With wildfires still burning in Southern California, the 67th Grammy Awards are continuing as planned this Sunday in Los Angeles. Trevor Noah will host for the fifth straight year, Washingtonian Benson Boone (up for best new artist) will perform and there will be a fire relief initiative woven into the show and the events leading up to Music’s Biggest Night.
Washington will be represented well at the televised main event (5-8:30 p.m. Sunday on CBS and Paramount+) at Crypto.com Arena and at the untelevised daytime ceremony, where most awards are given out. It’s also a safe bet that the Recording Academy will honor home state legend and entertainment industry icon Quincy Jones, who died in the fall and whose 28 Grammy wins are the third-most in the show’s history. (“The Greatest Night in Pop,” a documentary about the making of “We Are the World” — its star-studded, all-night recording session organized by Jones — is up for best music film.)
Here’s the lowdown on all the locals to root for — from Monroe-raised breakout stars to Seattle rock heavyweights and jazz scene staples — plus our predictions for who will win the Grammys’ top honors.
Best new artist
Nominees: Benson Boone; Sabrina Carpenter; Doechii; Khruangbin; Raye; Chappell Roan; Shaboozey; Teddy Swims
Boone broke out this year, with his booming “Beautiful Things” topping the charts in just about every country except America, where it peaked at No. 2 (thanks, Taylor Swift). There’s no bad blood between the Monroe kid with pipes of gold (or platinum) and the biggest pop star on the planet, as Boone opened for Swift at Wembley Stadium last summer.
The pop-rocking “American Idol” dropout, co-signed by Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds, had a pair of minor hits sizzle and fizzle a few years ago before “Beautiful Things” and his debut album “Fireworks & Rollerblades” took off in 2024. The former diving team standout at Monroe High School punctuated his big year with a nomination for best new artist, one of the Grammys’ most prestigious awards.
And yet, Boone’s lone nod feels like a bit of a snub for a young star who scored one of the biggest songs of the year. It’s a testament to a banner year for pop music, with fellow breakouts like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and country-pop crossover Shaboozey galloping into the mainstream.
This year’s best new artist field — rounded out by behind-the-scenes-songwriter-turned-R&B-star Raye, inventive rapper Doechii, instrumental vets Khruangbin and blue-eyed soul-pop singer Teddy Swims — is truly stacked. A head-scratching Grammys upset is never out of the question, but if Chappell Roan doesn’t run away with this award, what are we even doing here?
Prediction: Chappell Roan
Our pick: Chappell Roan
Record of the year
Nominees: The Beatles, “Now And Then”; Beyoncé, “Texas Hold ‘Em”; Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”; Charli XCX, “360”; Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”; Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”; Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”; Taylor Swift and Post Malone, “Fortnight”
For all the recent efforts to diversify and inject youth into the Recording Academy’s ranks, it could prove difficult for Grammy voters to resist rewarding the Fab Four for what has been billed as “the last Beatles song,” composed of an unearthed John Lennon demo completed with A.I.-assisted technical ingenuity. The rock icons are somewhat of an outlier in an otherwise hard-to-argue field of songs that defined 2024, even if the Taylor-Posty team-up didn’t quite live up to its superstar billing.
Arguably the biggest question: Whether any of pop’s breakouts, like Roan, Carpenter or Charli XCX — some of the preeminent wave-makers this year — can snatch any of the big prizes from the veteran superstars. If it’s going to happen, the category might be record of the year, which awards the artists, producers and engineers who worked on the recording.
Six albums into her career, Carpenter leveled up with the inescapable smash “Espresso,” effectively reintroducing the former Disney star to the masses. At first blush, “Espresso” is an endearingly unserious bop stuffed with playfully corny wordplay. It’s also impeccably produced pop-nugget perfection that’s more invigorating than slamming an iced latte at the beach.
Prediction: Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
Our pick: Sabrina Carpenter, “Espresso”
Song of the year
Nominees: Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”; Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”; Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, “Die With A Smile”; Taylor Swift and Post Malone, “Fortnight”; Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!”; Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”; Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”; Beyoncé, “Texas Hold ‘Em”
Beyoncé and Shaboozey, two Black artists working outside of the Nashville establishment, were instrumental in bringing country music to new audiences in 2024, one of the top music stories this year. In a bit of kismet, Shaboozey’s monstrous hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, tying another country/rap hybrid (“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X) for the longest reign at No. 1. Despite hitting the scene with arguably the biggest song of the year, voters’ lack of familiarity with the rest of Shaboozey’s work could hold the Virginia artist back.
