Grammys 2024: Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, SZA and U2 to star at ceremony

Whisper it quietly… however may the Grammy Awards get it proper this yr?

The ceremony, which takes place in Los Angeles on Sunday, is infamous for scoring personal objectives, usually rewarding middle-of-the-road heritage acts over cutting-edge, up to date pop.

However this yr’s nominees are straight-down-the-line populist picks, with R&B star SZA main the sector on 9.

There may even be performances from large names starting from Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish to Joni Mitchell and U2.

Comic Trevor Noah will host for the fourth yr operating, overseeing a staggering 94 classes, from finest up to date Christian album to finest audiobook, the place Michelle Obama will sq. off towards Meryl Streep.

Elsewhere, Phoebe Bridgers’ indie-rock supergroup Boygenius, and pop star Victoria Monét have seven nominations every.

Chart stars Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey and Ice Spice even have a number of nominations in a female-led area.

Listed below are 9 issues to know forward of the occasion.

Initially, brew a powerful pot of espresso.

The Grammys are awards offered by the Recording Academy of the US for excellent achievement in music.

Greater than 80 will likely be handed out in what’s referred to as the “premiere ceremony” at 20:30 GMT on Sunday (12:30 in Los Angeles).

It is usually value tuning in. The winners within the extra obscure classes are much less polished and extra enthusiastic about profitable, and the performances are looser and, dare I say it, extra musical than the Hollywood-scale set items you will see later.

The principle present, which can begin at 01:00 Monday GMT, will likely be broadcast stay within the US on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus. Speeches and choose performances are often uploaded to YouTube the next day.

If Swift wins album of the yr for Midnights, she is going to turn out to be the primary ever artist to carry the celebrated trophy 4 occasions.

In the mean time, she’s tied with Paul Simon, Stevie Surprise and Frank Sinatra, who every have three wins.

However the Grammys have sometimes been much less keen on Swift’s pop information than her forays into nation and folks.

Her competitors for album of the yr is powerful. This is the total record of nominees:

Trendy-day superstars Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo will little question placed on lavish performances of their large hits.

However the present is more likely to be stolen by two different feminine artists who’ve largely been out of the general public eye lately.

Joni Mitchell is assured a reception worthy of a dwelling legend when she makes her debut Grammys efficiency on the age of 80.

And Tracy Chapman is closely rumoured to be making a really uncommon public look to hitch nation star Luke Combs on her 1988 traditional Quick Automobile, which he took again to the charts final yr.

The evening’s different performers will embrace Billy Joel, Travis Scott and Burna Boy.

Within the US, SZA’s second album SOS topped the charts for 10 weeks and marked the singer’s ascension to the main league.

Born in Missouri and raised in New Jersey, the singer – actual identify Solána Imani Rowe – skilled in marine biology earlier than launching her music profession.

If her newest album picks up a Grammy, it can additionally imply a win for a 20-year-old music producer from Scotland.

Blair Ferguson, who writes below the identify BLK Beats, wrote the music for her hit single Snooze in his Glasgow bed room, and it went on to promote greater than two million copies within the US.

“SZA is only a genius and she or he’s capable of rework any file with the best way she comes up with a melody,” he instructed BBC Information. “I do not suppose some other artist may have made that observe.”

The most effective rock track class is a tradition conflict for the ages, as Olivia Rodrigo’s punky Ballad Of A Homeschooled Lady faces off towards The Rolling Stones’ Indignant, a story of a lovers’ quarrel.

So who’s the face of rock ‘n’ roll in 2024? The Grammys prefer to reward longevity, however perhaps they will be swayed by Rodrigo’s rock revivalism, which has helped to ignite the primary resurgence in guitar music in over a decade.

It is a robust area, with Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age additionally within the operating. However the actual contenders should be Boygenius.

Shaped by indie songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, final yr they made an era-defining guitar album, stacked with spectral harmonies and poetic lyrics.

Nominated in all the main classes in addition to the rock subgenres, it could possibly be this yr’s runaway winner.

A brand new class, finest African music efficiency, displays the rising prominence of genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano but additionally “Africa’s profound affect on music historical past”, in keeping with the Grammys.

The inaugural nominees – who would beforehand have slugged it out on the earth music class – embrace Nigerian stars Burna Boy, Asake, Ayra Starr and Davido, alongside breakout South African singer Tyla.

“Truthfully, particularly the Grammys is a large accolade,” stated Tyla, who scored a world hit with Water on the finish of 2023.

Two different new awards have additionally been launched for 2024 – finest various jazz album and finest pop dance recording.

Regardless of her storied profession, Miley Cyrus is but to win a Grammy, and had solely been nominated twice prior to now.

Nonetheless this yr, the SFKAHM (Singer previously often known as Hannah Montana) has six nominations for her all-grown-up pop album Infinite Summer time Trip.

Lead single Flowers, which was the biggest-selling track within the UK final yr and topped the US Billboard charts for eight weeks, is up for file and track of the yr, and finest pop vocal efficiency.

However in a powerful yr for unhappy ladies singing pop songs, she may depart empty-handed once more.

Nation had an enormous resurgence within the US final yr. Streams of the style rose 20%, and final August the highest three positions within the Billboard Sizzling 100 have been occupied by nation songs for the primary time.

However none of these artists – Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan – are nominated within the Grammys’ largest, all-genre classes.

Actually, no nation album has been nominated for album of the yr since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour 5 years in the past (which received the award).

So what is going on on? It appears to be a response to the political and racial undertones of the style’s largest stars.

Voters are cautious about Wallen due to a headline-making incident in 2021, the place he was caught on digicam utilizing a racial slur.

With Aldean, the politics have been embedded in his track, Attempt That in a Small City – a narrative of vigilante justice that some listeners interpreted as having racial undertones.

Aldean denied these accusations, however apologised when it transpired he’d filmed the video in entrance of a Tennessee courthouse that had been the scene of a brutal lynching in 1927.

Whereas stars like Jason Isbell and Zach Bryan made considerate songs that challenged Nashville’s extra regressive tendencies, they have been additionally shut out of the massive prizes.

It appears the Academy, with typical warning, has determined to steer clear.

A mere 21 years after releasing his first track, Tennessee singer Jelly Roll is up for finest new artist.

The musician, whose actual identify is Jason DeFord, is not a conventional contender for the class, however his latest transfer from the underground to the mainstream makes him eligible below Grammy pointers.

A convicted prison and former drug vendor, he has served a number of stints in jail and lately testified earlier than the US Congress in help of anti-fentanyl laws.

His emotional tales of dependancy and redemption lastly propelled him into the charts final yr after a later-career pivot from rap into nation music.

At 39, he could be the oldest-ever winner of the very best new artist trophy – overtaking Sheryl Crow, who was 33 on the evening of her victory in 1995.

However that is nothing in comparison with the Latin Grammys, which gave a finest new artist trophy to 95-year-old Angela Alvarez in 2022.