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A look at Grammy submissions...

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Image source: Recording Academy

The season for music’s most coveted night is here. The 67th annual Grammy awards will take place on February 2nd where several A-listers are sure to be in attendance. Who exactly will that be though? We’ll get a good idea of that on November 8th when nominations are announced. Before the unveiling of the nominations though, Recording Academy members go through a round of voting which determines said nominees. This year is shaping up to be one of the most competitive ceremonies in recent memory as we’ve had releases from established Grammy winners like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and many more, as well as newcomers Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter — two stars who are expected to score their first nomination this year.

Voting started on October 4th and concludes October 15th. Artists and labels are given the liberty to choose what songs/albums they want to submit for voters’ consideration. Here’s a rundown on the submissions from some of the top artists this year:

Sabrina submits Please Please Please for Song of the Year, Espresso for Record of the Year

Image source: Please Please Please music video

Sabrina Carpenter, who has had one of the biggest moments of the year, is making sure both of her monster hits are looked at. Please Please Please went into Song of the Year, while Espresso was reserved for Record of the Year. The former is historically a category that focuses on songwriting while the latter usually goes to one of the year’s biggest hits. Evidently, Carpenter and her team are focused on Espresso as it’s also up for consideration in Best Pop Solo — after all, it did kick off the year of Sabrina Carpenter.

Taylor submits I Can Do It With A Broken Heart instead of Cruel Summer (Live) in Best Pop Solo

Image source: Getty Images

Coming off a historic fourth Album of the Year win for Midnights and the Eras Tour still in full swing, Taylor Swift is now up for consideration with The Tortured Poets Department. Her blockbuster eleventh studio album has submissions across the board, including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with the Post Malone-assisted Fortnight and Best Pop Solo with I Can Do It With A Broken Heart. Interestingly enough, Cruel Summer (Live from TS The Eras Tour) was eligible for the 2025 Grammys — but it seems that Swift opted not to mix the resurged Lover hit with Tortured Poets.

Cruel Summer was easily one of the defining hits of 2023. After being a fan-favorite for four years, it saw a huge boost once Swift kicked off the monumental Eras Tour and went on to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It likely would have been one of the top contenders in the ticket for Best Pop Solo Performance, had it been submitted. While I Can Do It With A Broken Heart is only up for consideration in this category, Fortnight went to the main categories and Best Pop Duo/Group performance — where it is expected to be one of the front-runners.

Beyoncé submits Cowboy Carter tracks across multiple genres, including Country Album

Image source: Beyoncé

One of the most acclaimed releases of the year has been Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s eighth solo studio album and act two of her Renaissance-led trilogy. Award shows so far though, have not had the same sentiment towards the record. It has already been shut out of the CMAs despite carrying one of the biggest country hits of the year, Texas Hold ‘Em, which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made Beyoncé the first Black woman in history to top the chart with a Country song. Additionally, Cowboy Carter made her the first Black woman to hit number one on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

Whether the Recording Academy has the same reception to the album remains to be seen. The record and its tracks have been distributed for submissions across multiple genres — including Pop (Bodyguard, Levii’s Jeans), R&B (Tyrant), Rap (Spaghetti) and Americana (Ya Ya). In the Country field, 16 Carriages is up for consideration in Best Country Solo, Texas Hold ‘Em in Best Country Song, and the project as a whole in Best Country Album.

Ariana submits yes, and? for Best Pop Dance, we can’t be friends goes to main categories

Image source: Katia Temkin

Ariana Grande’s seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine is one of the most compelling entries at this year’s Grammys with its campaign being led by the acclaimed we can’t be friends (wait for your love) — which is aiming for nominations in the main categories. The first single off the record yes, and? is being submitted to Best Pop Dance Recording.

As a whole, Eternal Sunshine is being submitted to Best Pop Vocal Album and, of course, Album of the Year. If nominated, it would become Grande’s second nod in the top category following 2020’s thank u, next.

