Blog: My predictions for the 56th Grammy Awards

Last Friday, the nominations for the 56th Grammy Awards were announced. And let me be the first to say, I was surprised, shocked and excited. There were many unexpected nominations, and some works worthy of nomination were left out. Jay-Z led the pack with nine (not a typo) nominations, closely followed by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Kendrick Lamar with seven nominations each. Now at first this may seem like a year for rap. However, it’s been a good year for many other artists too. Here are my predictions for the four general award categories.

Best New Artist

I’m going to be perfectly honest, this category is a landslide. Of all the nominees (James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kacey Musgraves and Ed Sheeran), I think Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have the best chance of winning this award. They came onto the rap scene with a new indie style and gained many fans right off the bat. They blended inventive sounds, like those in “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us,” with meaningful lyrics in songs like “Same Love” (which I’ll talk about in a minute). Macklemore & Ryan Lewis took the rap scene by storm with their alternative sound and are definitely worthy of this award.

Record of the Year

This category is a bit more complicated. First, I’d like to point out that Record of the Year is about the performance, engineering and mixing of the song, not the songwriting (lyrics and melodies). With that, I feel that any of the nominees in this category could take the award. “Get Lucky” (Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams) has an original and intriguing electronic sound, along with good vocals. “Royals” (Lorde) couples an alternative sound with amazing vocal ability. “Locked Out of Heaven” (Bruno Mars) makes use of an upbeat, rhythmic vibe with always on-par vocals. And “Blurred Lines” (Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams), despite its misogynistic message, is funky and danceable. However, my pick for the winner of this category is “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. Imagine Dragons took over the music world this year, and this song is one of the best examples of their signature blend of mainstream and alternative. With its powerful vocals and amazing electronic instrumentation, “Radioactive” definitely has a shot at winning this award.

Song of the Year

Like the last category, there are a few songs that could win this award. Unlike Record of the Year, Song of the Year is about a track’s songwriting; that is, lyrics and melodies. Of the five nominated, there are three worth mentioning. The other two (“Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars and “Roar” by Katy Perry) contain surface level lyrics and generic pop melodies. Of the three worthwhile nominations, “Royals” by Lorde contains a teenage point of view with meaningful lyrics. “Just Give Me a Reason” by P!nk featuring Nate Ruess (fun.) has amazing melodies and harmonies and a reinvention of typical love song lyrics. The real winner here though is “Same Love” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert. The song has an outspoken social message about gay rights and its lyrics take you from Macklemore’s childhood to an emotional call for action in the name of homosexual acceptance. Whether you agree with the song’s message or not, it’s very clear that “Same Love” is the best choice for this award.

Album of the Year

Arguably the most prestigious award at the Grammys, the nominees for Album of the Year were somewhat of a surprise for me. Of all the nominated works (good kid, m.a.a.d. city by Kendrick Lamar, Random Access Memories by Daft Punk, The Blessed Unrest by Sara Bareilles, The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Red by Taylor Swift), I have listened to three in full. And to be honest, any of those three could possibly take home the award. Red takes Taylor Swift in a new, more pop-oriented direction and is very inventive in that manner. The Heist introduces the world to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s alternative rap sound and journeys through many great rap tracks. My pick for this category, however, is The Blessed Unrest by Sara Bareilles. The album itself is an anomaly, with Album of the Year being one of only two nominations for it (the other being “Brave” for Best Pop Solo Performance). Also, it has the least total personnel for all of the nominated albums, with three producers, three engineers/mixers, one mastering engineer and no featured artists. But the album deserves this award for many other reasons. Bareilles experiments in her music while still managing to show the piano pop sound she’s known for and executing it perfectly. With lyrical depth, amazing instrumentation and out of the park vocals, Bareilles definitely could win Album of the Year.