"A Beautiful Noise" - Ruby Amanfu, Brandi Carlile, Brandy Clark, Alicia Keys, Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Linda Perry & Hailey Whitters, songwriters (Alicia Keys And Brandi Carlile)."Bad Habits" - Fred Gibson, Johnny McDaid & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Ed Sheeran).Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe) - Justin Bieber.Love For Sale - Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga."Montero" (Call Me By Your Name) - Lil Nas X."I Get A Kick Out Of You" - Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga.Last year's broadcast ceremony television audience shrunk 53% from its 2020 numbers to 8.8 million viewers, the lowest broadcast audience the awards ever received. 31 - shifted from its traditional Sunday night perch to a Monday evening. The awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on Jan. The nominations announcements were, for the first time, simply livestreamed on the Recording Academy's website, and did not earn any broadcast airtime on CBS as in previous years. The "big four" awards - Record of the Year, Song of the Year (a songwriting prize), Album of the Year and Best New Artist - now include 10 nominees apiece, up from eight slots in 2020 and only five in 2016. (NPR correspondent Anastasia Tsioulcas, one of the reporters for this story, is a former Grammy voter and judge.)Īdditionally, a host of well-known Black artists, including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator have spoken out about concerns that Black performers are frequently overlooked in the most prominent award categories, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist. The group had come under heavy criticism for an insular, secretive process of specialist committees that pared down huge fields of potential nominees to a final, select few in most of the Grammys' dozens of categories. This year's roster is the first since the Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammy Awards, made significant alterations to the nominations process.
The leading nominee for this year is bandleader, pianist and composer Jon Batiste, who was nominated in 11 dizzyingly wide-flung categories, including Album of the Year (for his album We Are), Record of the Year (for the song "Freedom"), Best R&B Album (also for We Are), Best Jazz Instrumental Album (for his album of music from and inspired by the Disney/Pixar film Soul), Best American Roots Song ("Cry") and Best Contemporary Classical Composition, for his piece Movement 11'. For others, it may just sound like bland reappropriation.Nominees for the 64th annual Grammy Awards were announced on Tuesday. For some listeners, Marian Hill's cool, at-arms-length earnestness will come off as wry, art-school juxtaposition. The main crux is that Gongol, while technically a fine singer, lacks the believable swagger, warmth, and organic, swinging phrasing of singers like Beyoncé or even Sade, whose moody, emotionally bare style is an obvious touchstone for the band. Admittedly, as conceptually interesting as Marian Hill can be, their particular brand of electronic soul can sometimes feel awkward and square. Elsewhere, tracks like "Down" and "Bout You" have a sultry warmth that sounds like a '90s Brandy track remixed down to its barest essential elements. Occasionally they come close, and cuts like "Talk to Me" and "Take Your Time" have a fresh, kinetic energy that captures the band's art-school inclinations and catchy hooks. At best, one gets the sense that Marian Hill are aiming for an aesthetic somewhere along the lines of Beyoncé making an album with '80s electronic outfit Art of Noise. Centered on Gongol's lithe, if slight vocals, the duo make a minimalist brand of pop R&B built around robotic beats, chilly synth hits, and Davit's cubist post-bop sax lines that often sound as if they've been sampled and spliced into the mix.
Featuring the talents of producer Jeremy Lloyd and vocalist Samantha Gongol, Marian Hill also benefits from the contributions of jazz saxophonist Steve Davit, who appears throughout. The debut full-length album from Marian Hill, 2016's Act One, deftly showcases the Philadelphia duo's somewhat arty, stripped-down R&B.