Beyoncé is the big Grammy favorite

Singer Beyoncé will be the big favorite for the next Grammy Awards in February 2025, with nominations in eleven categories for her latest opus “Cowboy Carter”. It is a tribute to the African-American roots of country Music which will perhaps allow it to finally win the supreme prize for best album of the year.

With the batch announced Friday by the Recording Academy, which presents the awards, Beyoncé is the most nominated artist at the Grammy Awards, she who has already received the most gramophones, 32, in the history of this ceremony.

But despite a long discography, including Lemonade (2016) and Renaissance (2022), the award for best album has always eluded her, which has fueled debates on the recognition of black artists.

“Queen B” could finally break the curse on February 2 in Los Angeles, but she will have to prevail over tough competition, between Taylor Swift, queen of the Grammys in 2024 whose album “The Tortured Poets Department” allowed to collect six nominations, Billie Eilish (seven nominations with “Hit Me Hard and Soft”), new nightclub star Charli XCX (seven nominations) and pop stars Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan (six nominations each).

Rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer halfway between hip hop and country Post Malone also won seven categories. The first notably for its very hostile title to his rival Drake, “Not Like Us”, in competition for the best song of the year against in particular “Texas Hold’Em” by Beyoncé, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish and “Now and Then,” the Beatles song recorded by John Lennon and completed by the other members of the group well after his death for release in 2023.

Among 94 categories, also note the presence of the French metal group Gojira, whose very noted interpretation of “Mea Culpa (Ah/ Ca ira)” at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the lyrical singer Marina Viotti and composer Victor Le Masne are among the contenders for metal performance of the year.

Beyoncé also landed a notable nomination in the category of best country album, while “Cowboy Carter,” which draws heavily on this genre, was recently shunned from nominations at the Country Music Awards.

The 43-year-old singer, whose couple she forms with Jay-Z is one of the most influential in American popular culture, had nevertheless become the first black artist to rise to the top of the Billboard reference rankings for country, with his single “Texas Hold ‘Em” and the album “Cowboy Carter”.

In addition to being a phenomenal success, “Cowboy Carter”, which also includes the classic “Jolene” by absolute country star Dolly Parton, has reignited debates on the place of African-Americans in the history of country music. , from which they were largely ousted, the genre being rather associated with white and conservative musicians.

The 67th Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, two weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration at the White House.