Grammys are anyone’s game as music’s A-listers descend on Vegas

Las Vegas – The highest names in music will collect Sunday to honor their very own on the Grammys, now in its sixty fourth version, with pop juggernauts becoming a member of jazzman Jon Batiste because the main nominees.

This yr, the gala will happen in Las Vegas for the primary time, after organizers postponed the unique Jan. 31 occasion over a surge in COVID-19 circumstances, after which moved it from Los Angeles to the playing capital of the US.

The sector is broad open — particularly after the Recording Academy expanded the highest 4 classes but once more, this time to incorporate 10 nominees, in a bid to enhance range.

The timing of the Grammys only one week after Will Smith surprised the world by slapping Chris Rock on stage on the Oscars provides an additional layer of unpredictability to what’s already normally one of many more strange nights on the showbiz awards circuit.

Justin Bieber will vie for eight trophies on the ceremony hosted by late night time host Trevor Noah, as will R&B favourite H.E.R. and singer-rapper Doja Cat.

Grammys darling Billie Eilish is within the operating for seven prizes. The identical holds true for Olivia Rodrigo, a former Disney channel actress who exploded onto the pop scene final yr together with her breakout smash hit “drivers license.”

The 19-year-old Rodrigo landed anticipated nods for her much-touted debut album “Bitter,” and is a close to shoo-in for Greatest New Artist — she is up towards Eilish’s brother Finneas, rapper Saweetie, experimental pop act Japanese Breakfast and others.

Like Eilish in 2020, Rodrigo has the chance to comb the highest 4 classes, which might make her solely the third artist to take action.

However it’s Jon Batiste — the jazz and R&B artist and bandleader, who gained an Oscar final yr for his soundtrack to the Pixar animated film “Soul” — who has probably the most probabilities at Grammys gold, snagging 11 nominations together with in two high classes.

The longtime musical director of the favored “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert,” Batiste lately has emerged as a voice of social justice and protest.

The Black artist born right into a outstanding New Orleans musical dynasty will compete primarily on the energy of his album “We Are” and its rousing single “Freedom.”

The sleeper nominations chief can be up for awards in fields spanning style and medium, together with R&B, jazz, American roots and modern classical, together with nods for Greatest Music Video and his composition work on “Soul.”

Woman Gaga and Tony Bennett, the beloved 95-year-old crooner, have sturdy probabilities so as to add to their Grammys haul — their album “Love For Sale” earned six nominations.

Kanye West scored a number of nominations for his album “Donda” — and can face off with longtime nemesis Taylor Swift within the Album of the Yr class, the place she has her sole likelihood at Grammy gold for “evermore.”

Swift didn’t submit “Fearless (Taylor’s Model)” — her 2021 re-recording of her 2008 album — for Grammy consideration, after profitable 4 awards for the unique in 2010.

The rap classes embrace West together with Nas, J. Cole and Tyler, the Creator — however not Drake, who withdrew his two nominations in December with out rationalization.

Previously, the Canadian chart-topper had accused the Recording Academy, which he has lengthy sparred with, of pigeonholing his music within the rap classes as a result of he’s Black.

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion will compete within the Greatest Rap Efficiency class, the one discipline during which the artists behind the smash “WAP” are within the operating.

Korean pop juggernauts BTS scored one nomination within the pop classes for the massive industrial hit “Butter” — lower than anticipated for the massively well-liked boy band that has struggled to make inroads on the Grammys.

However BTS is slated to carry out on the night time watched as a lot for its staging because the precise awards, as will Rodrigo, Eilish, Batiste and H.E.R. together with Lil Nas X.

West, who has 5 complete nominations, had reportedly been faraway from the efficiency lineup over his typically troubling habits, however some sources mentioned he may nonetheless be part of the lineup on the final minute.

The mercurial West has for weeks been airing private assaults on comic Pete Davidson, who’s relationship West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian.

The 44-year-old megastar additionally was barred on Instagram for twenty-four hours after insulting Grammy host Noah, who had mentioned West was changing into “increasingly belligerent in how he tries to get Kim again.”