Beyoncé at the 65th Grammy Awards, February 2023.LAPRESSE
Superstar Beyoncé topped the list of Grammy nominees with 11 nominations, including for Album of the Year for her new country album Cowboy Carter, Reuters reports.
She is followed by Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone, each with seven nominations. Taylor Swift is also among the leaders, as well as newcomers Chappelle Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, who received six nominations each. The new selection of nominations brings Beyoncé’s career total to 99 nominations – more than any other artist. Previously, she shared this record with her husband, rapper Jay-Z, who had 88 nominations.
The Album of the Year category, the main Grammy award, was dominated by women. Despite her many nominations, Beyoncé has never won the award for best album. Jay-Z has previously highlighted this injustice, pointing to the lack of recognition for black artists.
Taylor Swift, who has already won the highest award four times, will compete for it again with her new album The Tortured Poets Department. Beyoncé will be competing with her album at the ceremony in February, as well as works by Carpenter (“Short n’ Sweet”), Charli XCX (“Brat”), Billie Eilish (“Hit Me Hard and Soft”) and Roan (“The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess”). Among the men in the nomination are rapper Andre 3000 with his album “New Blue Sun” and jazz artist Jacob Collier with “Djesse Vol. 4”.
The winners will be chosen by about 13,000 members of the Recording Academy – musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers and other professionals. The organisation noted that 38% of its members are from different ethnic groups, which is 65% more than in 2019.
According to experts and fans alike, Cowboy Carter is a tribute to the forgotten heritage of black Americans in country music and culture in general. It also became the first album by a black singer to reach number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts after its release last spring.
