2025 Grammy Awards nominations: Beyoncé leads list of music contenders
This is her first time receiving nominations in the country and Americana categories. Previously, she and her husband Jay-Z were tied for most career nominations, at 88.
The 2025 Grammy Award nominations are dominated by Cowboy Carter, who leads with 11 nominations, bringing her career total to 99, making her the most nominated artist in Grammy history. Among her nominations, Cowboy Carter is up for both album and country album of the year. Her song "Texas Hold ’Em" is nominated for record, song, and country song of the year. Additionally, she has received nods across multiple genres, including pop, country, Americana, and melodic rap performance categories. This marks her first time being nominated in the country and Americana categories. Previously, she shared the record for most career nominations with her husband, Jay-Z, at 88.
If Cowboy Carter wins album of the year, she will make history as the first Black woman to earn this honor in the 21st century. Lauryn Hill was the last Black woman to win in this category, taking home the award in 1999 for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, joining Natalie Cole and Whitney Houston as the only Black women to win the top Grammy prize.
Post Malone has also received his first-ever nominations in the country categories after releasing his debut country album, F-1 Trillion, in August. His album is nominated for country album of the year, while his collaboration with Morgan Wallen, "I Had Some Help," is up for country song and country duo/group performance. These nominations are also Wallen’s first Grammy nods.
Malone, with seven nominations, trails behind Cowboy Carter. He shares this number with Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Charli XCX, who earned her first nominations as a solo artist. Lamar, whose diss track "Not Like Us" became widely known during his feud with Drake, is nominated in multiple categories, including record and song of the year, rap song, music video, and best rap performance. Notably, Lamar has two simultaneous nominations for best rap performance: one for "Like That," a collaboration with Future & Metro Boomin.
This marks Lamar's third time receiving two simultaneous nominations for best rap song. Taylor Swift and first-time nominees Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan each earned six nominations.
While last year saw women artists dominate the major categories, that trend continues this year, though the main focus seems to be on a broader variety of genres. In the album of the year category, alongside Cowboy Carter are André 3000’s New Blue Sun, Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4, and rising stars Carpenter and Roan with their albums Short n' Sweet and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Other nominees include Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, and Charli XCX’s BRAT.
Eilish is the only artist whose first three albums have been nominated for album of the year. Swift, who won album of the year for Midnights last year, breaks another record this year, becoming the first woman to receive seven career nominations in this category.
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO and President of the Recording Academy, expressed excitement about the variety of genres represented in the nominations, crediting the success of the process to an evolving voting body. “We’ve been very intentional in how we looked at and tried to rebalance our membership,” he said, noting the importance of genre equity and the representation of different regions and musical styles.
Only recordings released commercially in the U.S. between September 16, 2023, and August 30, 2024, were eligible for nominations. The final round of Grammy voting, which will determine the winners, takes place from December 12 through January 3.
The 2025 Grammy Awards will be held on February 2 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
