5 storylines to observe for on the 2025 Grammy Awards : NPR

For those who had been to compile a listing of essentially the most ceaselessly requested Grammy-related questions, one in all them would absolutely boil right down to a single phrase: “Why?” Why attempt to whittle the music {industry}’s whole huge output — throughout numerous genres, by artists from all around the world — right down to a handful of industry-appointed “winners”? What is the level?

It is best to consider the Grammy Awards as a three-and-a-half-hour infomercial for the music {industry}. The performances are there to draw eyeballs whereas showcasing previous, current and future stars; the awards are there to reward excellence, at the very least on paper; and each exist to assist the {industry} anoint the artists the {industry} sees as ambassadors, each within the second and hopefully properly into the long run. It is truthful to query the awards’ worth in a world rocked by political turmoil and local weather catastrophe. However in the event you’re within the music {industry} — the way it sees itself and who it sees as its standard-bearers — the Grammys have quite a bit to inform you.

Listed here are 5 storylines to think about as Sunday’s awards strategy. The CBS telecast begins at 8 p.m. ET, however keep in mind that the lion’s share of the awards — a lot of the Grammys’ 94 classes — shall be handed out in a web-streamed Premiere Ceremony that begins 4 and a half hours earlier.

1. Look to the celebs (particularly the most-awarded star in Grammy historical past)

It is tempting — and never essentially inaccurate — to view this 12 months’s Grammys as a demolition-derby-style conflict of the titans involving among the largest names in pop music.

The main nominee, with 11 nods, is Beyoncé, who’s received essentially the most trophies in Grammy historical past (32) whereas by no means snagging both of the awards’ crown jewels: report or album of the 12 months. This 12 months, she’s up for each, and Cowboy Carter and its chart-topping single “Texas Maintain ‘Em” are robust contenders. For those who watched the singer’s Christmas Day “Beyoncé Bowl” halftime present on Netflix, it was basically a “For Your Consideration” reel for these prizes. They matter to her — and at this level, she’ll be one of many evening’s largest tales, whether or not it ends in triumph or one other defeat within the main classes.

In fact, Beyoncé must get previous a few of music’s largest names — together with Taylor Swift, who’s basically the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs of pop stars at this level. (If you would like this text to double as a preview of the upcoming Tremendous Bowl, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs are additionally the Taylor Swift of NFL franchises: inevitable because the tides, conscious of each element, susceptible to profitable even when most individuals suppose they should not.)

Beyoncé and Swift are each up for the evening’s largest prizes — album, report and tune of the 12 months — however they don’t seem to be alone on that entrance. Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are additionally up for all three, and it is definitely attainable that one will find yourself sweeping if all the pieces breaks a sure approach. If that occurs, it will mark a coronation that extends properly past the Grammys themselves. And, after all, Roan and Carpenter are in place to tug off a fair bigger and extra prestigious potential sweep. Which leads us to…

2. A stacked greatest new artist discipline

The Grammys have 94 classes, however the 4 prime fields are album, tune and report of the 12 months, plus greatest new artist. Earlier than this 12 months, solely 13 artists had ever been nominated in all 4 classes the identical 12 months, and simply two have executed the sweep by profitable all of them: Christopher Cross in 1981 and Eilish in 2020.

Roan and Carpenter are pals — do not miss Carpenter’s cowl of Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” in the event you’ve by no means heard it — however they’re on a collision course heading into Sunday. Every could be a heavy favourite for greatest new artist if she weren’t dealing with off towards a star of the opposite’s stature. Each dominated the pop panorama in 2024.

Even then, they don’t seem to be the one nominees on this class to have scored colossal industrial breakthroughs in latest months. Benson Boone, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims have every had some of the inescapable hits of the streaming period with “Stunning Issues,” “A Bar Track (Tipsy)” and “Lose Management,” respectively; all three songs stay within the prime 20 many months after they first grew to become hits.

Nobody else on this class is a slouch, both: Doechii rightly ranks among the many fastest-rising stars in hip-hop and RAYE is genre-straddling Grammy catnip who’s additionally nominated for songwriter of the 12 months (she’s a darkish horse who may shock individuals, even on this class), whereas Khruangbin sells out stadiums, even because the band’s decade-spanning catalog calls into query the thought of what constitutes a “new artist.”

3. Search for the Grammys to observe their tone.

The Grammys have needed to regulate to tragedies earlier than, whether or not it is the postponed-due-to-COVID telecasts of 2021 and 2022 or the 2020 awards being handed out mere hours after Kobe Bryant’s dying. Each time, the Recording Academy adopts a “the present should go on” mentality and, properly, places on a present, even when it feels obliged to cancel among the events that encompass the large occasion, because it did this 12 months.

