The 2025 Grammy Awards take place on Sunday, February 2, once again hosted by Trevor Noah. Top nominees include Beyoncé, who leads the pack with 11 total nominations—a feat that brought her to 99 career nominations and broke a tie with her husband, Jay-Z. Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, and Charli XCX are close behind with seven nods each, while Recording Academy darling Taylor Swift secured six nominations, as did Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, who are in the Grammy race for the first time ever (and both in the running for Best New Artist).

This year’s main ceremony will be broadcast live from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on CBS and Paramount+ With Showtime. We’ve summed up who should win, and who will likely line their shelves with golden gramophones in key categories at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.

---

Record of the Year

• The Beatles – “Now and Then”
• Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ’Em”
• Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”
• Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”
• Charli XCX – “360”
• Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
• Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
• Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone – “Fortnight”

Should Win: Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”

Will Win: The Beatles – “Now and Then”

Whether or not you sank your teeth into the biggest rap beef of the year—the decade?—it’s impossible to deny that Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” defined 2024. Even when you set the lawsuit-spawning subject matter aside, you’re left with a biting, chant-inducing track expertly produced by Mustard, Sounwave, and Sean Momberger. Unlike the Song of the Year category, which specifically honors songwriters, the Recording Academy’s criteria for Record of the Year pertains to the artists, producers, and engineers who contribute to the song. Mustard’s irresistible rework of Monk Higgins’ “I Believe to My Soul,” saxophone blasts, which serve as the ominous pulse of “Not Like Us,” is Grammy-worthy all on its own, and Lamar’s venomous, motormouthed verses up the ante considerably. Still, given Drake’s recent legal actions, and the general controversy surrounding a hit single hurling accusations of pedophilia, the Academy may shy away from such an incendiary choice. And it’s easy to imagine Chappel Roan’s ubiquitous hit “Good Luck, Babe!,” which blared in every Uber, CVS, and Crunch gym on heavy rotation last year, nabbing the trophy… but will the Recording Academy be able to resist a posthumous fave? The Beatles, who have somehow never won a Record of the Year Grammy, are up for their alleged final song “Now and Then,” made from a dusty John Lennon demo and some top-notch AI technology. It’s a safe bet, something the Grammys know a lot about.

–Madison Bloom

Album of the Year

• André 3000 – New Blue Sun
• Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
• Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft
• Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
• Charli XCX – Brat
• Jacob Collier – Djesse Vol. 4
• Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
• Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department

Should Win: Charli XCX – Brat

Will Win: Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department

You’re lying to yourself if you think 2024 wasn’t the year of Brat. Whether you, like former President Barack Obama, were busy bumpin’ that, or the sheer sight of chartreuse turns your face green, Charli XCX came out on top after spending over a decade ascending to the height of Times Square skyscrapers—literally. Even after corporations clawed at the it-girl craze and spoiled the memes, Charli XCX strutted onward, unfazed, with high-profile remixes that gifted Brat’s songs a second life. Brat is a party album that functions year-round for clubbing teenagers and teary moms-to-be alike. It is the sound of 2024.

Wait, shouldn’t the award for Album of the Year go to Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, the artist with the most nods this year? Please, there are few things the Recording Academy loves to do more than letting Beyoncé’s stack of nominations pile high—so high that she’s the most-nominated artist in Grammys history with 99 nods, 11 of which are from this year—and celebrating her record-breaking 32 wins while simultaneously withholding every Album of the Year trophy. Instead, Recording Academy voters will likely be torn between two favored pop idols: Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Whichever album comes out on top, The Tortured Poets Department or Hit Me Hard and Soft, it won’t be a surprise considering how frequently both artists win. Given the cultural dominance and “Swiftonomics” of the 21-month-long Eras Tour; her very American love story captured in NFL stadiums; and her neverending rollout of bonus tracks, books, and vinyl variants, Swift once again taking the stage to accept Album of the Year, this time for The Tortured Poets Department, isn’t hard to envision. At this point, it’s muscle memory.

–Nina Corcoran

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”

Should Win: Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”

Will Win: Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”

While Song and Record of the Year are theoretically meant to honor different achievements, their shortlists usually end up looking very similar. That’s because the Grammys are just as concerned with dominance—of the culture, the airwaves, or past awards seasons—as they are with quality, if not more so. By that metric, 2025’s nominees represent a strong showing: six of the eight hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” tying the all-time record for most weeks spent atop the charts.

