Movie-Adjacent Grammy Nominations!
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 5:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Ariana Grande, Dear Evan Hansen, Grammys, In the Heights, Jon Batiste, Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X

by Nathaniel R

"Sour" and "Montero" -definitely two of the most talked about albums of the year.

Each year when the Grammy nominations are announced we dive in to find notes of interest for cinephiles and/or general movie/tv enthusiasts. Jon Batiste, who took home the Oscar for Best Original Score for Pixar's Soul last spring, leads the Grammy nominations with 11 citations. But before we get to the movie stuff, we should acknowledge the three top categories: album, record, and song of the year...

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Awarded to the artists, featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers and mixers

A notable miss for Album of the year is Ariana Grande's "Positions" which is the only nominee for "best pop vocal album" that did not also snag a nomination in the top category. This Album of the Year lists is made up of 4 nominees from Best Pop Vocal Album, 2 nominees from the Best R & B Album list, 1 from Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, 1 from the Best Rap Album list, plus Lil Nas X and Taylor Swift's albums. None of the nominees from various other "Best Album" categories made the list this year. 

RECORD OF THE YEAR
Awarded to the artists, producers, engineers, mixers

 

Yayyy, ABBA. 

 

SONG OF THE YEAR
Awarded to the songwriters

The Grammys have 86 categories and get hyperspecific to the point of ridiculousness but here are the other more general showbiz leaning categories we love to check out each year...

MUSICAL THEATER ALBUM


 

 

This year's nominated set is light on new Broadway shows. There is only one (Girl from the North Country) which uses Bob Dylan's catalogue as its score. But Broadway is back up and running now so expect this category to return to normal a year from now. 

COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA


 

The nomination for Dear Evan Hansen feels lazy on the part of voters since they already gave the Broadway Cast Recording Grammys for this material back in 2018. Did they really think the new recording was superior to all the other compilation soundtracks released this past year. Better than song heavy films like Annette, CODA, Zola, Jingle Jangle, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Bo Burnham Inside, Promising Young Woman, and other titles we're blanking on at the moment that were probably eligible including TV shows? 

 

SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA

 

 

SONG WRITTEN FOR VISUAL MEDIA

 

 

MUSIC VIDEO/FILM

 

 

MUSIC FILM

 

 

SO WHICH ACTORS GOT NOMINATED THIS YEAR?

Lady Gaga, who is now a leading lady as well as a pop superstar, is a Grammy favourite having previously received 29 nominations leading to 12 wins. She's got a bunch of new nominations this year for her work on "Love For Sale" with Tony Bennett. It is reportedly Bennett's last album. He turned 95 this past summer.  

10 time Grammy winner and irregular actor Dolly Parton is up for another Grammy, this time in Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for "A Holly Dolly Christmas"

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is nominated again at the Grammys for the soundtrack to her Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. Andra Day, who was just Oscar-nominated for her film debut in United States vs Billie Holliday is up for the same award for her musical biopic.

LeVar Burton and Don Cheadle are both up for Best Spoken Word Album for "Aftermath and "Carry On Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis" respectively. (They're up against... Barack Obama! In fact the category is literally 100% black men this year. The other nominees are Amir Sulaiman and Dave Chappelle for "8:46" and J Ivy for "Catching Dreams: Live at Fort Knox Chicago")

Frequent movie headliner Kevin Hart is up for Best Comedy Album for "Zero F***s Given"

ARE THESE ACTORS NOMINEES OR NOT?

Grammys keep changing their rules as to who is eligible for Cast Recordings and Soundtrack albums and the lot so we don't yet know which actors are nominated in those categories. Ben Platt, Anthony Ramos, and Leslie Odom Jr will probably be nominated in Compilation Soundtrack since they're the principal voices from their nominated albums (Dear Evan Hansen, In the Heights, and One Night in Miami) but otherwise we're not sure who will qualify. It will be quite strange if suddenly Julianne Moore is a Grammy nominee for talk-singing one song in Dear Evan Hansen but we'll see.

Oscar and Tony nominee and Emmy winner Mare Winningham is in the cast of the nominated Broadway recording of "The Girl From North Country" but who knows if they'll cite her as an actual nominee. They've gotten stingier about that over the years when it comes to ensemble casts. 

ARE YOU A MUSIC PERSON? If so, what do you make of the nominations this year? 

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on January 31st, 2022. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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