We expected Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter to dominate the 2025 Grammy nominations, and they did just that.
Here’s my quick take on this year’s ballot.
Quick Takes on the 2025 Grammy Nominees
1. Beyonce cements her legacy.
Beyonce may never win Album of the Year — she’s been notably snubbed in the past, and we predict she won’t win for Cowboy Carter either — but she now has 99 career nominations, 11 more than her husband Jay-Z in second place.
This year, she added Country and Americana nods to her previous noms in the Pop, R&B, Dance, and Rap fields. She has so many Grammys that nobody may ever catch her. Beyonce is, once and for all, truly the queen of the Grammys.
2. The pop divas reigned as expected.
Sabrina and Chappell got their nominations, and will go head to head for Best New Artist. Billie Eilish has a number of nods again. Taylor is back, although does anyone really want to see her win Album of the Year for a fifth time?
The real joy is seeing Charli XCX pick up seven nominations. I was expecting to see her in the Dance categories, but was highly skeptical that the Recording Academy would embrace Brat in the general categories. It may really be a Brat winter.
3. Unheralded favorites Waxahatchee, Tems, and Sierra Ferrell earn attention.
Some of my favorite under the radar Grammy nominees included Americana artists Waxahatchee and Sierra Ferrell, and R&B/Afrobeats singer Tems.
Waxahatchee made the best album of 2024, Tigers Blood, featuring “Bored,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” and the MJ Lenderman collab “Right Back to It.” Ferrell had a great record as well, with the acclaimed single “American Dreaming” and my personal favorite “I Could Drive You Crazy.” Waxahatchee, aka Katie Crutchfield, is up for Best Americana Album, while Ferrell is up for a whopping four awards in the American Roots field.
Tems has three nods, including Best R&B Song for “Burning” and Best African Music Performance for “Love Me JeJe.”
4. There is no new rock music.
People have been declaring “Rock is dead!” for years, but this time they may be right. There just aren’t that many new rock bands doing anything noteworthy.
The Rock and Alternative fields this year feature nominations for veteran acts like the Black Crowes, Rolling Stones, Pearl Ja, Green Day, Jack White, the Black Keys, St. Vincent, Metallica, and Judas Priest.
The one new rock band in music that did make an impression this year — the Last Dinner Party — was not nominated for anything.
5. Is this 1965? The Beatles and Rolling Stones are back.
Sixty years after they stormed onto the scene, the Beatles are Record of the Year contenders for “Now and Then,” the last song they will ever release, featuring vocals recorded by John Lennon in the ’80s and guitar work from George Harrison in the ’90s.
The Beatles are also up for Best Rock Performance for the track. Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones are up for Best Rock Album for Hackney Diamonds, their best work in years.
It’s remarkable that these bands are still producing good music several decades later. Based on this timeline, we can expect Foo Fighters and Green Day to still be earning Grammy nods in the 2060s.
Previous Years: Instant Reaction to the 2024 Grammy Nominees
The 2024 Grammy nominees are out, and although many of the top names were predictable, the nominees reveal a number of surprises, from Troye Sivan to the Rolling Stones.
Here’s my quick take on the 2024 nominees.
1. The top categories were as predictable as they’ve ever been.
We knew months in advance that Taylor Swift, SZA, Boygenius, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey would be earning some Grammy love.
The only real surprise in the big categories is R&B singer/songwriter Victoria Monet, who appears in Record of the Year and Best New Artist.
2. Uh oh, Jon Batiste is back.
The affable jazz-pop bandleader Jon Batiste shocked viewers by winning Album of the Year two years ago, and he’s back this year with another boatload of nominations, including Record, Song, and Album of the Year.
Nobody really wants to see Batiste win again in these major categories, especially when so many incredible female acts are nominated. But he could play spoiler once again.
3. Surprises!
Troye Sivan has been curiously overlooked by the Recording Academy for years, but he finally broke through for Best Pop Dance Recording and Best Music Video for “Rush.”
At the other end of the age spectrum, the Rolling Stones have won only three Grammys in their 60-year history, none during their heyday. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (along with producer Andrew Watt) deservedly scored a Best Rock Song nod for “Angry,” their best song since 1994.
4. Barbie The Album dominated
It was a huge success for the Barbie soundtrack, which nabbed four of the five slots in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category. Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World,” and Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For” all earned multiple nominations.
The only disappointment? Grammy rules prevented the original “Barbie Girl” singers Aqua from getting a nomination. Although they were featured artists on the Minaj track, the rules do not allow sampled artists to earn nominations in songwriting categories. That’s a shame. How cool would it have been to see Aqua getting a Grammy nod?
5. Another year without a female Producer of the Year
In the history of the Producer of the Year category, only seven women have ever been nominated. None has won.
Brandi Carlile seemingly had a good shot this year, given that she’s a perennial Grammy favorite and she worked on great albums by Tanya Tucker and Brandy Clark.
It would’ve been tough for her to beat out Jack Antonoff, but surely she at least deserved a nomination, right? Yet she was overlooked in favor of five guys.
6. Voters didn’t warm up to Morgan Wallen
Morgan Wallen was the biggest thing in country music this year, but Grammy voters didn’t give him much love. He didn’t received a single nomination.
His smash hit “Last Night” is a nominee for Best Country Song, but that goes to the songwriters, and Wallen did not co-write the track, so he is not credited.
7. Rihanna and Weird Al sneak into the soundtrack categories
With Barbie The Album taking up all the space in the visual media categories, there weren’t many slots left for outsiders.
Rihanna managed to sneak into the Best Song Written for Visual Media category for “Lift Me Up,” her Black Panther ballad.
Meanwhile, Weird Al Yankovic – a future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and now a 17-time Grammy nominee, earned a nod for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. See our ranking of every parody he’s ever recorded!
8. The snubs
As always, a number of deserving artists were overlooked. Country legend Tanya Tucker was surprisingly shut out for her excellent Sweet Western Sound, despite winning two Grammys four years ago for her comeback effort.
Electronic hyperpop weirdoes 100 Gecs figured to have a shot to nab at least one nomination, especially Best New Artist, but they were again overlooked.
And Caroline Polachek, whose “Welcome to My Island” was the best pop song of the year, earned just one nomination, in the Best Engineered Album category.
9. The weird Grammy nominees
Every year, the Spoken Word and Audio Book categories always contain a number of weird names that you wouldn’t expect to see at the Grammys.
This year’s group includes Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, William Shatner, and Meryl Streep.
What’s your Grammy reaction to this year’s nominees?
Last Updated on August 10, 2026