Still, if there’s one thing the Recording Academy loves more than chart performance, it’s a known quantity. Billie Eilish has won this category twice already, and, with the Hit Me Hard and Soft sleeper single “Birds of a Feather” becoming one of her biggest hits to date, another Eilish victory seems like a layup. But, for a choice that honors both the award’s stated and implicit purposes, “Good Luck, Babe!” takes the cake. The smash hit boasts arguably the best bridge of 2024, but Roan might still need more than a little luck to take this one home.

–Walden Green

Best Alternative Music Album

• Brittany Howard – What Now
• Clairo – Charm
• Kim Gordon – The Collective
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God
• St. Vincent – All Born Screaming

Should Win: Kim Gordon – The Collective

Will Win: St. Vincent – All Born Screaming

With a loose definition and a red carpet that regularly extends to indie artists, Best Alternative Music Album is one of the most exciting categories to watch each year. The 2025 contenders, like previous installments, all have a solid argument for why they deserve to win. This is Clairo’s first-ever nomination, thanks to Charm, and the bedroom pop artist’s ascent toward stardom mirrors her work: affecting, humble, and understated. Nick Cave’s previous two nominations before this year were for lesser-covered categories (Best Recording Package, Best Music Film), and he and the Bad Seeds deserve the recognition for their striking album Wild God. Never underestimate Brittany Howard or the electronic neo-soul of What Now, as her unshakeable voice and songwriting skills have earned her numerous nominations. Of course, the trophy will likely go to St. Vincent for All Born Screaming, as Annie Clark’s snarling rock talent is so singular that it spawned a signature guitar. She’s won three of her four Grammy nominations in the past and, thanks to her new album, officially doubled her overall nods.

Hopefully, the Recording Academy voters can all agree, however, that the best of the bunch this year is both a long time coming and totally fresh: Kim Gordon’s The Collective. Like a washing machine slamming trap beats, distorted guitar, and splintered cymbals against its metal drum, it’s brash and unflinching in the hands of its cool-headed creator. Sonic Youth were never nominated for a Grammy, and the fact that Gordon’s sophomore solo album broke through to the final shortlist this year speaks volumes about its accessibility as an experimental noise-rock LP. At the ripe age of 71, Gordon winning a Grammy would be a thrilling add to her long list of unexpected accomplishments.

–Nina Corcoran

Best Rap Album

• Common & Pete Rock – The Auditorium Vol. 1
• Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
• Eminem – The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)
• Future & Metro Boomin – We Don’t Trust You
• J. Cole – Might Delete Later

Should Win: Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal

Will Win: Eminem – The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)

Unfortunately for everyone nominated for Best Rap Album this year, they’re up against the reigning champion of the category: Eminem—who’s won this exact award six times before, the most of any artist— and his lackluster comeback record The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). A concept album about killing his alter ego, the LP digs its heels into the same mischievous antics that Eminem did when he was half his age, but it feels twice as long and tedious. That should take it out of contention, but there it is. Looming in its weak shadow are Future and Metro Boomin’s vengeful return on We Don’t Trust You, Common and Pete Rock’s easygoing collaboration The Auditorium Vol. 1, and J. Cole’s Might Delete Later, which infamously included a song digging at Kendrick Lamar that he did, in fact, delete.

And then there’s Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal, a self-assured, cheeky, and hypnotizing mixtape that feels like it wants to be her studio debut. The Top Dawg signee leaps beyond her TikTok hit and playful EPs with effortless storytelling and beats that harken back to ’90s hip-hop. She means business on “Bullfrog” and “Boiled Peanuts,” but she’s eager to poke fun at herself immediately afterward, too, on “Denial Is a River.” Why settle for the schoolyard zingers of Slim Shady when you can actually laugh out loud at lines that aren’t smirking at their own witticisms? When it comes to the Grammy for Best Rap Album, only one woman has ever won as a solo artist (Cardi B, with Invasion of Privacy, in 2019) and one group including a female member has taken home the trophy (Fugees, with The Score, in 1997). Let’s not wait another 20 years to raise that number.

