Beyoncé just earned herself another sash. As numbers go, she is easily the queen of the rodeo that is the 2025 Grammy nominations, racking up 11 nominations for her “Cowboy Carter” album and its attendant singles. That’s a personal high for her, besting the 10 nods she got back in 2009.
But Beyoncé has to share the headlines coming out of Friday morning’s announcement. Because she is just one of five powerhouse women who are nominated in all three of the Grammys‘ top general categories this year — record, song and album of the year. Joining her in being nominated for all three of those major prizes are Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.
The red-hot Roan and Carpenter also have the distinction of each being nominated for best new artist, meaning they are up in all four general categories open to recording artists across genres. If either Carpenter or Roan turned out to be red-hot enough to win best new artist plus the trio of record, song and album of the year, they’d be the first to accomplish that since Eilish did it in 2020.
Three other artists picked up nominations in two of the three top categories and accrued major nomination tallies: Charli XCX, Post Malone and Kendrick Lamar.
Following Beyoncé’s leading 11 nods, it’s Eilish, Lamar, Malone and Charli XCX who have a four-way tie for the second-largest number of nominations this year, with seven noms each. Close behind with six nominations apiece are Swift, Roan and Carpenter.
Is this the Grammys’ year of the woman”? You’d have to say yes, with female artists claiming six out of the eight nominations for both album of the year and record of the year. But then, last year was really the year of the woman, with seven out of eight spots taken in those categories. In other words, this “stepping up” has been the norm and not the exception for several successive years now.
The dominance of all these women on the charts as well as in the larger pop culture made predicting the Grammys a little easier this year, for many. (Variety’s predictions a month ago were largely on the nose, getting six out of eight nominees right in each of the four general-field categories.)
It was only when the Recording Academy’s voters deigned to recognize men in top categories that inclusions occurred that were less expected… if not head-scratchers. Andre 3000’s album of the year nomination, for his instrumental free-range-flute album “New Blue Sun,” is sure to set off a rash of WTF comments; although the collection certainly had its defenders, there was not a prognosticator in the world who considered that even a dark horse. The sewn-together Beatles track “Now and Then,” which is nominated for record of the year, had at least popped up in the conversations, as a possibility to fill the surprise-veteran slot taken by ABBA two years ago.
Benson Boone, Teddy Swims and Shaboozey were the three breakout men of the year in music, but the first two of those were held to a single nomination, for best new artist. Shaboozey got that nom, too, along with three more for his record-busting “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and one for a feature on “Cowboy Carter.” (“Bar Song” also picked up an additional nod for best remix, an award that goes to the remixer but acknowledges the artist parenthetically.)
Will the Feb. 1 ceremony finally see Beyoncé winning either album or record of the year — two prizes that have eluded her despite winning a record number of Grammys? The rooting interest is off the charts. But every one of the women competing against her in the top categories has had undeniable zeitgeist moments this year. And in the record of the year division, she faces Kendrick Lamar. His single “Not Like Us” was so ubiquitous in even sports and electoral politics this year that it forces Grammy watchers to consider a possibility that is about as unthinkable at the Grammys lately as it is inevitable in the outside world: a guy prevailing.
RECORD OF THE YEAR
- “Now and Then”
The Beatles - “Texas Hold ‘Em”
Beyoncé - “Espresso”
Sabrina Carpenter - “360”
Charli XCX - “Birds of a Feather”
Billie Eilish - “Not Like Us”
Kendrick Lamar - “Good Luck, Babe!”
Chappell Roan - “Fortnight”
Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
- “New Blue Sun”
André 3000 - “Cowboy Carter”
Beyoncé - “Short n’ Sweet”
Sabrina Carpenter - “Brat”
Charli XCX - “Djesse Vol. 4”
Jacob Collier - “Hit Me Hard and Soft”
Billie Eilish - “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”
Chappell Roan - “The Tortured Poets Department”
Taylor Swift
SONG OF THE YEAR
- “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters
(Shaboozey) - “Birds of a Feather”
Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas, songwriters (Billie Eilish) - “Die With a Smile”
Dernst Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars) - “Fortnight”
Jack Antonoff, Austin Post & Taylor Swift, songwriters
(Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone) - “Good Luck, Babe!”
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Daniel Nigro & Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan) - “Not Like Us”
Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar) - “Please Please Please”
Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter) - “Texas Hold ‘Em”
Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)
BEST NEW ARTIST
- Benson Boone
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Doechii
- Khruangbin
- Raye
- Chappell Roan
- Shaboozey
- Teddy Swims
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR (NON-CLASSICAL)
- Alissia
- Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II
- Ian Fitchuk
- Mustard
- Daniel Nigro
SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
- Jessi Alexander
- Amy Allen
- Edgar Barrera
- Jessie Jo Dillon
- Raye
BEST POP SOLO PERFORMANCE
- “Bodyguard”
Beyoncé - “Espresso”
Sabrina Carpenter - “Apple”
Charli xcx