From Taylor Swift to BTS, all the ways history could be made at the 2022 Grammy Awards
Go ahead, roll your eyes in disbelief that ABBA’s record of the year Grammy nomination for “I Still Have Faith in You” is the group’s first – coming only 40 years after the Swedish quartet’s prime.
And shake your head that Glass Animals, whose “Heat Waves” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 12 after a record-breaking 59-week climb, is among those vying for best new artist. If you weren’t aware, the British indie rockers sold 136,000 copies of their debut album, “Zaba,” in 2014 and the single “Gooey” from that release was certified platinum (more than 1 million sold) in 2018.
So, yes, as usual, there exist some oddities among this year’s Grammy Awards nominees.
But tucked amid the curious choices on the ballot exist genuine opportunities for history to be made at the 64th annual ceremony on Sunday (CBS, 8 EDT/5 PDT).
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Kanye West might be persona non grata as a performer, but he’ll vie for a bigger ego boost – surpassing a record currently held by Jay-Z – on Grammy night.
Likewise, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish and BTS could also inspire headlines with their potential wins.
Jon Batiste could win big – as in, bigger than Michael Jackson or Carlos Santana
Batiste leads this year’s nominations with 11, a notable feat in itself, but even more stunning that they’re all in different categories. His showing is the most diverse of all time and he could feasibly win them all. If so, he’d break a 22-year-old record, a tie between Michael Jackson (1984) and Santana (2000), who each won eight.
Who’ll have hip-hop bragging rights: Jay-Z or Ye?
Jay-Z possesses the most Grammys of any hip-hop artist with 23. He’s nominated for three this year, including two with Ye: “Donda,” Ye’s album of the year nominee, as well as their best rap song nominee “Jail.”
Ye, meanwhile, has earned 22 Grammys and is nominated for five more, including two in the album of the year race (“Donda” and his work on Lil Nas X’s “Montero”), so he could possibly win four. This feels like a lot of math, but even if Jay-Z and Ye share two wins, West still has the potential to surpass Jay-Z.
For your additional trivia needs, Jay-Z has leapfrogged Quincy Jones as the most nominated artist in Grammy history, with 83. Paul McCartney is now the second-most nominated artist of all time, with 81 career nominations, including this year’s two.
BTS has another shot at becoming the first K-pop Grammy winner
In 2021, BTS became the first K-pop act to receive a Grammy nomination (their “Dynamite” was bested by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain on Me” in best pop duo/group performance), while the year prior, their appearance with Lil Nas X deemed them the first Korean band to perform on the show.
With a nod this year in the same category for “Butter,” BTS could become the first Grammy-winning K-pop act.
Can Olivia Rodrigo duplicate Billie Eilish’s sweep in the ‘big four’ categories?
Rodrigo is a first-time nominee with seven Grammy nods, including record and song of the year (“Drivers License”), album (“Sour”) and best new artist. Should she sweep the “big four” categories, she will be the second woman and the second youngest, at 19, to accomplish the feat. (Eilish set the record at the 2020 Grammys when she won all four awards at 18.) Eilish’s achievement also crowned her the first woman to win those big four in the same night and the second artist to do so, following Christopher Cross in 1981.
