Album of the Year: 2023 Grammy Nominations:
Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, and Adele Nominated for Album of the Year at the 2023 Grammys. The nominees for the 2023 Grammy Award for Album of the Year have all been announced. Once again, Beyoncé and Adele will go head to head, this time for their respective LPs Renaissance and 30
Bad Bunny may walk away with a few grammiphones. Bad Bunny had the top album of 2022, with 4.2 billion on-demand audio streams and 3.4 million total album equivalent consumptions (a combined unit compiling sales and streams), and the Encanto soundtrack earned the No. 6 spot, with 1.9 billion on-demand audio streams and 1.84 million TAE consumptions. The Encanto soundtrack was the No. 2 best-selling digital album of 2022, and its song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was the No. 1 most-consumed digital song.
The Grammys are handed out by the Recording Academy, an organization made up of music industry professionals from across the industry. Their nominees for Album of the Year — along with Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, and several genre awards — used to be decided by secretive nomination review committees, but the academy eliminated almost all of those in 2021, leaving the decisions to voting members at large without an anonymous, unaccountable intermediary to veto certain choices.
Rap artists Kendrick Lamar and Drake received the most nominations with eight and seven, respectively. Singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile received six nominations. The rap nominations for this year’s Grammys came with a few surprises among the expected nominees. While field favorites like Kendrick Lamar and DJ Khaled got in, some surprises were announced like the inclusion of newer orgnic successes like GloRilla and Jack Harlow.
Still, the nominations did a good job capturing the state of mainstream hip-hop in 2022. But when it comes to winning, some artists may have it easier than others. Let’s consider who’s in the lead, and who might be able to upset them as well in Rap Performance and Rap Album categories.
Of those nominated, Lamar has had the most success in the past. He’s been up for 39 awards while taking home 14 of them. Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. It moved 295,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.
All eyes will once again be on Beyonce as she looks to extend her record-setting run of Grammy success on “Music’s Biggest Night.” Queen Bey — who with 28 victories to her credit already ranks as the most highly awarded performing artist in Grammy history — leads all comers at the 2023 award show with nine nominations. That ratchets up her lifetime total to a staggering 88 nominations, which ties her with — believe it or not — husband Jay-Z for the most of all time. (Yeah, the trophy cabinet in the Bey and Jay household must truly be something to behold.)
91 nominees and only one person gets the Grammy per category. Oh the choices. Beyoncé or Adele? Kendrick Lamar or Bad Bunny? Willie Nelson or Buddy Guy? Wet Leg or Maneskin? Dave Chappelle or Louis C.K.? Regardless of who wins or loses at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, its honcho Harvey Mason Jr. knows exactly what the perfect edition of the Grammys should be like. “Everyone wins every award they were nominated for!” he said, laughing heartily.
Adele has been nominated 25 times at the Grammys and has already gone home with 15 gramophones. This year, she was nominated for seven awards, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Record of the Year, Best Musical Film, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Pop Solo Performance.
The effort without a committee has yet to be proven to be successful. In 2022, the first year without the committee, the Grammys expanded the top general field categories to 10 nominations each, which came not long after those categories had been expanded from five nominees to eight in 2019. It was controversal for sure but the event went on as planned.
The artists nominated for Album of the Year were mostly pop stars (Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, and Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga). But the winner ended up being the R&B album “We Are” by Jon Batiste, which was a surprise against albums with much greater commercial success. It elevated Batiste to new heights.
Album of the Year
“Voyage” — ABBA “30" — Adele “Un Verano Sin Ti” — Bad Bunny “RENAISSANCE” — Beyoncé “Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe)” — Mary J. Blige “In These Silent Days” — Brandi Carlile “Music Of The Spheres” — Coldplay “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” — Kendrick Lamar “Special” — Lizzo “Harry’s House” — Harry Styles
Music's Biggest Night is finally returning to Los Angeles, California, at the Dolby Theatre after it was relocated to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas last year.
