Grammys 2025 nominations live: Charli XCX up for Album of the Year with Beyonce and Taylor Swift

It seems the Grammys voting academy might have reached Taylor Swift saturation point, as the pop titan is far less dominant in the 2025 nominations as she was for this year’s awards show.

So far, she’s only got two big nominations and both of them are collaborations: her single “Fortnight” ft Post Malone, and her guest feature on Gracie Abrams’ song “Us”.

At the moment, Beyonce seems to be dominating thanks to her album Cowboy Carter, along with Chappell Roan for her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish.

Song of the Year Beyoncé - Texas Hold ’Em // Billie Eilish - Birds of a Feather // Chappell Roan - Good Luck, Babe! // Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us // Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars - Die With a Smile // Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please // Shaboozey - A Bar Song (Tipsy) // Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone - Fortnight

Best R&B Album

Chris Brown - 11:11 (Deluxe), Lalah Hathaway - Vantablack, Lucky Daye - Algorithm, Muni Long - Revenge, Usher - Coming Home

Best R&B Performance

Chris Brown - Residuals, Coco Jones - Here We Go (Uh Oh), Jhené Aiko - Guidance, Muni Long - Made for Me (Live on BET), SZA - Saturn

Best Country Album Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter, Chris Stapleton - Higher, Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well, Lainey Wilson - Whirlwind, Post Malone - F-1 Trillion

Best Country Solo Performance Beyoncé - 16 Carriages, Chris Stapleton - It Takes a Woman, Jelly Roll - I Am Not Okay, Kacey Musgraves - The Architect, Shaboozey - A Bar Song (Tipsy)

Best New Artist Benson Boone Doechii Chappell Roan Khruangbin Raye Sabrina Carpenter Shaboozey Teddy Swims

Here’s Gayle King, telling us what an amazing year for music it’s been. Not much argument from me, I’ve enjoyed it.

OK, here we go with the nominees for Songwriter and Producer of the Year (non-classical).

Songwriter we have, Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Edgar Berrera, Jessie Jo Dillon, and RAYE!

Producer of the Year: Alissia, Dernst “D Mile” Emile II, Ian Fithcuk, Mustard and Daniel Nigro.

A reminder that when the nominations do begin to be announced, they end up doing it at pretty lightning speed. I’ll be offering quick takes on some of the most notable nominations as they come, but you can also find the rolling updated full list of nominees from my fab colleague Inga, which will be live the moment the first category is announced.

Not long to wait now! The pre-announcement bit is happening in five minutes, while the nominations themselves are happening at 4pm UK time (8am PT, 11am ET).

It feels as though there are a few dead certs that will end up in this year’s Big Four categories at the Grammy Awards.

A reminder of the “big four”: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

For the unitiated and because it is a bit confusing: Song of the Year recognises the composition of a song and the writers behind it, while Record of the Year deals with the artists, producers and engineers who contributed to that song.

Personally I think it would be a shock if Taylor Swift isn’t nominated for a record-breaking seventh Album of the Year nod, for 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department. While I’d argue the album itself suffers from being overly long (in a big way), Swift is a Grammys darling and, regardless of length, Tortured Poets contains some of her finest songwriting to date. “Fortnight” could get a nomination for Song of the Year and possibly also Record of the Year, and I imagine Best Pop Solo Perforance and Best Pop Vocal Album, too.

There are two artists who could sweep the Big Four categories: Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Both are likely to end up with Best New Artist nominations (and subsequently reigniting the age-old debate of “new”, given Carpenter is on her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet. This, and Roan’s debut The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, are strong contenders for Album of the Year thanks to critical raves for each, and strong commercial performances to boot.

Carpenter’s mega hit single “Espresso” is likely to end up in both the Song and Record of the Year categories, as is Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”.

It’s likely that all four categories will be dominated by US artists this year, but one singer flying the flag for the UK could be Charli XCX, who rose to a higher level of international fame thanks to her trend-setting and critically adored sixth album, Brat.

Beyonce should get a nod for her country-influenced album Cowboy Carter, along with Kendrick Lamar for his incendiary Drake diss track, “Not Like Us”.