Movie-Adjacent Grammy Nominations!

by Nathaniel R

"Sour" and "Montero" -definitely two of the most talked about albums of the year.

Each year when the Grammy nominations are announced we dive in to find notes of interest for cinephiles and/or general movie/tv enthusiasts. Jon Batiste, who took home the Oscar for Best Original Score for Pixar's Soul last spring, leads the Grammy nominations with 11 citations. But before we get to the movie stuff, we should acknowledge the three top categories: album, record, and song of the year...

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Awarded to the artists, featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers and mixers

• "We Are" Jon Batiste
• "Love For Sale" Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga
• "Justice" Justin Bieber
• "Planet Her" Doja Cat
• "Happier Than Ever" Billie Eilish
• "Back of Her Mind" H.E.R.
• "Montero" Lil Nas X
• "Sour" Olivia Rodrigo
• "Evermore" Taylor Swift
• "Donda" Kanye West 

A notable miss for Album of the year is Ariana Grande's "Positions" which is the only nominee for "best pop vocal album" that did not also snag a nomination in the top category. This Album of the Year lists is made up of 4 nominees from Best Pop Vocal Album, 2 nominees from the Best R & B Album list, 1 from Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 1 from the Best Rap Album list, plus Lil Nas X and Taylor Swift's albums. None of the nominees from various other "Best Album" categories made the list this year. 

RECORD OF THE YEAR
Awarded to the artists, producers, engineers, mixers

• "I Still Have Faith in You" ABBA
• "Freedom" Jon Batiste
• "I Get a Kick Out of You" Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga
• "Peaches" Justin Bieber
• "Right on Time" Brandi Carlisle
• "Kiss Me More" Doja Cat
• "Happier Than Ever" Billie Eilish
• "Montero (Call Me By Your Name") Lil Nas X
• "driver's license" Olivia Rodrigo
• "Leave the Door Open" Silk Sonic

Yayyy, ABBA. 

SONG OF THE YEAR
Awarded to the songwriters

• "Bad Habits" Ed Sheeran, Fred Gibson, Johnny McDaid
• "Peaches" Justin Bieber and several songwriters
• "Right on Time" Brandi Carlisle, Dave Cobb, Phil & Tim Hanseroth
• "Kiss Me More" several songwriters (Doja Cat)
• "Happier Than Ever" Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell
• "Montero (Call Me By Your Name") several songwriters (Lil Nas X)
• "driver's license" Olivia Rodrigo and Daniel Nigro
• "Leave the Door Open" several songwriters (Silk Sonic)
• "A Beautiful Noise" Alicia Keys, Brandi Carlisle and several songwriters
• "Fight For You" H.E.R., Dernst Emile II, and Tiara Thomas

The Grammys have 86 categories and get hyperspecific to the point of ridiculousness but here are the other more general showbiz leaning categories we love to check out each year...

MUSICAL THEATER ALBUM

• Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella
• Burb Bacharach and Steven Sater's Some Lovers
• Girl from The North Country
• Lés Miserables: The Staged Concert (2020 Live Recording)
• Stephen Schwartz's Snapshots
• The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical

This year's nominated set is light on new Broadway shows. There is only one (Girl from the North Country) which uses Bob Dylan's catalogue as its score. But Broadway is back up and running now so expect this category to return to normal a year from now. 

COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA

• Cruella
• Dear Evan Hansen
• In the Heights 
• One Night in Miami
• Respect
• Schmigadoon! Episode 1
• United States vs Billie Holliday 

The nomination for Dear Evan Hansen feels lazy on the part of voters since they already gave the Broadway Cast Recording Grammys for this material back in 2018. Did they really think the new recording was superior to all the other compilation soundtracks released this past year. Better than song heavy films like Annette, CODA, Zola, Jingle Jangle, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Bo Burnham Inside, Promising Young Woman, and other titles we're blanking on at the moment that were probably eligible including TV shows? 

SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA

• Bridgerton (Kris Bowers)
• Dune (Hans Zimmer)
• The Mandalorian Season 2 - Vol 2(Ludwig Goransson)
• The Queen's Gambit (Carlos Rafael Rivera)
• Soul (Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross)

SONG WRITTEN FOR VISUAL MEDIA

• "Agatha All Along" WandaVision - Emmy winner 2021
• "All Eyes on Me" Bob Burnham Inside
• "All I Know So Far" P!nk: All I Know So Far
• "Fight For You" Judas and the Black Messiah - Oscar winner 2020
• "Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)" Respect - Oscar eligible 2021
• "Speak Now" One Night in Miami - Oscar nominee 2020

MUSIC VIDEO/FILM

• "Shot in the Dark" AC/DC
• "Freedom" Jon Batiste
• "I Get a Kick Out of You" Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga
• "Peaches" Justin Bieber
• "Happier Than Ever" Billie Eilish
• "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" Lil Nas X
• "Good 4 U" Olivia Rodrigo

MUSIC FILM

• Inside (Bo Burnham, Josh Senior)
• American Utopia (David Byrne, Spike Lee)
• Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles (Billie Eilish, Patrick Osborne, Robert Rodriguez)
• Music Money Madness... Jimi Hendrix in Maui (Jimi Hendrix, John McDermott, Janie Hendrix, George Scott)
• Summer of Soul (Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, Joseph Patel)

SO WHICH ACTORS GOT NOMINATED THIS YEAR?

Lady Gaga, who is now a leading lady as well as a pop superstar, is a Grammy favourite having previously received 29 nominations leading to 12 wins. She's got a bunch of new nominations this year for her work on "Love For Sale" with Tony Bennett. It is reportedly Bennett's last album. He turned 95 this past summer.  

10 time Grammy winner and irregular actor Dolly Parton is up for another Grammy, this time in Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for "A Holly Dolly Christmas"

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is nominated again at the Grammys for the soundtrack to her Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. Andra Day, who was just Oscar-nominated for her film debut in United States vs Billie Holliday is up for the same award for her musical biopic.

LeVar Burton and Don Cheadle are both up for Best Spoken Word Album for "Aftermath and "Carry On Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis" respectively. (They're up against... Barack Obama! In fact the category is literally 100% black men this year. The other nominees are Amir Sulaiman and Dave Chappelle for "8:46" and J Ivy for "Catching Dreams: Live at Fort Knox Chicago")

Frequent movie headliner Kevin Hart is up for Best Comedy Album for "Zero F***s Given"

ARE THESE ACTORS NOMINEES OR NOT?

Grammys keep changing their rules as to who is eligible for Cast Recordings and Soundtrack albums and the lot so we don't yet know which actors are nominated in those categories. Ben Platt, Anthony Ramos, and Leslie Odom Jr will probably be nominated in Compilation Soundtrack since they're the principal voices from their nominated albums (Dear Evan Hansen, In the Heights, and One Night in Miami) but otherwise we're not sure who will qualify. It will be quite strange if suddenly Julianne Moore is a Grammy nominee for talk-singing one song in Dear Evan Hansen but we'll see.

Oscar and Tony nominee and Emmy winner Mare Winningham is in the cast of the nominated Broadway recording of "The Girl From North Country" but who knows if they'll cite her as an actual nominee. They've gotten stingier about that over the years when it comes to ensemble casts. 

ARE YOU A MUSIC PERSON? If so, what do you make of the nominations this year? 

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on January 31st, 2022. 

Comments

[thevoid99]

The Grammys. A bullshit award that has no credibility whatsoever and I feel sorry for anyone who has to win the Best New Artist/Kiss of Death award.

Plus, for anyone that saw that bullshit documentary on David Foster on Netflix (which I refuse to watch) know that he is so smug about his Grammys as he goes "look at all of those Grammys I've won" as I'm like "OH WOW!!!!! WHO FUCKING CARES!" Milli Vanilli won a Grammy and they never even sang on their records. Jethro Tull, who are a progressive rock band, won the first ever Best Metal Performance Grammy.

"Oh wow, an award and... oh wait, it's just a Grammy"

[Dave in Hollywood]

I'm pretty sure that Olivia Rodrigo is the star of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series on Disney+. She's perfectly fine in a fairly clever g-rated "let's put on a show" sort of way. I suspect her career will continue on in both music and movies. And since she is the only Best New Artist nominee in the other big categories, I assume she's the favorite to win.

[NathanielB]

Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson were majorly snubbed for Best Spoken Word Album for the audio recording of Just As I Am. They both should have easily completed EGOTs for it!

I am looking forward to seeing who is ultimately listed for compilation soundtrack and musical theater album. If Mare Winningham is listed and the album wins (which I suspect it will as the only Broadway show nominated), it’d be one of those fun quirky Grammy wins, like Bradley Cooper’s or Kate Winslet’s. But Julianne Moore is in no way a principal artist on the DEH soundtrack. Nor is Amy Adams, who really should win a “big 4” award one of these days!

[Glenn Dunks]

The Grammys are so silly. Look at all those nominees per category! My gosh.

Choosing "All Eyes on Me" to represent INSIDE is a choice, too.