The Beatles are back at the Grammy Awards, more than 25 years after their last nomination. They compete in the “song of the year” category, for their title Now and thenreturned from limbo thanks to AI.
The Beatles, still in the wind. The Fab Four may only be two people left, but they are nominated for the Grammy Awards this year for Best Song. They face Texas Hold’Em by Beyoncé, Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar, Good Luck, Babe! by Chappel Roan, Birds of feather de Billie Eilish, 360 de Charlie XCX, Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter, and Fortnight by Taylor Swift with Post Malone.
This is the song Now and Thencomposed by John Lennon in 1978 and finalized by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr using artificial intelligence, which earned the Beatles this nomination, the first since 1997. They then won best pop vocal performance by a duo or group for the song Free as a bird, a 1977 demo released in late December 1995.
Sept Grammy
The Beatles have been nominated for Grammys 23 times and have won 7 since the 1960s. They notably won album of the year in 1968 with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their very first Grammy dates back to 1965, it was then the 7th edition of the Grammys. They then walked away with the prize for best new artist of 1964 and that of best performance by a group, for A Hard Day’s Night.
Now and thenreleased in November 2023, 33 years after the assassination of John Lennon and 22 years after the death of George Harrison, is considered the last song of the group, which broke up in 1970.
“It’s all real”
It was written and sung by John Lennon, developed and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and finally completed by Paul and Ringo more than four decades later.
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Technology has made it possible to synthesize John Lennon’s voice from excerpts from old demo tapes, as Paul McCartney explained.
“It’s all real and we’re all playing on it. We’ve cleaned up some existing recordings – a process that’s been going on for years.”
The AI was therefore only used here to clean the tracks of this recording which George Harrison did not want to hear about as he judged the sound quality to be mediocre.
This song allowed the Beatles to return to the top of the music charts. She ranked first in the United Kingdom last year, and dethroned Taylor Swift.
The Rolling Stones are also nominated for a Grammy this year, for their album Hackney Diamonds.
