Singer and rapper Lizzo scored eight Grammy nominations Wednesday to lead a field packed with newcomers, including pop iconoclast Billie Eilish and overnight sensation Lil Nas X, for music’s biggest honors.
The diverse slate of budding talent appeared to reflect the Recording Academy’s recent efforts to appease critics who have lambasted the show as too white, too male and too generous to music world mainstays.
Magnetic 31-year-old Lizzo debuted in 2013 but really burst into the public eye with her third studio album Cuz I Love You, which scored a nomination for the top Album of the Year prize at the Jan. 26 ceremony in Los Angeles.
The classically-trained flutist was nominated in all four of the top categories.
She has an adoring fanbase that favors her sassy, body-positive persona and unflinching messages of feminist empowerment, sexual freedom and black pride.
“This has been an incredible year for music and I’m just so thankful to even be a part of it,” the artist tweeted upon learning of her nominations.
Eilish also nabbed a shot at best album for When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? to bring her career nomination count to six—and, at 17, became the youngest person nominated in the top four categories.
Before her album’s release, the goth-leaning artist had already won a fervent online following for her bold, often haunting pop sound featuring heavy bass and tinges of trap and electronic dance music. Her brother and main collaborator Finneas O’Connell, 22, is up for five awards for producing and songwriting contributions.
Saying he was “grateful” for the industry recognition, O’Connell tweeted that “most of all, I’m just grateful to billie for making music with her big brother.”
Genre-bending meme king Lil Nas X, 20, rode the fame of his viral smash “Old Town Road” to also snag six chances at Grammy gold.
After grabbing attention on the video-sharing app TikTok, the artist born Montero Lamar Hill won the internet when the thumping bass and banjo twangs of his infectious single knocked Ariana Grande from the Billboard chart’s top spot—and stayed there for a record-breaking 19 weeks.
Swift snub
The newbies will square up against some established superstars.
Grande—whose album thank u, next missed last year’s Grammy deadline — bagged five nominations for 2020.
The 26-year-old won her first Grammy last year, but notably skipped the party: just days before the event, she roasted the ceremony’s producer for “lying” about her decision not to perform.
On Wednesday she said this year’s “acknowledgement is truly enough on its own for me and my heart.”
Beyonce earned four nods on the strength of her Netflix concert film about her dazzling 2018 Coachella performance and the album accompanying this year’s Lion King film remake.
The enigmatic R&B prodigy H.E.R., who won two Grammys last year, also got five nominations, including for Album of the Year.
Once an Academy darling with 10 Grammys to her name, Taylor Swift was, like last year, largely snubbed from the major categories for her album Lover, except for Song of the Year for her title track.
She is up for just three awards, the two others in the pop categories. Maggy Donaldson.
