On Friday, November 8th, 2024, the list of Grammy nominations for the 2025 award show was released after artists had the chance to submit themselves for consideration earlier this year. Social media was all abuzz, and honestly, they were announced at the perfect time; I was so relieved to see something other than election-related content in my feeds. This announcement gave me a bit of hope that I was in desperate need of after the shock of the days prior, filling my mind with something other than looming fear and existential dread. With women’s rights on the line in the near future, I am glad to see that one thing is still true: women in music are stronger than ever, and they aren’t going anywhere.
Back in January of this year, I wrote a piece about a collection of female artists who were on track to have the biggest years of their lives. While I may have missed the mark on a couple of them (you are so missed, boygenius), I have to say, I was right on target with most of my list. Renee Rapp, Chappell Roan, Renee Rapp, Gracie Abrams, and PinkPantheress have all had wildly successful years (albeit the latter had to cancel her supporting act for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour, even being asked to be part of it is an accomplishment), and I also predicted the Taylor Swift-Gracie Abrams collab that is NOW GRAMMY NOMINATED, as well as Lorde’s return to music in a collab with Charli XCX. I felt now to be a perfect time to revisit that article and see how right (or wrong) I was… turns out I was mostly right!
Best Pop Vocal Album/Best Pop Solo Performance
Now, let’s jump into some of the huge wins for women in this year’s Grammy nominations. Starting off strong, the Best Pop Vocal Album category is filled with exclusively female artists, with Ariana Grande, Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, and Sabrina Carpenter in the race for this award. This is the first time that a male artist (or band with male members) has not been nominated for this award in the history of the award’s presentation, and it’s certainly a stacked competition. Every one of these artists has produced some of their best work this year, and received an undeniable boost in popularity during the Grammy eligibility period, which ran from September 2023 to October 2024. Best Pop Solo Performance also saw exclusively female artists nominated, with Sabrina, Billie, and Chappell joined by Beyonce and Charli XCX.
The Big Four
The “Big Four” categories at the Grammys are collectively regarded as the highest honors, comprised of the Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist categories. In the Album of the Year category, 6 of the 8 nominees are women, with Andre 3000, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Jacob Collier, Sabrina Carpenter, and Taylor Swift representing the academy’s picks for the year’s best. For Song of the Year, 6 women and 4 men represent the eight nominated songs, and for Record of the Year, 6 women are also featured as members of the list of eight nominated songs (with Post Malone, the Beatles, and Kendrick Lamar also credited on the list). And lastly, for Best New Artist, the category is fairly evenly split by gender, with newly A-list stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Benson Boone leading the pack as many social media users’ picks for winners.
Wins for Women Across the Board
Other noteworthy categories for women included Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, which is comprised of 9 women and 2 men nominated, and Best Dance Pop Recording, with 4 women and 1 man nominated (but it’s Troye Sivan, so I think I speak for all of us in saying he can join our team). Of course, Beyonce’s star-studded breakout into country music garnered several acknowledgments from the academy, which is something to celebrate in itself, as country music has long been dominated by men. It’s not to say that the genre is necessarily becoming woman-led, in any sense, but the balance and equality has been a long time coming, and whether she meant to or not, Beyonce played a large role in it, supported by other well-loved country stars Kacey Musgraves, Lainey Wilson, and Kelsea Ballerini this year. R&B also saw an uptick in female nominations, with Best R&B Performance seeing Coco Jones, Jhene Aiko, Muni Long, and SZA competing against Chris Brown (unfortunately) for the award.
It goes without saying that women are the driving force of the music industry, especially as of late, and it’s nice to see that the Grammy nominations are distributed accordingly. While many categories, especially those in the genre of rock, have a long way to go before equality will be observable in the nominations and winners, a great amount of progress has been made this year, and it’s arrived at the most fitting time. In addition to this, a boost of content from our favorite stars brought a welcome change into our timelines, with their acknowledgments of the nominations they received often filled with gratitude and emotion, like Sabrina Carpenter’s:
Many women across America are feeling as though they have been slighted in the political sphere, and for good reason, so seeing this year’s competition for the largest awards in music be composed of an overwhelming majority of women is the pick-me-up we all could use right now. I hope that across the country, these nominations send a signal to everyone that successful women have always been here and certainly are not going anywhere anytime soon, no matter who or what tries to hold them back.
Source:
https://pitchfork.com/news/grammy-nominations-2025-see-the-full-list-here/