2022 Grammys: Jon Batiste, HER and Justin Bieber lead nominations

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X also among those with multiple nominations in top categories

The highly versatile, socially conscious pianist, singer and composer Jon Batiste has topped this year’s Grammy nominations, with 10 nods.

Batiste’s nominations straddle everything from the top prizes of record and album of the year, to inclusions across R&B, jazz, roots and classical categories. His score for animated film Soul, made with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, is also nominated, as are the directors of his music video Freedom.

Continue reading...

Historic wins for Nomadland – and surprise victory for Anthony Hopkins – at odd Oscars

Chloé Zhao made history as the first woman of colour to win best director with her drama about van-dwellers as Hopkins and Frances McDormand won top acting honours

During an unusual Oscars ceremony, on-the-road drama Nomadland triumphed with a win for best picture, best actress and a historic victory for Chloé Zhao, becoming the first woman of colour to be named best director and only the second woman ever.

The film, starring Frances McDormand as a woman living out of her van and interacting with real-life nomads, took home the top trophy near the end of a delayed night and a delayed season amid the pandemic. The ceremony played out in person but with safety precautions and a modest guest list.

Continue reading...

The Grammys’ diverse winner list isn’t box-ticking – these are terrific artists | Alexis Petridis

While questions rightly remain over its shadowy nominations process, Grammy voters should be praised for honouring a large number of women and people of colour

The Grammys always attract a degree of controversy. This year, there was singer Teyana Taylor protesting that “all I see is dick” in the all-male nominations for best R&B album, and a slightly peculiar statement from Justin Bieber, asking to be considered an R&B artist rather than a pop singer. More headlines were grabbed by the Weeknd, understandably shocked that his double-platinum album After Hours, and its accompanying single Blinding Lights – a song so omnipresent that it recently celebrated an entire year in the US Top 10 – didn’t receive a single nomination: he subsequently announced he would stop his label submitting his music in future. The latter’s complaint revolved around a lack of transparency in the voting process: the presence of nomination committees that retain executive power over who makes the shortlists and who hold the ability to add artists who have received no nominations in many of the Grammys’ categories.

The argument about transparency isn’t going to go away – if your voting process involves a shadowy and apparently unanswerable cabal who exert control over the nominations, you should probably expect people to look askance at it – but, the absence of the Weeknd aside, the actual winners in the Grammys’ big categories brooked little argument.

Continue reading...