Grammy Awards 2024: Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, SZA and Joni Mitchell to star at ceremony

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

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

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

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

Comedian Trevor Noah will host for the fourth yr working, overseeing a staggering 94 classes, from finest modern 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.

Here are 9 issues to know forward of the occasion.

First of all, brew a powerful pot of espresso.

More than 80 awards can be handed out in what’s known as the “premiere ceremony” at 20:30 GMT on Sunday (12:30 in Los Angeles).

It’s usually price 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.

You can watch the entire thing on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on dwell.grammy.com.

The fundamental present, which can begin at 01:00 Monday GMT, can be broadcast dwell 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’s going to change into the primary ever artist to elevate the celebrated trophy 4 instances.

At the second, she’s tied with Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra, who every have three wins.

But the Grammys have sometimes been much less all in favour of Swift’s pop information than her forays into nation and people.

Her competitors for album of the yr is powerful. Here’s the total listing of nominees:

Modern-day superstars Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo will little doubt placed on lavish performances of their huge hits.

But the present is probably going to be stolen by two different feminine artists who’ve largely been out of the general public eye in recent times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blair Ferguson, who writes underneath 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 just a genius and she’s able to transform any record with the way she comes up with a melody,” he instructed BBC News. “I don’t think any other artist could have made that track.”

The finest rock tune class is a tradition conflict for the ages, as Olivia Rodrigo’s punky Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl faces off towards The Rolling Stones’ Angry, a story of a lovers’ quarrel.

So who’s the face of rock ‘n’ roll in 2024? The Grammys like to reward longevity, however possibly 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’s a powerful area, with Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age additionally within the working. But the actual contenders have to be Boygenius.

Formed 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 most important classes in addition to the rock subgenres, it might 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 in addition “Africa’s profound influence on music history”, in accordance to the Grammys.

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

“Honestly, specifically the Grammys is a huge accolade,” mentioned Tyla, who scored a worldwide hit with Water at the tip of 2023.

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

Despite her storied profession, Miley Cyrus is but to win a Grammy, and had solely been nominated twice previously.

However this yr, the SFKAHM (Singer previously often known as Hannah Montana) has six nominations for her all-grown-up pop album Endless Summer Vacation.

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 finest pop vocal efficiency.

But in a powerful yr for unhappy women singing pop songs, she might depart empty-handed yet again.

Country 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 Hot 100 had been occupied by nation songs for the primary time.

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

In reality, no nation album has been nominated for album of the yr since Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour 5 years in the past (which gained 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 had been embedded in his tune, Try That in a Small Town – 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.

While 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 massive 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 finest new artist.

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

A convicted legal and former drug supplier, he has served a number of stints in jail and not too long ago testified earlier than the US Congress in help of anti-fentanyl laws.

His emotional tales of habit 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 perfect new artist trophy – overtaking Sheryl Crow, who was 33 on the evening of her victory in 1995.

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