–Nina Corcoran

Best Rock Performance

• The Beatles – “Now and Then”
• The Black Keys – “Beautiful People (Stay High)”
• Green Day – “The American Dream Is Killing Me”
• Idles – “Gift Horse”
• Pearl Jam – “Dark Matter”
• St. Vincent – “Broken Man”

Should Win: St. Vincent – “Broken Man”

Will Win: Green Day – “The American Dream Is Killing Me”

A frequent guest of the Alternative category, Annie Clark has proved again and again that she can out-rock and out-shred every nominee in this dude-dominated section. Of course St. Vincent is the Pitchfork pick for Best Rock Performance—especially given the alternatives: stale fist-pumpers from Pearl Jam and Idles, a pop-punk anthem from Green Day, a resuscitated Beatles demo, and the same backwashed blues rock the Black Keys have been releasing forever.

St. Vincent won her first Grammy back in 2015, earning Best Alternative Music Album for her self-titled LP. Her first rock accolade came in 2019, when “Masseduction” nabbed Best Rock Song at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. Her new Best Rock Performance nominee, “Broken Man,” is lurching and angular, and spiked with agile guitar riffs. Plus, Clark’s performance of the All Born Screaming single on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last year solidified her rock status once again, as she flailed on stage and shoved through the studio audience, snarling straight into the camera. Nevertheless, the Recording Academy has favored Green Day in the Rock category before—first for American Idiot (Best Rock Album), back in 2005, and again, in 2008, for their cover of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” (Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals). It seems that the trio’s latest “protest” number will get the final vote.

–Madison Bloom

Best Alternative Music Performance

• Cage the Elephant – “Neon Pill”
• Fontaines D.C. – “Starburster”
• Kim Gordon – “Bye Bye”
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – “Song of the Lake”
• St. Vincent – “Flea”

Should Win: Kim Gordon – “Bye Bye”

Will Win: St. Vincent – “Flea”

In a just world, the way Kim Gordon enunciates each syllable of “Eck-haus Lat-ta” on “Bye Bye” would be enough to nab her the award for Best Alternative Music Performance. Not to mention some belated appreciation for the Sonic Youth alumna feels in order, especially considering that her former band, despite being one of the most influential alternative acts of all time, never received a single Grammy nomination. A win for Fontaines D.C.’s rage-rap panic attack “Starburster” also wouldn’t be unwelcome—or entirely surprising, considering I couldn’t get tickets to see them in Brooklyn last year for less than $100.

If only they weren’t going up against St. Vincent, who’s won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album two of the three times she’s been nominated and, had this category existed those years, probably would’ve dominated there, too. Also working in her favor is the back-to-basics narrative around her latest album, All Born Screaming. And this is the Grammys, so there’s always a chance they go with the mainstream-not-alternative pick Cage the Elephant.

–Walden Green

Best Dance/Electronic Recording

• Disclosure – “She’s Gone, Dance On”
• Four Tet – “Loved”
• Fred Again.. & Baby Keem – “Leavemealone”
• Justice & Tame Impala – “Neverender”
• Kaytranada Featuring Childish Gambino – “Witchy”

Should Win: Four Tet – “Loved”

Will Win: Disclosure – “She’s Gone, Dance On”

Who wouldn’t love it if Four Tet finally secured his much-deserved golden gramophone? It’s just tough to imagine that the subtle tones and languid pace of Kieren Hebden’s “Loved” will catch the ear of the Grammy voters, who recently awarded the Best Dance/Electronic Recording trophy to club bangers like Skrillex, Fred Again.., and Flowdan’s “Rumble” and Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul.” The former accolade makes it less likely that Fred Again..’s Baby Keem–sampling “Leavemealone” will take home the 2025 award. Justice and Tame Impala’s slinky “Neverender” and Kaytranada and Childish Gambino’s funk-inflected “Witchy” aren’t quite as mellow as Four Tet’s entry, but their lax tempo makes me point to Disclosure’s frothing, pitched-up dance cut “She’s Gone, Dance On” as a likely contender. The fact that the Brothers Lawrence have nine prior Grammy nominations—with zero wins—makes their impending coronation feel all the more plausible.

