The 66th annual Grammy Awards are almost upon us, and music fans the world over are preparing to sound off about the wins and injustices that come from the music industry’s biggest night.
The awards rarely passes without some form of controversy, but the Grammys will hope nothing overshadows the massive night of entertainment they have planned this weekend.
When are the Grammys?
The broadcast of the 66th Grammy Awards ceremony will take place at 8pm US ET on Sunday 4 February.
For Australian audiences, that will be midday AEDT on Monday 5 February.
How can I watch the Grammys?
Channel Seven have the rights to broadcast this year’s Grammy Awards in Australia. You can catch it live on Channel 7 and 7plus from noon AEDT on Monday 5 February.
You can also keep up with all the action on the ABC News live blog, where we’ll be unpacking the biggest wins, most surprising snubs, and the key performances from the ceremony. There may be a little snark too.
Who is performing?
A who’s who of music from across multiple eras will appear on the Grammys stage this year.
Here’s who you’ll see:
- SZA, who is up for more awards than anyone else at this year’s Grammys.
- Recent Hottest 100 dominator Olivia Rodrigo.
- Billy Joel, who has just released his first new music in decades.
- Controversial hip hop star Travis Scott.
- U2, who will beam in live from Las Vegas’ high-tech venue Sphere.
- Nigerian superstar Burna Boy
- The incredible Tracy Chapman, who has performed live only a handful of times since 2009, will join country luminary Luke Combs for a version of her classic Fast Car.
It wouldn’t be an awards ceremony without Barbie. The film will be represented via Billie Eilish, who is nominated for six Grammys and Dua Lipa, whose contribution has her nominated for two awards.
While there’s no headline act at award ceremonies, we can’t imagine a more hotly anticipated performance than that from Joni Mitchell.
The legendary folk singer has never performed at a Grammys ceremony before. In fact, she’s barely performed at all since her last tour way back in the year 2000.
Mitchell has suffered from life-threatening illnesses in the past few years. She has long battled with the rare Morgellons disease, which forced her to stop working at the start of the 2000s. In 2015, she suffered a brain aneurysm that rendered her unable to walk or talk.
Recently, she’s performed with an all-star band, cobbled together by singer Brandi Carlile, who we’d expect to see up on stage with Joni at the Grammys.
As for who else will join her? Time will tell. Her recent guests have included everyone from Sarah McLachlan to Marcus Mumford to Annie Lennox.
Who is up for the most Grammys this year?
This one is easy: SZA.
The 34-year-old American R&B star had her biggest year yet in 2023 in the wake of the December 2022 release of her second album SOS.
She’s up for nine awards, including the big ones like Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year.
It’s daylight second, with indie rock icon Phoebe Bridgers, R&B singer Victoria Monét, and audio engineer Serban Ghenea (who goes up against his son Alex in the Best Pop Dance Recording category) all up for seven awards apiece.
What are the main categories, and who is nominated for them?
There are no fewer than 94 categories covering everything from Best Album to Best Classical Instrumental Solo, but the focus is on three main categories, two of which are kinda confusing.
Record of the Year is awarded to the performing artist, producer, and engineer of a song. So, it’s essentially about the recorded version of that song.
Song of the Year, on the other hand, is awarded to the songwriter. It’s an award for the composition of a song, rather than its recording.
Album of the Year is pretty self-explanatory, right? Just about everyone involved — songwriters, artists, engineers etc. — get a nod in that category.
Here’s the field. For the sake of brevity, we’ve just listed the artist and their work.
Song of the Year:
- A&W by Lana Del Rey
- Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift
- Butterfly by Jon Batiste
- Dance the Night by Dua Lipa
- Flowers by Miley Cyrus
- Kill Bill by SZA
- Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo
- What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish
Record of the Year:
- Worship by Jon Batiste
- Not Strong Enough by boygenius
- Flowers by Miley Cyrus
- What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish
- On My Mama by Victoria Monét
- Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo
- Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift
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
Are any Australians up for awards?
Yes!
Pop icons Kylie Minogue and Troye Sivan are up against each other in the Best Pop Dance Recording for their respect 2023 dancefloor filling anthems Padam Padam and Rush.
Sivan’s Rush is also up for Best Music Video for and only has to knock off unknown artists like The Beatles, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar to win.
Dom Dolla recently took out two spots in the top five Hottest 100 of 2023, and he’s off to the Grammys this year where he’s nominated for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.
Funny fellas Tripod and art-pop sensation Jess Cerro (aka Montaigne) are also up for a Grammy for their work on the soundtrack to the musical video game Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical.
They are up for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, and you can read more about that work here.
Guitar god Tommy Emmanuel is up for his third Grammy this year.
The version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues that he recorded with John Carter Cash, Markus Illko, Janet Robin and Roberto Luis Rodriguez is up for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella.
Who is hosting? Who is presenting?
Hosting an awards ceremony is a bit of a hot potato these days. Thankfully for the Grammys, former Daily Show host Trevor Noah has agreed to take on the job for the fourth year running.
Here’s the list of presenters:
- Meryl Streep
- Lenny Kravitz
- Mark Ronson
- Christina Aguilera
- Maluma
- Samara Joy
- Lionel Richie
- Oprah Winfrey
- Taylor Tomlinson
Who to look out for?
The winners of the aforementioned big three categories are always tough to predict.
One thing is certain: it will take a serious upset for song or album performed by a man to win those big trophies this year.
Jon Batiste is the only male nominee in these three categories, and he’s up against heavy hitters like Taylor Swift, SZA, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, boygenius, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monáe, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo.
That said, Batiste did take out Album of the Year in 2022, beating out Swift, Eilish, Rodrigo, and other superstars like Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, and Kanye West. He could pull it off again.
The Grammys has long copped flak for its overwhelmingly white winners list for these big awards, as pundits question why groundbreaking works from artists like Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Kendrick Lamar have missed out on the biggest Grammys in recent years.
Will that change in 2024?
Another hotly contested award this year is Best New Talent.
While many might feel as though it’s New York rapper Ice Spice‘s award to lose, the world-dominating UK producer Fred again, American folk-pop singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, and R&B songwriting powerhouse Victoria Monét won’t make it easy for her.
No matter who wins, you can just expect some controversy.