Candidates: of John Baptiste World Music Radioboygenius The RecordMiley Cyrus' Endless summer vacationLana Del Rey's Did you know there is a tunnel under Ocean BlvdJanelle Monáe's The Age of PleasureOlivia Rodrigo's Offal, By Taylor Swift At midnight, by SZA warning sign
This is the most female album of the year contenders in Grammy history. Here are all the times female artists dominated the category.
Analysis: I asked three Advertising sign colleagues who believed they would win in each of the four major categories. It's all super smart and connected. In this category, I got three different answers (Swift, SZA, and boygenius), so I guess I'm on my own here.
Each of Swift's three album of the year winners represented an important chapter in her career — Fearlessher breakthrough as a pop/country superstar. 1989, a dangerous and wildly successful transition into pop. and Folklore, a perfectly timed folk sidestep during the pandemic. The synopsis of this album – a concept album about late-night musings inspired by her sleepless nights – isn't all that exciting.
SZA is a very strong contender with warning sign, which topped the Billboard 200 for 10 non-consecutive weeks, longer than any of these other nominees. The narrative here is the emergence of a fledgling superstar in an industry built on them.
SZA is vying to become the first black woman to win in this category as a top artist since Lauryn Hill 25 years ago for Lauryn Hill's Bad Education. Last year, many (myself included) thought Beyoncé would win Renaissance. Instead, Harry Styles won Harry's house, and while it was a worthy winner, there's a bitter disappointment on the part of many that R&B and hip-hop are so often overlooked in the Big Four categories. That Grammy history is inevitably playing out in this year's competition.
Boygenius also aims to make history. The all-female trio of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus would become just the second all-female group or duo to win in this category, following The Chicks, who won in 2007 for Taking the long way.
Boygenius wrote their entire album themselves and produced it with Catherine Marks. The album even had a female mastering engineer, Pat Sullivan. (The album had both male and female engineers/mixers, so men weren't completely sidelined here.) This is the only album of the Year finalist also nominated for Best album, Non-Classical.
of Baptiste World Music Radio is nominated two years after he was the surprise winner in the category for We are. Winning again so soon is a long shot, but if it happens, he'll be the first artist to win twice in three years as a mainstay since the mid-'70s, when Stevie Wonder won three times in four time period.
A side note here: If Midnight (or Rodrigo's Offal) wins, Serban Ghenea would become the first person (not an artist, mind you) to win album of the year five times. The Canadian engineer/mixer previously won the category as an engineer/mixer at Swift's 1989 and Folkloreby Adele 25 and Bruno Mars 24K Magic.
Predicted Winner: SZA
And if not her: Taylor Swift, boy
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/lists/grammy-predictions-2024-album-of-the-year-best-new-artist/
