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, modern pop.

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

There may also be performances from huge 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 greatest modern Christian album to greatest audiobook, the place Michelle Obama will sq. off in opposition to 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 discipline.

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

To begin with, brew a robust pot of espresso.

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

Greater than 80 shall 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 price tuning in. The winners within the extra obscure classes are much less polished and extra enthusiastic about successful, and the performances are looser and, dare I say it, extra musical than the Hollywood-scale set items you will see later.

The primary present, which is able to begin at 01:00 Monday GMT, shall be broadcast stay within the US on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus. Speeches and choose performances are normally uploaded to YouTube the next day.

If Swift wins album of the yr for Midnights, she’s going to develop into 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 usually been much less concerned with Swift’s pop information than her forays into nation and people.

Her competitors for album of the yr is robust. This is the total checklist of nominees:

Trendy-day superstars Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo will little question placed on lavish performances of their huge 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 basic Quick Automobile, which he took again to the charts final yr.

The night time’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 title Solána Imani Rowe – educated 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 beneath the title 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 he or she’s capable of remodel any file with the way in which she comes up with a melody,” he advised BBC Information. “I do not assume some other artist may have made that monitor.”

One of the best rock tune class is a tradition conflict for the ages, as Olivia Rodrigo’s punky Ballad Of A Homeschooled Lady faces off in opposition to The Rolling Stones’ Indignant, a story of a lovers’ quarrel.

So who’s the face of rock ‘n’ roll in 2024? The Grammys wish 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 discipline, with Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age additionally within the operating. However the actual contenders need to 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 might be this yr’s runaway winner.

A brand new class, greatest African music efficiency, displays the rising prominence of genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano but additionally “Africa’s profound affect on music historical past”, in accordance 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 big 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 – greatest various jazz album and greatest pop dance recording.

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

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

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

However in a robust yr for unhappy women singing pop songs, she may depart empty-handed another time.

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 had 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’ greatest, 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 greatest stars.

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

With Aldean, the politics had been embedded in his tune, 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 had been additionally shut out of the large prizes.

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

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

The musician, whose actual title is Jason DeFord, is not a standard contender for the class, however his latest transfer from the underground to the mainstream makes him eligible beneath Grammy tips.

A convicted legal and former drug supplier, he has served a number of stints in jail and lately testified earlier than the US Congress in assist 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 night time of her victory in 1995.

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