Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, BTS, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish are part of the long list of artists who will follow one another, between live performances and pre-recorded sequences, for this evening of March 14 marked by the pandemic , almost a year to the day after the start of the first confinements.
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In preview, here is the list of the five artists who could win a large part of the rewards on Sunday evening during this 2021 Grammy Awards ceremony, essentially virtual.
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As often in recent years Beyoncé holds the pole position of the evening, with nine nominations in total while she did not even release an album last year.
Right behind are Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa with six nominations.
Award-winning rocker Brittany Howard, already with her band Alabama Shakes, will also take center stage with five nominations for her debut solo album
Jaime
.
She is one of the headliners in the rock category where women are in force this year.
For the first time in Grammy history, the category of best rock performance is monopolized by female artists or groups led by women: Britanny Howard, Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers, the Haim sisters, Grace Potter and Big Thief. , group of the breathtaking Adrianne Lenker.
Even the category of best country album, which is generally very conservative, includes four female solo artists, and a mixed duet.
Mickey Guyton even paid the luxury of becoming the first black woman selected in a country category for his title
Black Like Me
.
And rapper Megan Thee Stallion will inevitably make waves on Sunday, with four nominations to her name including
Breakout of the Year
, which has seven women out of eight nominees.
Beyoncé challenges Paul Mc Cartney
Female artist with the largest number of nominations to her credit (79), Beyoncé is tied with Paul Mc Cartney.
Both are one step away from all-round recorders: Jay-Z and the legendary Quincy Jones.
If at only 39 years old, Beyoncé left her mark on the whole music industry and beyond, she paradoxically chained the disappointments at the Grammy Awards in major categories.
In 2017, for example, she was beaten by Adèle despite her hit album
Lemonade
and a tour that broke all revenue records.
After promising several years in a row that it would make more room for artists who are not white men, the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which awards the Grammies has a golden opportunity to make amends. towards Beyoncé.
His title
Black Parade
, released in the wake of the gigantic anti-racist demonstrations of the summer of 2020, is in the running for the recording of the year and the song of the year.
Her collaboration on
Megan Thee Stallion's
Savage
remix
could boost the harvest even further.
It is not yet known whether she will be present on Sunday, in the flesh or virtually: she is not expected to perform on stage and she has not attended the ceremony since 2018.
How to give relief to the Grammies?
In an attempt to turn an exercise that might otherwise resemble a tedious graduation ceremony via Zoom into a true celebration of music, the organizers have gone all out.
Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B will be there, but it seems difficult for them to perform their
WAP hit
on stage
at prime time, its lyrics being riddled with sexual metaphors.
Taylor Swift and young Billie Eilish, who won the four most prestigious awards last year, will also sing.
Also announced are popstar Dua Lipa, rapper Roddy Ricch, Post Malone as well as Latin trap champion Bad Bunny, Harry Styles and South Korean boy band BTS idols.
Ubiquitous Kanye West
Only a few weeks after his surprising attempt to enter the White House, Kanye West is again a candidate for an election in these 2021 Grammy Awards. Nothing to do with rap: the artist who shook the world of hip-hop by 2004 with his album
The College Dropout
is this year in contention in the category
best album of contemporary Christian music
for his gospel
Jesus Is King
.
In the talking album category, which has many past presidents including Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle among its laureates, this year includes journalist Ronan Farrow and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.
Finally, this edition of the Grammy Awards will have its share of posthumous nominations, including two for the American author John Prine, who died of complications related to the coronavirus last year. Leonard Cohen, who died in 2016, is a nominee for Best Folk Album for
Thanks for the Dance
, a compilation finalized by the son of the Canadian artist. Rapper Pop Smoke, shot in Hollywood Hills in February 2020, will be in contention with his title
Dior
, as will Nipsey Hussle with
Deep Reverence
.