The 2022 Grammy Awards will see the total number of categories increase from 84 to 86, but that’s not the show’s only big change. The Recording Academy also expanded the number of nominees in three categories: Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist, all of which are going from eight to ten. And as a new report from TheNThe New York Times, that may have allowed some of this year’s big albums — and a number of songs — may not have made the cut otherwise.
As per the piece, both Ye’s Donda and Taylor Swift’s Evermore were absent from the initial list of nominees that circulated before last week’s official announcement. They weren’t the only ones. Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and ABBA’s “I Still Have Faith in You” received nominations for Record Of The Year, but only after the expansion. The same goes for Song of the Year nominees like Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” and Brandi Carlile’s “Right On Time.” Meanwhile, Baby Keem and Arooj Aftab landed nominations in the Best New Artist category, but only after the nomination.
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, told NYT the last-minute expansion was done “to make room for more music, more artists and more genres, and to embrace the spirit of inclusion.” He added that artists added to the categories were the ninth and tenth mos-tvoted-for by the Recording Academy’s members. “For us this is all positive movement,” Mason said. “This is us honoring more great artists, more great music, giving artists an opportunity to shine and showcase.”
You can revisit the full list of 2022 Grammy nominees here.