstoppable.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour broke Ticketmaster servers and set all kinds of records for the biggest-grossing tour and most-elated concertgoers ever. Her Eras Tour movie became the biggest concert film of all time. She was the only artist to have three No. 1 songs on the Hot 100 in 2023. She surpassed Elvis Presley for the most appearances at No. 1 on the album charts for a solo artist.
Oh, yeah, Taylor Swift also was named Time magazine person of the year. And now she’s headed to the Super Bowl, not as a performer, but as the gal pal of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Well, the Grammy Awards on Sunday may end the Taylor juggernaut before the San Francisco 49ers even get a chance.
Her “Midnights” is a finalist for album of the year. If she triumphs, she will become the first artist to capture four album-of-the-year trophies. And she’s only 34.
She is the betting favorite, with a 70% chance of winning, according to ActionNetwork.com. She’s the favorite for everything at the moment, isn’t she? But will the Grammy voters crown her?
Each of Swift’s three previous winners in this category — “Fearless,” “1989″ and “Folklore” — broke new artistic ground for her. “Midnights,” while a laudable project about late-night musings that was the runaway bestseller among this year’s nominees, didn’t have quite the “wow” factor of her previous Grammy grabbers. It’s not a defining era, so to speak, and she’s whiffed in these finals twice previously (with “Red” and “Evermore”). Still, she has the kind of momentum right now that Michael Jackson had in the “Thriller” era.
Let’s look at Swift’s competition. There is Jon Batiste, the only man among the eight finalists in a category totally dominated by women for the first time. He surprised pundits when he snagged the best album Grammy in 2022 for his debut, “We Are.” It was far from a bestseller; in fact, it was rather low-profile. A dark horse contender, he was known chiefly as the bandleader on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” But voters admired his craft. And, when it comes to the Grammys, craft often trumps sales or popularity.