While Sunday’s Grammy Awards (CBS and Paramount+, 8 p.m. EST/5 PST) once again promise the possibility of surprises (will country singer Gayle beat long odds and take song of the year with her debut single, “abcdefu”?), they also are apt to cue up a few seriously historic moments.
Think in terms of absolute all time Grammy Award champ, and most winning rapper of all time, to name a few possible highlight moments.
Not surprisingly, those likely to hit those Grammy highs are for the most part boldfaced names largely known by one moniker only, from Beyoncé to Taylor to Adele. We run down who has the biggest shot at being etched into the Grammy record book.
Will Beyoncé and Jay-Z steal the show? Might Viola Davis add the G to EGOT?
Look for music’s superstars – and one spectacular actress – to possibly make a splash:
- The first couple of music, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, could etch their names in Grammy history as, respectively, most awarded artist and most awarded rapper.
- As ubiquitous as Taylor Swift may be, this could be the year she finally takes song of the year honors and makes it an even dozen gramophone statuettes.
- Puerto Rican singer and actor Bad Bunny (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) is looking to be the first artist to take album of the year honors for a Spanish-language record.
- Actress Viola Davis is up for a Grammy for narrating her memoir “Finding Me,” which would put her in rare company of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) winners.
Could Beyoncé become the most awarded artist in Grammy history?
Beyoncé is likely to become the most awarded artist ever, given that she has nine nominations this year. Right now she has 28 awards from 79 previous nominations, tied in second place overall with producer Quincy Jones at 28 awards from his 80 nominations. Both of them sit behind Hungarian conductor Georg Solti, who has 31 Grammys in 74 nominations.
Beyoncé won her first Grammy in 2001 for “Say My Name” when she was part of the trio Destiny’s Child. Despite all that hardware, she has never won a Grammy in two of the most prestigious categories: album of the year and record of the year. She has nominations in both this year, for her album “Renaissance” and her song “Break My Soul.”
Will Jay-Z become the most awarded rapper of all time?
Jay-Z, with 24 Grammy Awards, seems poised to take the title of most Grammy-laureled rapper in history, given his four nominations compared with none this year for the man he’s looking to pass: Ye (Kanye West), who also has 24.
The Brooklyn-raised rapper has a staggering 88 nominations, including this year’s quartet that includes nods for album of the year (for his work on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance”) and song (for “Break My Soul”).
He’s tied with his wife in total nominations, and both have rocketed past Paul McCartney, who has garnered 81 Grammy nominations to date.
Will Taylor Swift win her first song of the year with the long version of ‘All Too Well’?
Since winning her first Grammy in 2010 (for “White Horse” off “Fearless”), Taylor Swift has racked up 11 awards from 46 nominations, including four in 2023.
But this time she has a chance at making personal history. Having never won in the vaunted song of the year category (a songwriting award), Swift has a shot with the 10-minute short-film version of “All Too Well,” her song about the tumultuous relationship of a couple with a notable age difference.
Swift has been nominated in the category six times, on par with past winners Lionel Richie and McCartney.
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 song “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 made them the first Korean band to perform on the show.
In 2022, another attempt at that epic K-pop Grammy first with their hit song “Butter” was thwarted by Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More.”
This year, with three years of successive Grammy nominations, BTS has another shot at history with their song “My Universe,” a collaboration with Coldplay. The band is nominated in three categories: best pop duo/group performance, best music video (“Yet to Come”) and best album (for their appearance on Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres”).
Bad Bunny could be the first album of the year winner with a Spanish-language record
Bad Bunny had quite a year, from acting opposite Brad Pitt in the action thriller “Bullet Train” to releasing his hit-packed album “Un Verano Sin Ti” (“A Summer Without You”).
Now an album of the year nominee, Bad Bunny is on the brink of landing the first Spanish-language album of the year Grammy, which would serve as quite the marker in terms of the Recording Academy getting with the nation’s multicultural reality.
Just two Latin artists have had a shot at album of the year honors, though none for a slate of songs in Spanish. They are Mexican-born Carlos Santana, who won in 2000 with “Supernatural,” and Cardi B, who was nominated in 2019 for “Invasion of Privacy” but was bested by Kacey Musgraves’ “Golden Hour.”
Adele’s outside shot at making Grammy history
Adele is back in fighting form, with seven Grammy nominations for 2023 for her work on the album “30.” She has won 15 Grammys and has 25 nominations. But the competition is particularly stiff in all of Adele’s categories this year.
But the British singer could make history by becoming the first songwriter to win three times in song of the year if she wins for “Easy On Me” (past wins were for “Rolling In The Deep” and “Hello”).
If she won record of the year for “Easy On Me,” she would join Bruno Mars and Paul Simon with that trifecta and be the first woman to hit that target. And a win for album of the year, which would be her third, allows her to join an elite group consisting of Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Taylor Swift, while being the only one to win for three consecutive albums.
Viola Davis shoots for the EGOT
Viola Davis, fresh off her starring role in “The Woman King,” is poised to make entertainment history if she wins a Grammy for her spoken word album nomination for “Finding Me: A Memoir,” which chronicles her journey from Rhode Island to Hollywood.
A win at the Grammys would give her the G in EGOT, the coveted acronym reserved for those who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. That group includes performers such as Jennifer Hudson, Rita Moreno, John Legend, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Robert Lopez, Whoopi Goldberg and Mike Nichols, to name a few.
Davis won her Oscar in 2017 (for “Fences”), her Tonys in 2001 (“King Hedley II”) and 2010 (“Fences”), and her Emmy in 2015 (“How to Get Away With Murder”).
To help get you in the Grammy groove:
Story Credit: usatoday.com