–Madison Bloom

Best Dance Pop Recording

• Ariana Grande – “Yes, And?”
• Billie Eilish – “L’Amour de Ma Vie [Over Now Extended Edit]”
• Charli XCX – “Von Dutch”
• Madison Beer – “Make You Mine”
• Troye Sivan – “Got Me Started”

Should Win: Charli XCX – “Von Dutch”

Will Win: Charli XCX – “Von Dutch”

The Best Dance Pop Recording category is still practically an infant. Making its debut last year, the accolade was created as a complement to the Best Dance/Electronic Recording section, with a focus on songs that “feature up-tempo, danceable music that follows a pop arrangement.” In its inaugural year, Kylie Minogue snagged the trophy with her hit single “Padam Padam,” which pumped out of speakers in nightclubs and Pride parades alike. Most of this year’s nominees, however, barely quicken the pulse, be it Madison Beer’s thumping snoozefest “Make You Mine” or Troye Sivan’s jazzy “Got Me Started.” But one woman understood the assignment; with a staggering seven nominations, this has to be the year Charli XCX lands her first Grammy Award. The Brit’s walloping Brat single “Von Dutch,” which actually has the capacity to induce ass-shaking, should 100% take home the trophy in this category’s second year. The Recording Academy can’t deny the dominion of Brat.

–Madison Bloom

Best Pop Vocal Album

• Ariana Grande – Eternal Sunshine
• Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft
• Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
• Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
• Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department

Should Win: Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet

Will Win: Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

For the past couple of years, Grammy voting for Best Pop Vocal Album has lined up neatly with each ceremony’s eventual Album of the Year winner, but I think the award has been more interesting when given to less conventional records (Future Nostalgia, Sweetener) that can’t quite break into a given year’s major categories. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess certainly ticks the box for originality, and, if her unapologetic queerness or red carpet antics get her shut out of the big four, it’s easy to imagine the Recording Academy using this award to stake its claim on one of our biggest rising stars.

Then again, if it’s exemplary pop music you’re after, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet is a high bar to clear. While the choice to submit different tracks for Song and Record of the Year could come back to bite her, a victory here would be a well-deserved celebration of the exemplary album tracks—”Good Graces,” ”Bed Chem,” “Juno”—that have dominated Short n’ Sweet’s post-release cycle. Always lurking, of course, is another win for Grande, Eilish, or Swift, all of whom have taken this trophy home at least once before.

–Walden Green

Best New Artist

• Benson Boone
• Doechii
• Chappell Roan
• Khruangbin
• Raye
• Sabrina Carpenter
• Shaboozey
• Teddy Swims

Should Win: Chappell Roan

Will Win: Chappell Roan

There are only three acts in the running for Best New Artist this year who warrant re-explaining just how “new” a musician has to be for consideration; as long as the performer recently released a record that propelled them to broader fame, they qualify. Sabrina Carpenter dropped her first album in 2015, but it wasn’t until her sixth, Short n’ Sweet, that Americans got hooked on her sugary pop espresso. Shaboozey’s been yeehawing in the club as far back as 2014, but his record-making single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” refused to exit the Billboard charts last year. Most pleasantly unexpected of all is Khruangbin, the Houston trio whose blend of funk, psych-rock, and soul has steadily put viewers in a daze until 2024’s A La Sala boosted the band’s rise significantly. Everyone else in the running this year makes sense: Top Dawg Entertainment rapper Doechii flexed words with belligerence and star power on her third release, Alligator Bites Never Heal; Raye dominated her UK scene with the audacious My 21st Century Blues; Teddy Swims crooned his way to a billion plays with the country-soul single “Lose Control”; and Benson Boone’s TikTok rock hit “Beautiful Things” is as startling as his onstage backflips.

Maybe this year, though, we can finally have it both ways. Chappell Roan has been releasing music for eight years, but her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, didn’t arrive until October 2023, following one major label drop, an independent run, and signing to another major label. Though her campy spin on pop and drag-inspired outfits had already fostered a cult following, she claimed the mainstream in 2024 with a snowballing run of breakouts: an opening slot on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour, a viral “Tiny Desk Concert” performance, and headline-worthy crowd turnouts during midday sets at Lollapalooza and Governors Ball that forced festivals like Bonnaroo to frantically upgrade her slot to the main stage. Roan deserves Best New Artist not because of the unmissable glow-up of her live routine, but because her songs reinvent the art-pop extremities of Kate Bush and Katy Perry while bringing sincerity and sass to the modern day realities of queer longing.

–Nina Corcoran