The ever-maturing pop craftsmanship of Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas was on full display with “Birds of a Feather,” a soaring number with a rightful claim to the crown. However, if this truly is a songwriter’s award, no song demonstrated the potent power of the pen better than Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” the L.A. rapper’s Drake-slaying diss track. It feels a little wrong to award Lamar for such a ruthless takedown of another artist. But there wasn’t a cultural moment in 2024 more fascinating than watching this gloves-off track, which would have been relegated to a mixtape highlight in another era, turn into a mainstream hit that united the West Coast and derailed another superstar’s career. A song of the year win would be the flowers on Drake’s tombstone.
Prediction: Billie Eilish, “Birds of a Feather”
Our pick: Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”
Album of the year
Nominees: André 3000, “New Blue Sun”; Beyoncé, “Cowboy Carter”; Sabrina Carpenter, “Short n’ Sweet”; Charli XCX, “Brat”; Jacob Collier, “Djesse Vol. 4”; Billie Eilish, “Hit Me Hard and Soft”; Chappell Roan, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”; Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department”
The Recording Academy can’t keep doing this. It can’t miss another opportunity to bestow its most coveted award on the most decorated artist in Grammys history. Yes, this is the year Beyoncé finally gets her overdue album of the year win.
“Cowboy Carter” is a perfectly worthy choice amid a strong field without a clear front-runner, but it is by no means the R&B/pop visionary’s best. That actually might bode well for her chances, as the Grammys have a history of missing the boat on celebrated artists’ most impactful works, only to honor less essential material later. In a perfect world, Beyoncé would have already won AOTY at least twice, with “Lemonade” and “Renaissance,” allowing the academy to get freaky with Charli XCX’s electro-pop club odyssey, “Brat.” But Beyoncé’s time is now.
Prediction: Beyoncé, “Cowboy Carter”
Our pick: Charli XCX, “Brat”
Beyond the Big Four
Can Pearl Jam mount another Seattle sweep?
Three years ago, another band with Seattle roots ran the table in the rock categories, as Foo Fighters bagged best rock album, performance and song. Pearl Jam has a chance to complete the Seattle hat trick this year, with the band in top form on their 12th studio album, “Dark Matter,” and its walloping title track. The hometown heroes will face tougher odds than the Foos, running up against even more illustrious rock royalty in The Beatles — a lock for best rock performance — and The Rolling Stones. The Stones bested the Seattle boys (and their Soundgarden buds) for best rock album in 1995, when “Vs.” got beat by “Voodoo Lounge,” one of the Stones’ worst albums. This time around, both PJ and the Stones are nominated for late-career high-watermark albums produced by young hotshot Andrew Watt. I like our local guys’ chances.
Other Washingtonians to watch
Most genre-specific awards are doled out during a daytime ceremony before the main event. While it’s possible some could be called up to the televised ceremony, we should know how most of the local nominees fare before prime time.
Classical producer/engineer and six-time Grammy winner Dmitriy Lipay leads the charge with five nominations, including producer of the year, classical, stemming from his work on “Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina” and “Adams: Girls of the Golden West.”
Seattle-rooted vocal quartet and master arrangers säje earned two nominations with their Regina Carter-assisted single, “Alma” (best arrangement, instruments and vocals), and their sterling “Silent Night” a cappella (best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella). The group also features on Scott Hoying’s “Rose Without The Thorns,” for which säje members Amanda Taylor and Erin Bentlage earned nods for their arrangement work.
Revered jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who lived in Seattle for roughly three decades before returning to New York in 2017, is up for best contemporary instrumental album, with his “Orchestras (Live)” LP, and best jazz instrumental album, for his contributions to trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire’s “Owl Song.”
In other Seattle jazz ties, Steve Rodby — the bassist and producer best known for his work with another guitar great, Pat Matheny — co-produced Eliane Elias’ “Time and Again,” up for best Latin jazz album.
Elsewhere, Woodinville-raised Harrison Patrick Smith — better known as NYC dance-punk sensation The Dare — co-produced Charli XCX’s “Guess,” featuring Billie Eilish, up for best pop duo/group performance.
Finally, a 30th-anniversary box set of Nirvana’s “In Utero” earned art directors Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto of NYC-based design studio Morning Breath a nod for best boxed or special limited edition package.