With Taylor, Beyoncé and Billie Likely to Lead 2025 Grammys, Will Men Be Shut Out of Album of the Year for the First Time?
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Even this far ahead of the 2025 Grammys, one thing can be said with virtually no shadow of a doubt: It won’t be a male artist picking up the album of the year trophy.
The bigger question is whether a man has a shot at even getting nominated among the eight slots open. Should a shutout turn out to be the case, it would mark a first in Grammy history — although it came close to happening with the ’24 Grammys, in which Jon Batiste was the only male artist nominated in the top category.
With just a month to go in the eligibility period for the Feb. 2, 2025 awards, it’s hard to find any album from a male artist that seems like a shoo-in, as women’s long-players continue to dominate the intersection of popular zeitgeist and tastemaker picks that the Grammys typically represent.
Even a list of long shots mostly favors women. With eight slots to be filled, three albums have have been viewed as locks for months: Taylor Swift‘s “The Tortured Poets Department,” Beyoncé‘s “Cowboy Carter” and Billie Eilish‘s “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” And we may just have reached the tipping point where it seems safe to lock in a fourth, a freshman effort dating back to late 2023 that’s come up from behind to be close to an utter certainty for an album of the year nod: Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” the buzz album of summer 2024.
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