BRAT goes for consideration in Dance/Electronic, Guess remix submitted for Best Pop Duo

Image source: 360 music video

BRAT summer has come to an end, but its Grammy campaign is just starting. After multiple A-list remixes and a wave of presidential memes, Charli xcx is looking to score her first batch of Grammy nominations as a lead artist — and first since Fancy with Iggy Azalea back in 2015. The project was submitted in the Best Dance/Electronic field — for song and album — and in the Engineering/Audio field (Best Immersive Audio Album, Best Engineered Album, Non Classical).

One of the most interesting choices from BRAT’s Grammy submissions was the Guess remix being submitted for consideration in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, notably over the Girl, so confusing remix with Lorde — which initially seemed to provide a compelling campaign narrative. Guess, to its credit though, was the most successful of the released BRAT remixes so far. The track peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the fact that Billie Eilish has one of the most impressive track records in recent Grammy years certainly doesn't hurt its chances. Charli xcx can only strengthen her Grammy chances from here and that will continue when her remix album Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat arrives this Friday.

Billie submits Birds of a Feather

Image source: William Drumm

One of the big contenders at the Grammys is bound to be Billie Eilish with her monster hit Birds of a Feather and its parent album Hit Me Hard and Soft. Eilish is vying to score nominations in the general fields, as well as the pop categories. She is coming off a fresh win for her universally-acclaimed What Was I Made For? in Song of the Year, a category she also won with bad guy. Billie isn’t a stranger in Record of the Year either — taking the category in 2020, also for bad guy, and in 2021 for everything i wanted.

Sabrina qualifies for Best New Artist, front-runner along with Chappell Roan

Images: Island Records

A main point of discourse this Grammy season has been the debate around Sabrina Carpenter and whether she should be allowed to compete for Best New Artist, given that she is six albums in and has been around since her Disney days. This year, however, was the first time Carpenter saw notable mainstream success with Espresso, Please Please Please and the release of her album Short n’ Sweet. Despite the conversation around how the academy should consider her, THR confirmed days before voting began that Sabrina Carpenter officially qualified to compete in the category — as decided by the committee.

If nominated though, Sabrina isn’t the only front-runner for Best New Artist. Chappell Roan, for her part, has had a sensational year. Her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is likely to score some nods of its own, as well as her breakthrough hit Good Luck, Babe! which is currently sitting in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. When all is said and done, Sabrina and Chappell are the front-runners for Best New Artist but Shaboozey — who currently has the reigning song in the country for 13 weeks — is not to be counted out either.

Taylor, Gaga and Celine looking to compete in Best Music Film, Renaissance not submitted

Image source: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert film is probably a shoe-in for this category, but there are multiple other A-listers with submissions in here as well. This includes Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball film which debuted on MAX earlier this year and, like Eras, debuted to rave reviews from critics and fans alike. Another top submission in Best Music Film was Celine Dion with her I Am Celine documentary, which provided an insight into the legend’s recent health struggles and how she has navigated life through it all. A name that stood out for not being among the submissions, as reported by Variety, was Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour film which documented her 2023 tour and gave fans a glimpse behind the scenes.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Eras Tour doesn’t win Best Music Film, especially following the universal acclaim of the tour itself which has become the highest-grossing of all time — and the movie’s own records. The film’s opening weekend became the biggest-ever for a concert movie and ultimately went on to be the highest-grossing concert film in history with $267 million at the global box office.

Die With A Smile submitted to main categories and Best Pop Duo/Group performance

Image source: John Esparza

A powerhouse combination and an undeniable Grammy contender arrived just in time to make the ballot. Die With A Smile has positioned itself as a front-runner in Best Pop Duo/Group performance, while also up for consideration in the main categories. How voters will evaluate this track is still uncertain, given its later release in the eligibility period. However, come November 8th, it will not come as a surprise to see it mentioned several times throughout the nominations livestream, especially for a power track helmed by two Grammy favorites like Gaga and Bruno.