The music of Black Panther, with Kendrick Lamar in its starring role, officially owns the 2019 Grammy Awards, where women are heavily represented in the major four categories following a year where their presence was barely felt.
The Recording Academy announced on Friday that Lamar is the top contender with eight nominations, including seven for his musical companion to the Marvel Studios juggernaut starring Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan. Black Panther: The Album, Music From and Inspired By is up for album of the year, a category where women make up five of the eight nominees.
Kendrick Lamar led the 2019 Grammy Award nominations.Credit:AP
Cardi B, Kacey Musgraves, Janelle Monae, H.E.R. and Brandi Carlile also are up for the top prize, along with Drake and Post Malone.
The upcoming Grammys is the first where the academy extended its top four categories from five nominees to eight.
The Panther nomination would give Lamar a chance to win album of the year after losing three times. His most recently loss was in February when his critically acclaimed DAMN fell short to Bruno Mars' 24K Magic, though Lamar's project would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for music two months later, making him the first non-classical or jazz artist to win the prestigious honor.
Music from the film Black Panther gives Lamar a chance to win his first Grammy award for album of the year.Credit:AP
Lamar's Top 10 hit, the SZA-assisted All the Stars, is nominated for both record and song of the year (a songwriter's award). Five other songs scored nominations in both categories, including Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's Shallow from A Star Is Born; Childish Gambino's This Is America; Drake's God's Plan; Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey's The Middle; and Carlile's The Joke.
Ella Mai's Boo'd Up and Shawn Mendes' In My Blood earned song of the year nods, while Post Malone's Rockstar and Cardi B's I Like It, featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, round out the nominees for record of the year.
Cardi B was nominated for several gongs, including album of the year.Credit:AP
Following Lamar, Drake – the year's most successful artist – earned seven nominations. Though nominated for album of the year, he was surprisingly shut out of best rap album, where his rival Pusha T earned a nomination.
Drake's frequent collaborator, producer Boi-1Da, earned six nods, as did Carlile, who also scored nominations in the American Roots category.
Cardi B, Gaga, H.E.R., Morris, Gambino, producer Sounwave and engineer Mike Bozzi scored five nominations each.
The nominees for the 2019 Grammys mark a departure from this year's show, where women were underrepresented in the top four categories. Of the eight best new artist nominees, six are women, including H.E.R., Chloe x Halle, Dua Lipa, Margo Price, Bebe Rexha and Jorja Smith. Rock band Greta Van Fleet and country singer Luke Combs also earned nominations.
Recording Academy chief executive Neil Portnow was criticised earlier this year at the Grammys when he said women need to "step up" when asked about the lack of women in the top categories, which he later acknowledged was a "poor choice of words". It forced the academy to launch a new task force focused on inclusion and diversity; Portnow also announced he would be leaving the academy in 2019.
H.E.R. received five nominations including for breakthrough artist of the year.Credit:AP
Another milestone for women is in the non-classical producer of the year category, where songwriting extraordinaire Linda Perry earned a nomination. She's just the seventh woman ever nominated for prize and first since 2004.
"Linda represents what we hope becomes the norm, which is the elimination of gender bias in producing and engineering in our industry," Portnow said.
Perry will compete with Pharrell Williams, Boi-1Da, Larry Klein and Kanye West, the only nomination he earned.
Linda Perry was nominated for non-classical producer of the year.Credit:AP
Taylor Swift, a two-time album of the year winner, also only earned one nomination – her reputation album is up best pop vocal album. Justin Timberlake, whose Man of the Woods albums flopped earlier this year, picked up a nod for Say Something, his collaboration with Chris Stapleton.
Beyonce and Jay-Z, billed as The Carters, as well Ariana Grande, didn't earn any of the big nominations. The Carters earned two nods in the R&B category along with best music video, while Grande picked up two nods in pop.
Artists who were completely snubbed include Carrie Underwood, Sam Smith, Migos, Kane Brown, Nicki Minaj, XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD, whose Lucid Dreams was one of the year's biggest hits.
Beyonce and Jay-Z weren’t nominated in any of the major categories.Credit:AP
Other famous faces outside of music to earn nominations include Tiffany Haddish and former US president Jimmy Carter, both up for best spoken word album. Mac Miller, who died in September, earned a nomination for best rap album with Swimming.
Demi Lovato, who relapsed after six years of sobriety and was hospitalised for an overdose in July, earned a nomination for best pop duo/group performance for Fall In Line, her duet with Christina Aguilera.
The 2019 Grammys will hand out awards in its 84 categories live from the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on February 10, 2019.
The full list of nominations is here.
Key award nominations
Record Of The Year
- I Like It – Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin
- The Joke – Brandi Carlile
- This is America – Childish Gambino
- God's Plan – Drake
- Shallow – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
- All The Stars – Kendrick Lamar & SZA
- Rockstar – Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage
- The Middle – Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey
Album Of The Year
- Invasion of Privacy – Cardi B
- By The Way, I Forgive You – Brandi Carlile
- Scorpion – Drake
- H.E.R. – H.E.R.
- Beerbongs & Bentleys – Post Malone
- Dirty Computer – Janelle Monáe
- Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves
- Blank Panther: The Album, Music From and Inspired By – (Various Artists)
Song Of The Year
- All The Stars – Kendrick Duckworth, Solána Rowe, Al Shuckburgh, Mark Spears & Anthony Tiffith, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar & SZA)
- Boo'd Up – Larrance Dopson, Joelle James, Ella Mai & Dijon McFarlane, songwriters (Ella Mai)
- God's Plan – Aubrey Graham, Daveon Jackson, Brock Korsan, Ron LaTour, Matthew Samuels & Noah Shebib, songwriters (Drake)
- In My Blood – Teddy Geiger, Scott Harris, Shawn Mendes & Geoffrey Warburton, songwriters (Shawn Mendes)
- The Joke – Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
- The Middle – Sarah Aarons, Jordan K. Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Marcus Lomax, Kyle Trewartha, Michael Trewartha & Anton Zaslavski, songwriters (Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey)
- Shallow – Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
- This Is America – Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino)
Best New Artist
- Chloe X Halle
- Luke Combs
- Greta Van Fleet
- H.E.R.
- Dua Lipa
- Margo Price
- Bebe Rexha
- Jorja Smith
AP
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