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Grammy nominations 2020: Biggest snubs and surprises
Taylor Swift fans may need to calm down after the Grammy shade she received this morning.
When the full list of nominations for the 62nd annual Grammy Awards was announced early Wednesday, the “You Need to Calm Down” singer only scored one nomination in the Big Four categories: Song of the Year for “Lover.” Surprisingly, in the biggest snub, Swift’s latest LP, “Lover,” failed to notch either Album or Record of the Year nods.
And for Swift, a two-time Album of the Year winner (for 2008’s “Fearless” and 2014’s “1989”), that’s not the type of love she’s used to getting from the Grammys (or the MTV Video Music Awards, for that matter), although she did nab two other nominations in smaller categories.
Still, there was plenty of girl power represented, with the top fields boiling down to a battle of the divas between Lizzo who leads all nominees with eight — Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, H.E.R. and Lana Del Rey.
As expected and deserved, Lizzo and Eilish earned slots in all of the Big Four categories: Both are up for Best New Artist, while Eilish’s “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” will go up against Lizzo’s “Cuz I Love You” for Album of the Year. Then Lizzo’s controversial “Truth Hurts” will square off against Eilish’s “Bad Guy” for both Record and Song of the Year.
And if they swept all of those prizes, I would be feeling good as hell.
Grande’s “thank u, next” also vies for Album of the Year against two somewhat surprising contenders in H.E.R.’s “I Used to Love Her” and Del Rey’s “Norman F—-king Rockwell.”
But the multi-talented H.E.R., already a two-time Grammy winner, has clearly become a Recording Academy fave, picking up her second consecutive Album of the Year nomination in two years. And her Record and Song of the Year noms for “Hard Place” have put this R&B artist in the right place.
It’s a shame, though, that Grande’s Record of the Year nomination is for “7 Rings” instead of “thank u, next,” which was such a killer single for her. The ponytailed pop princess will face off for Record of the Year against the 2019 juggernaut that was “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
Surprisingly, Lil Nas X, tied with Eilish for the second-most nominations (six), also received an Album of the Year nod for his EP “7,” which clocks in at a mere 19 minutes. Now that’s what I’d really call “lil.”
Lil Nas X is also nominated for Best New Artist, but sorry cowboy, that one’s shaping up as a two-way race between Lizzo and Eilish, although both singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers and Spanish sensation Rosalía are also worthy contenders.
And Swift can take heart that another superstar, Beyoncé, was completely shut out of the major categories for both her “Homecoming” live album and “The Lion King: The Gift,” although the latter received three other nominations.
That will most likely mean no Bey in the house when the Grammys go down on Jan. 26. And for that, we’re all losers.
This article was written by Chuck Arnold for New York Post
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