Lil Nas X, Brandi Carlile, and Lady Gaga were the most nominated LGBTQ artists for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, which were announced on Tuesday morning from the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, with each artist receiving five nominations.
For the first time, the Recording Academy eliminated voting committees and nominees were decided upon only by the Academy’s members. Moreover, the Academy expanded the number of nominees in the four main categories – Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist – from 8 to 10 nominees this year, in an announcement that came ten minutes before the nominations were announced.
Lil Nas X was nominated in all three big categories that he was nominated for, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.
In Record of the Year, Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” was nominated alongside Brandi Carlile and Lady Gaga, for “Right On Time” and “I Get A Kick Out Of You” (feat. Tony Bennett), respectively.
In Album of the Year, Lil Nas X’s “Montero” will be up against Gaga and Bennett’s “Love For Sale.”
In Song of the Year (an award that goes to the songwriters), Brandi Carlile will be up against herself! Both she and Brandy Clark were nominated for “A Beautiful Noise,” Carlile’s song performed with Alicia Keys. And Carlile is up for her solo track, “Right On Time.” Lil Nas X was also nominated in this category for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).”
And in Best New Artist, the last of “the big four” categories, Japanese Breakfast – led by queer singer Michelle Zauner – was nominated, alongside bisexual British artist, Arlo Parks.
Lil Nas X was also nominated for Best Music Video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and for Best Melodic Rap Performance (for “Industry Baby” feat. Jack Harlow). In the latter category, he’ll be up against Tyler the Creator, who’s also nominated for “Wusyname.”
Tyler the Creator also was nominated for Best Rap Album for “Call Me If You Get Lost.” Bi rapper Cardi B was nominated for Best Rap Performance for “Up.”
In addition to her two aforementioned nominations, bisexual singer Lady Gaga also received a nomination for Best Music Video for her and Bennett’s “I Get a Kick Out of You.” The song was also nominated in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. And lastly, Gaga and Bennett’s “Love For Sale” was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Brandi Carlile also received further nominations – for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Right On Time.” Over in the country categories, she received a nomination for Best American Roots Performance for “Same Devil” alongside Brandy Clark.
Also in country, The Brothers Osborne – the duo which includes out musician TJ Osborne – were nominated twice: for Best Country Duo Performance for their song “Younger Me” and Best Country Album for “Skeletons.”
In the electronic categories, DJ Tracy Young received her second Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording for her Fashionably Late Remix of k.d. lang’s “Constant Craving.” Young won the Grammy the first time she was nominated in 2019 for her remix of Madonna’s “I Rise.”
Halsey, St. Vincent, and Japanese Breakfast were all nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, for “If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power,” “Daddy’s Home,” and “Jubilee,” respectively.
Over in the Latin music categories, Pablo Alborán was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album for “Vértigo.” And bi Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis was nominated for Best Música Urbana Album for, “Sin Miedo (Del Amor y Otros Demionos).”
Stephen Schwartz was nominated for Best Musical Theater Album for “Steven Schwartz’s Snapshots.” He’ll be up against Cameron Mackintosh, who was nominated for “Les Misérables: The Staged Concert (The Sensational 2020 Live Recording).”
Musical theater songwriter Benj Pasek was nominated Best Song Written For Visual Media for co-writing P!nk’s “All I Know So Far” from Amazon Studios’ P!nk’s All I Know So Far.
Queer artist Tayla Parx was amongst the artists who helped Recording Academy president Harvey Mason Jr. in announcing nominees on Tuesday morning.
As GLAAD can’t know the sexual orientations or gender identities of all of the nominees in the Grammys 100+ categories, we inevitably will have missed some LGBTQ folks. GLAAD will update this article with any nominees we’ve missed as we learn about them going forward.
The 64th Annual Grammy Awards will take place live from Los Angeles, on Sunday, January 31st at 5pm PT/8pm ET and will broadcast on CBS.