Who’s going to be nominated for the 2024 Grammy Awards?

The year is 1999. At the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Lauryn Hill has just become the first woman to take home five Grammy awards in a single night, while her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, is the first hip-hop album to win Album of the Year. In the same evening Celine Dion collects Record of the Year for “My Heart Will Go On”, Madonna opens the show and wins three awards, while more go to Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette and the Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks). This is the Grammy’s Year of Women.

Twenty-five years later, at the 2024 Grammys, we could be in for another one. Female acts have largely dominated the conversation in the past 12 months, from Swift’s record-breaking run of live shows, album releases and a concert film, to Beyoncé’s glittering, celebratory Renaissance tour. Rihanna headlined the Super Bowl in February, during which she sent heads spinning with the most dramatic pregnancy reveal in living memory, while Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish were among the highlights on the soundtrack of another cultural landmark: the Barbie Movie.

The 2023 Grammys were something of a damp squib. Fans had been hoping for a dramatic rematch between pop titans Adele and Beyoncé, after the former notoriously took home Best Album in an awards sweep back in 2017. Instead, there was palpable shock as singer Harry Styles was announced as the winner with his third album, Harry’s House, with members of the audience heard shouting Beyoncé’s name.

There are plenty of deserving artists who could take home a trophy next year, so let’s take a look at who could be nominated this week in three of the biggest categories: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year.

Noah Kahan

Currently blowing up thanks to his folky single “Stick Season” (Olivia Rodrigo is a fan), 26-year-old Vermont native Noah Kahan has already graduated to arena shows in both the US and the UK. His third album, also titled Stick Season, made it to No 3 on the Billboard 200 after he released an expanded edition in June, and is likely to get a spot in the Best Americana or Best Folk Album categories.

Ice Spice

Dubbed the new princess of hip-hop, the Bronx rapper born Isis Naija Gaston already has four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including her PinkPantheress collaboration “Boys a Liar, Pt 2”, and a remix of Taylor Swift’s hit single, “Karma”. Like..? her 2023 EP, demonstrated her drill influences and taste for a good hook. Her delivery is a husky murmur; she has the kind of easy nonchalance only Gen-Z girls can get away with.

RAYE

After a rocky start to her career, London-born pop singer RAYE managed to quit a major label deal and is now on the up and up. She was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize with her Top 10, independently released debut album, My 21st Century Blues. It nodded to her dance music past, but mostly capitalised on her powerful soul voice. “The Thrill is Gone.” was a masterful, Amy Winehouse-indebted number, while “Ice Cream Man” was a devastating, stark song about sexual misconduct in the music industry. It was a huge opening statement, a fresh start. Will the Grammys take notice?

Laufey

This Icelandic artist has been attracting the right kind of attention with her artfully understated songs about jealousy and unrequited love. There’s a timeless quality to songs such as “Valentine”, with its nods to the American Songbook and the crooning voices of Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. There are bossa nova influences, too, in her 2023 single “From the Start” and last year’s “Falling Behind”. She’s something different.

Gracie Abrams

Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo are both fans of 24-year-old Gracie Abrams – she supported Rodrigo during her Sour tour and returned as a special guest for Swift’s Eras shows in North America. Young fans are falling for her heart-on-sleeve songwriting and soft, lilting voice.

Reneé Rapp

Until recently, Reneé Rapp was better known as queen bee Regina George in the musical adaptation of hit 2004 comedy Mean Girls, or as the lead in Mindy Kaling’s HBO show, The Sex Lives of College Girls. But Rapp has admitted that the theatre and TV industries don’t help her anxiety all that much – in the meantime she’s been busy forging a very credible career as a pop artist, with the release of her debut album Snow Angel. “For the first time ever now, I see myself as an artist and I’m really proud of that,” she told The Independent in a recent interview. “It’s the only thing I’ve wanted in my entire life.”

Jelly Roll

The country-rap artist born Jason Bradley DeFord turns 39 in December – should he be nominated on Friday, he’d be the oldest entrant since then-40-year-old Andrea Bocelli was up for the prize in 1999. He had a triumphant night at the CMT Music Awards in April, where he performed rousing single “Need a Favor” and scooped three trophies. The last country winner was Zac Brown Band in 2010 – could Jelly Roll be the new, tattooed face of Nashville?

PinkPantheress

Xural.com