A Look At The 2019 Grammy Awards

“Sometimes the best way to gauge the year in music is not by who was nominated in the biggest categories but who wasn’t.”

In the case of the 61st Grammy Awards, airing Feb 10, at 8 p.m. on CBS, that list of “snubs” includes Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and The Carters. For those living under a record player with no needle, the Carters are Beyonce and Jay-Z.

And those artists were left out after the Recording Academy expanded the number of nominees in those categories from five to eight. Ouch!

With more than 80 categories pretty much everyone who’s anyone is covered in the genre-specific awards. but what artists’ really want to win is one of the coveted awards — Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Bovada, one of SBR’s best-rated sportsbooks, is offering odds in those four most-wanted categories.

A brief analysis shows that women seemed to breakthrough this year with their voices being heard not only on the radio or on streaming services but also cracking into the upper echelon categories in greater numbers. More than double the women nominated last year in the big categories than last year: that’s 15 nominated to six in 2018.

Last year, ZERO women were up for Record of the Year, one of the most important honors of the night. The lack of women in major categories gives the unrealistic belief women aren’t contributing members to the music industry, which is far from the truth.

This year with female artists leading the way in major nominations comes after last year’s awards were deemed #GrammysSoMale on Twitter when men dominated in the main categories and Academy President Neil Portnow made some questionable comments about the backlash:

“It has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level. [They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome. I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face but I think it’s upon us — us as an industry — to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists.”

Following his comments about women stepping up, Portnow will step down from his role in the academy when his contract expires this summer.

Between performances by some of the world’s best artists, still to be announced, a few – but not all – of the awards will be handed out.

Here are the big four you will see awarded:

Record Of The Year:

• “I Like It”— Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin
• “The Joke”— Brandi Carlile
• “This Is America”— Childish Gambino
• “God’s Plan”— Drake
• “Shallow”— Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
• “All The Stars”— Kendrick Lamar & SZA
• “Rockstar”— Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage
• “The Middle”— Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey

Album Of The Year:

• “Invasion Of Privacy”— Cardi B
• “By The Way, I Forgive You” — Brandi Carlile
• “Scorpion”— Drake
• “H.E.R.”— H.E.R.
• “Beerbongs & Bentleys”— Post Malone
• “Dirty Computer”— Janelle Monáe
• “Golden Hour”— Kacey Musgraves
• “Black Panther: The Album, Music From Various Artist”

Song Of The Year:

• “All The Stars”— Kendrick Lamar & SZA
• “Boo’d Up”—Ella Mai
• “God’s Plan”— Drake
• “In My Blood” — Shawn Mendes
• “The Joke”— Brandi Carlile
• “The Middle”— Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey
• “Shallow”— Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
• “This Is America”— Childish Gambino

Best New Artist:

• Chloe x Halle
• Luke Combs
• Greta Van Fleet
• H.E.R.
• Dua Lipa
• Margo Price
• Bebe Rexha
• Jorja Smith.