2014 Grammy Nominees: Who’s New, Who’s Here, and Who’s Not

IMSA students, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year – at least, for this writer. That’s right: award season is upon us, as the Grammy nominations for the 2014 awards were revealed on Friday night. Now, the list of nominations can be found all over the web, so I’m not going to restate them here. In their place, here is a summary of who’s going to be big at the awards this year, according to the Grammy foundation. and some of my own hopes as to who’s going home with a little gold record player.

Rapper Jay-Z swept the board when it came to nominations – of the 82 possible categories for awards he ended up earning nominations for 9, a stupendous feat. He was followed closely by Macklemore, whose songs “Same Love”, “Can’t Hold Us”, and naturally, “Thrift Shop”, got him 7 nominations. Further behind were 17-year-old sensation Lorde and country star Taylor Swift, with 4 nominations each.

There were, however, some anomalies thrown into the mix. Daft Punk‘s album Random Access Memories garnered a surprising 3 nominations, and the group received 4 in total. Sara Bareille‘s fans will be thrilled to hear that the relatively less popular artist earned a spot in the nominations for Album of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. And one can’t help but think that some of the nominations were awarded on “Throwback Thursday”, as Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Led Zeppelin have all made the list in a variety of categories, including Album of the Year for Led Zeppelin’s reunion album.

Personally, I’m very pleased with the nominations this year. I’m ready for Lorde to sweep the board and take home at least three awards – though preferably not Song of the Year, as I’d love for Macklemore’s “Same Love” to come out on top in that category. And though I’m completely sure I’ll be cheering on “Royals” for Record of the Year, I’m torn between Bareilles and Daft Punk when it comes to Album of the Year.

There are, however, a couple of disappointments on the list. The absence of even a single nod towards Ariana Grande is pretty much equatable with heresy, in my eyes. The lack of One Direction and Lady Gaga nominations has upset a large number of people as well – and, as usual, they’ve taken to Twitter, starting a new hashtag: “Grammy’s Get Your S**t Together”. While they rant and rave about the absence of their favorites (Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez, to name a few), I am personally baffled by the fact that Lorde didn’t earn a well-deserved nomination for Best New Artist.

Now that the nominations are out, though, there’s nothing to do but wait until the winners are announced. Check back here in January for a reaction to the awards!