2020 Grammy Awards Nominees: Hip-Hop Wins as Lizzo, Lil Nas X Earn Most Nods

The Recording Academy just revealed the nominees for the 62nd Grammy Awards—and in line with the way hip-hop has become the most-consumed genre in terms of streams and sales, hip-hop artists were rightfully recognized again in the big four categories. Last year, Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” memorably became the first rap song to win Record of the Year and Song of the Year (which I had correctly predicted), while Kacey Musgraves took home Album of the Year for Golden Hour (I called that one too), Dua Lipa won Best New Artist, Drake snatched Best Rap Song with “God’s Plan” and Cardi B earned Best Rap Album honors with Invasion of Privacy. 

Leading the nominees this year for the 2020 Grammys is Lizzo with eight nominations as well as Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish, both with six nominations. All three topped the Billboard charts this year and now have the most nods for the 62nd Grammy Awards, which honors artists, songwriters, producers, mixers and engineers. After these nominations, don’t be surprised if Lizzo is somewhere rejoicing by shouting, “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% that bitch,” the viral lyric from her No. 1 “Truth Hurts” hit, which is nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. 

On the strength of hip-hop, audio and video streams skyrocketed to 507.7 billion during the first half of 2019—up 31.6% from 2018’s 385.7 billion streams, according to Nielsen Music data sent to ONE37pm. As the most-consumed genre again this year in terms of streams and sales, hip-hop accounted for 26.2% of overall consumption, ahead of rock (19.4%), pop (13.1%), country (7.2%), Latin (4.7%) and electronic (3.1%).

Now, with the Nov. 20 nominations announcement, the Recording Academy’s voting members appear in step with what people are consuming, although there are notable snubs in every category, including Tyler, The Creator’s IGOR and Taylor Swift’s Lover absent from the Album of the Year nominees.

Here are the nominees in the major categories (click here for the full list).

Album of the Year:

• i,i — Bon Iver
• Norman F***ing Rockwell! — Lana Del Rey
• When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? — Billie Eilish
• thank u, next — Ariana Grande
• I Used To Know Her — H.E.R.
• 7 — Lil Nas X
• Cuz I Love You (Deluxe) — Lizzo
• Father Of The Bride — Vampire Weekend

Record of the Year:

• "Hey, Ma" — Bon Iver
• "Bad Guy" — Billie Eilish
• "7 Rings" — Ariana Grande
• "Hard Place" — H.E.R.
• "Talk" — Khalid
• "Old Town Road" — Lil Nas X Featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
• "Truth Hurts" — Lizzo  
• "Sunflower" — Post Malone & Swae Lee

Song of the Year:

• "Always Remember Us This Way" — Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey & Lori McKenna, songwriters (Lady Gaga)
• "Bad Guy" — Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)
• "Bring My Flowers Now" — Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth & Tanya Tucker, songwriters (Tanya Tucker)
• "Hard Place" — Ruby Amanfu, Sam Ashworth, D. Arcelious Harris, H.E.R. & Rodney Jerkins, songwriters (H.E.R.)
• "Lover" — Taylor Swift, songwriter (Taylor Swift)
• "Norman F***ing Rockwell" — Jack Antonoff & Lana Del Rey, songwriters (Lana Del Rey)
• "Someone You Loved" — Tom Barnes, Lewis Capaldi, Pete Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn & Sam Roman, songwriters (Lewis Capaldi)
• "Truth Hurts" — Steven Cheung, Eric Frederic, Melissa Jefferson & Jesse Saint John, songwriters (Lizzo)

Best New Artist:

• Black Pumas
• Billie Eilish
• Lil Nas X
• Lizzo
• Maggie Rogers
• Rosalía 
• Tank And The Bangas
• Yola

Best Pop Vocal Album:

The Lion King: The Gift — Beyoncé

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go — Billie Eilish

Thank U, Next — Ariana Grande

No. 6 Collaborations Project — Ed Sheeran

Lover — Taylor Swift

Best Pop Solo Performance:

“Spirit” — Beyoncé

“Bad Guy” — Billie Eilish

“7 Rings” — Ariana Grande

“Truth Hurts” — Lizzo

“You Need To Calm Down” — Taylor Swift

Best Rap Album:

• Revenge Of The Dreamers III — Dreamville
• Championships — Meek Mill
• I Am > I Was — 21 Savage
• Igor — Tyler, The Creator
• The Lost Boy — YBN Cordae

Best Rap Performance:

• “Middle Child” — J.Cole
• “Suge” — DaBaby
• “Down Bad” — Dreamville ft. J.I.D, Bas, J. Cole, Earthgang & Young Nudy
• “Racks In The Middle” — Nipsey Hussle ft. Roddy Ricch & Hit-boy
• “Clout” — Offset ft. Cardi B

Best Rap Song:

• “Bad Idea” — Chancelor Bennett, Cordae Dunston, Uforo Ebong & Daniel Hackett, songwriters (Ybn Cordae ft. Chance The Rapper)
• “Gold Roses” — Noel Cadastre, Aubrey Graham, Anderson Hernandez, Khristopher Riddick-tynes, William Leonard Roberts Ii, Joshua Quinton Scruggs, Leon Thomas Iii & Ozan Yildirim, songwriters (Rick Ross ft. Drake)
• “A Lot” — Jermaine Cole, Dacoury Natche, 21 Savage & Anthony White, songwriters (21 Savage ft. J. Cole)
• “Racks In The Middle” — Ermias Asghedom, Dustin James Corbett, Greg Allen Davis, Chauncey Hollis, Jr. & Rodrick Moore, songwriters (Nipsey Hussle ft. Roddy Ricch & Hit-boy)
• “Suge” — Dababy, Jetsonmade & Pooh Beatz, songwriters (Dababy)

See the rest of the nominees list here at Grammy.com.

Just a month before the nominations’ Aug. 31 cutoff date, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” was far and away this year’s most-popular tune. At that point, “Old Town Road” had attracted 1.3 billion audio and video streams and 958,000 digital downloads, making it 2019’s most-streamed song and top-selling song. It has since broken the long-standing record for most weeks (19) at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Post Malone secured the No. 2 most-streamed song with his “Sunflower” collaboration with Swae Lee from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack, and the academy also recognized that effort for Record of the Year.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Billie Eilish, whose “Bad Guy" single reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, is the youngest artist ever nominated across all four major categories.  

The nominations were announced on Nov. 20 at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. You can watch the #GRAMMYs on Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. The ceremony will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles with Alicia Keys returning as the host.