Beyoncé dominates the 2025 Grammy Award nominations with her album Cowboy Carter, an homage to the African American roots of country music, hoping to finally clinch the prize for Album of the Year, long denied despite her impressive career.
Singer Beyoncé emerges as the frontrunner for the 2025 Grammy Awards, scheduled for February, with nominations in eleven categories for her latest album, Cowboy Carter. This tribute to the African American roots of country music could finally allow her to win the ultimate prize of Album of the Year.
With this selection, announced Friday by the Recording Academy, Beyoncé becomes the most-nominated artist in Grammy history, reaching 99 nominations and surpassing her husband Jay-Z (88). She already holds the record with 32 Grammy wins, marking an unprecedented career in this ceremony. However, the ultimate recognition—Album of the Year—has thus far eluded her, instead going to Taylor Swift in 2010, Adele in 2017, and Harry Styles in 2023, fueling debates on the lack of recognition for Black artists in the American music industry.
"Queen B" may finally break this spell on February 2 in Los Angeles. The ceremony will also be closely watched for potential political statements, two weeks after Donald Trump's inauguration to the White House. Many artists, including Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, have publicly supported Kamala Harris.
In the Album of the Year category, Beyoncé faces formidable competition. Taylor Swift, the "Queen of the 2024 Grammys," is in the running with her album The Tortured Poets Department, which garnered six nominations. Billie Eilish, with seven nominations for Hit Me Hard and Soft, nightclub sensation Charli XCX (seven nominations), along with pop stars Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan (six nominations each), are also contenders. The category also includes Djesse Vol.4 by multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier and New Blue Sun, an all-flute album by former Outkast member André 3000.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar and hip-hop/country artist Post Malone also count seven nominations each. Lamar stands out with his track Not Like Us, a biting piece aimed at his rival Drake. He will compete for Song of the Year alongside Beyoncé's Texas Hold'Em, Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, and Now and Then, the Beatles' latest track, created from a restored vocal recording of John Lennon and completed by the other band members in 2023.
Among the 94 categories, the presence of the French metal band Gojira is also notable. Their powerful performance of Mea Culpa ("Ah/Ça ira"), interpreted with a decapitated Marie Antoinette at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, is up for Metal Performance of the Year. Gojira is competing against opera singer Marina Viotti and composer Victor Le Masne. French jazz singer Cyrille Aimée is also in contention with her album À fleur de peau in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
In the Best New Artist category, eight artists will compete, including Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Benson Boone, Raye, Teddy Swims, and Shaboozey, whose song A Bar Song ("Tipsy") has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks. The remix of this track by David Guetta also allows the French DJ to hope for his third Grammy win.
But on February 2, all eyes will be on Beyoncé, whose album Cowboy Carter also received a significant nomination for Best Country Album. This is a symbolic comeback, as this album, which draws heavily from country, was snubbed by the Country Music Awards. At 43, Beyoncé became the first Black artist to top Billboard's country charts with her single Texas Hold'Em and the album Cowboy Carter. Besides its commercial success, this album revives discussions on the role of African Americans in the history of country music—a genre historically associated with white, conservative musicians, despite the deep Black roots at its origin.
With AFP
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