In mild of the LA wildfires’ impression on the music {industry} — and given the numerous alternative for a closely watched telecast to boost funds for victims — anticipate a toned-down ceremony that also makes room for moments of pop-star spectacle. It will be a tough balancing act, however the Grammys have pulled it off earlier than.

4. If you wish to predict an enormous, earth-shaking upset, attempt these on for dimension.

The 2 prime classes — album of the 12 months and report of the 12 months — break down equally this 12 months: You’ve got acquired a cluster of up to date industrial juggernauts dealing with off towards one or two outliers.

In album of the 12 months, six ladies who’ve dominated pop music — Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli xcx, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift — are vying for arguably the evening’s largest prize. Every has her personal constituency, and a number of other have loved monumental Grammy success: Beyoncé is essentially the most adorned Grammy winner in historical past; Swift has received album of the 12 months 4 occasions; Eilish swept the large 4 classes in 2020, then received report of the 12 months (“Every little thing I Wished” in 2021) and tune of the 12 months (“What Was I Made For?” in 2024) within the ceremonies since. Carpenter, Charli xcx and Roan all broke by means of in an enormous approach final 12 months.

Every of the six powerhouses on this class has a definite sound, however all site visitors in industrial pop music. Then you definately’ve acquired two left-field entries: André 3000, whose instrumental flute odyssey New Blue Solar appears fairly out-there for Grammy voters, and Jacob Collier, who has by no means a lot as cracked the Billboard pop charts. However Collier, who picked up an album of the 12 months nomination for Djesse Vol. 4, has received six Grammys and been nominated 15 occasions; the Grammys have been sponging what he is spilling ever since he got here on the scene as an irrepressibly cheerful prodigy. (There’s precedent for this type of jazz-adjacent upset, too: Keep in mind 2011, once they gave greatest new artist to Esperanza Spalding over Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and the Machine and Mumford & Sons?)

The same vote-splitting dynamic may have an effect on the race for report of the 12 months. As soon as once more, you’ve got acquired the identical six pop-fluent ladies who spherical out the album of the 12 months discipline, however as a substitute of André 3000 and Jacob Collier, you’ve got acquired two completely different acts with enormous constituencies. Neither has to share a lane, or a voting constituency, with comparable stars.

Kendrick Lamar‘s “Not Like Us” would not be an enormous shock right here: The observe was one in all 2024’s largest songs, and its staunchly pro-L.A. vibes really feel well timed proper now. Then there’s The Beatles‘ “Now and Then.” Nobody’s going to confuse the observe — which fleshes out a late-’70s John Lennon demo and has been billed as “the final Beatles tune” — with, say, “Let It Be.” However voters within the Grammys’ common fields do skew older, and so they’ve been recognized to interrupt ties in favor of commemorated rock sounds.

Would a report of the 12 months win for The Beatles in 2025 qualify as a huge upset? Yeah, kinda. How about an album of the 12 months win for Jacob Collier? That’d be an earth-shaker, particularly given how usually (and the way infamously) Beyoncé has been denied on this class. However neither feels inconceivable.

5. The performances are a giant deal (perhaps an even bigger deal than the precise awards).

In an period the place any given dwell set may go viral, the stakes won’t appear that prime for artists who carry out on the Grammys. However there are various incentives to do one thing particular: They’re performing in entrance of {industry} power-brokers. They’re being measured towards friends on the prime of their recreation. Within the streaming period, Grammy performances usually straight impression the elements that drive Billboard chart placement — and revenues. And, in a world the place streaming companies’ algorithms feed listeners music they’ve already sought out, these streams have a approach of multiplying themselves.

Just a few of the key nominees, like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, aren’t scheduled to carry out this 12 months. Identical goes for Kendrick Lamar, who’s headlining the Tremendous Bowl halftime present the next weekend. However the confirmed lineup up to now comprises a lot of the evening’s largest names — and plenty of of them are famend for his or her flashy stage presences. Benson Boone and Teddy Swims are certain to deliver vein-bulging vocal thunder, although solely the previous is thought for incorporating backflips and rollerblades into his act. Chappell Roan crushed the VMAs and any variety of pageant gigs. Charli xcx, Doechii, Shakira, Billie Eilish… all of them know methods to work a stage. RAYE is teetering getting ready to superstardom, and he or she’s precisely the type of genre-smashing polymath the Grammys like to showcase.

In different phrases, in the event you’re susceptible to lamenting that you could’t sustain with who the large pop stars are nowadays, these three and a half hours might help get you caught up in a giant approach.