2018 Grammy Awards: Jay-Z, Bru

2018 Grammy Awards: Jay-Z, Bruno Mars dominate the nominations

It’s the male artists that lead the pack as far as the nominations are concerned.

2018 Grammy Awards: Jay-Z, Bru

The nominees for the 2018 Grammy Awards were announced on Tuesday and it was rapper Jay-Z who got the most nods as he was nominated eight times, thanks to his critically acclaimed comeback release 4:44.

The New York rapper is in line for three of the “big four” categories awards as he was nominated for album of the year, record of the year and song of the year. The best new artist category was the only one of these four he was not nominated for – only missing out on qualification by a mere 21 years and 12 prior albums.

Kendrick Lamar and Bruno Mars follow with seven and six nominations respectively, while SZA is the most nominated woman with five nods, the same number as Khalid, Childish Gambino and No I.D.

The four men all feature in the nominees for both record and album of the year, while the title track from Jay-Z’s album is also nominated for song of the year alongside rapper Logic’s poignant 1-800-273-8255 and Luis Fonsi’ Despacito.

SZA will be up against Khalid, Alessia Cara, Lil Uzi Vert and Julia Michaels for best new artist.

The nominations list in the all-encompassing big categories is dominated by hip hop and RnB, and could be the Recording Academy’s response to the criticism it faced in the last edition of these prestigious awards when Beyonce’s critically acclaimed Lemonade album was snubbed in favour of Adele’s 25. 

This resulted in calls for black artists to boycott the awards as the Academy was accused of racism.

In the genre-based categories, best pop album is dominated by the usual suspects in Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, P!nk, Ed Sheeran and Ke$ha while veterans like Bob Dylan and Tony Bennett get a nod in best traditional pop vocal album.

Chris Cornell got a posthumous nomination in the best rock performance category alongside Leonard Cohen and the Foo Fighters.

The award ceremony will be held on Sunday, 28 January 2018.

Also read: Billboard Hot 100, November 28 2017: Post Malone keeps top spot, Eminem and Bey chart at 14