NEW YORK (AP) – It could be a night for the history books for Taylor Swift and Beyoncé during Sunday’s Grammy Awards – for both good and bad reasons.
Swift could become the first woman to win the top prize, the album of the year, three times. Her first surprise album of 2020 – the folk-like, alternative adventure “folklore”, competes for the honor, an award she first won in 2010 for “Fearless”, her breakthrough that helped establish her as a bona fide pop star, although she sang country music. She won again in 2016 for ‘1989’, her first full-length pop album to dominate the hit with an abundance of hits.
Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon are among the male artists who have won the album of the year three times. Producers or engineers have also won the award three times, including Phil Ramone, Ryan Tedder, David Foster, Bob Ludwig, Serban Ghenea and others.
The only person to have won the award four times is engineer Tom Coyne, who passed away in 2017.
Beyoncé has never won an album of the year in her career – she is not honored for this year because she did not release a project during the fitness period – but she is the most nominated act. With 24 wins and nine nominations this year, she could surpass Alison Krauss’ 27 wins and become the most decorated woman in Grammys history.
Beyoncé’s “Black Parade” garnered nominations such as Record and Song of the Year, as well as Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance, while her guest appearance in Megan Thee Stallion’s’ Savage ‘bid for the record of the year, best rap performance and best rap song.
Beyoncé holds the record for most Grammy nominations for a female actor, with 79. She and Paul McCartney have a second place among all Grammy nominees, just behind Quincy Jones and Jay-Z, who each earned 80 nods.
The royal family of music can walk away with a number of victories for their home. Jay-Z was co-author of “Black Parade” and “Savage”, which nominated him for Song of the Year, Best R&B Song and Best Rap Song. He has won 22 Grammies throughout his career.
Their daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, is nominated along with her mother for best music video for “Brown skin girl.” Ivy Carter delivers a vocal performance on the song and appears in the video; she is also listed as co-author of the song with Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Ivy Carter (9) may become the second youngest person to ever win a Grammy. Leah Peasall was eight when The Peasall Sisters won Album of the Year at the 2002 show for their appearance in the T Bone Burnett-produced “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. ‘Brown Skin Girl’, a song celebrating brown and dark-skinned women, won several awards from Ivy Carter, including two Soul Train Music Awards, a BET Award and a NAACP Image Award.
Although Beyoncé was able to experience a historic evening, history can repeat itself and she cannot win an award – a common occurrence for R&B and rap artists in Grammy history. Of her 24 wins, only one was for one of the four biggest Grammys, songs of the year. She lost the album of the year three times and the record of the year five times.
Jay-Z has never won an award, and he and his wife join a list of mostly black artists limited to victories in the rap and R&B category, including Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Drake, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige and more.
This year, The Weeknd was the one that was bullied. Despite the biggest hit of 2020 with ‘Blinding Lights’ and a best-selling, multi-hit album, he did not earn any nominations. He has won three Grammys so far – in the R&B categories only – but he has promised to boycott the Grammys because he does not agree with how the Recording Academy chooses its winners..
The album of the year award is given to only two rap-based performances – Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx / The Love Below.” Although rap is the most popular genre today, no rap album has achieved a nomination for the top award this year. A rap song was never awarded as the song of the year or the record of the year, until Childish Gambino made history in 2019 with ‘This Is America’.
Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” could be the second hip-hop song to win the record of the year.
Megan Thee Stallion could also become the first female rapper to win the best rap song. The Houston rapper, with D Smoke, Chika and Doja Cat, could also become the fifth rap-based act to win the best new artist. Their competition includes Phoebe Bridgers, Noah Cyrus, Kaytranada and Ingrid Andress, which could only become the fourth industry of country music to win.
Other women who could make history on Sunday include Grace Potter, who has the chance to be the first female artist to win the best rock album in more than two decades, and sister trio HAIM, the first female rock band to be nominated for the album of the year.
Although 84 awards will be handed out – about ten during the live broadcast and the rest during the pre-ceremony – viewers are likely to watch the performances.
About two dozen performances will take place in downtown Los Angeles, including Swift, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, BTS, Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, Dua Lipa, Post Malone, Chris Martin, Lil Baby , John Mayer, Maren Morris and Doja Cat.
Trevor Noah will present the program, which airs at 20:00 pm Eastern on CBS and Paramount +. The Grammys were originally scheduled for January 31, but were pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Artists competing with Swift for Album of the Year include Coldplay, Post Malone, Dua Lipa, Jhené Aiko, HAIM, Jacob Collier and Black Pumas.
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