Grammy season will soon be in full swing. Equally as exciting as the Grammy Awards is the week leading up to the ceremony, which is typically jam-packed with events celebrating all things music. The Recording Academy has announced a round of events taking place within the week, one of which is a special Michael Kushner, Atlantic Records’ executive VP of business & legal affairs and general counsel.
You can see the slate of events below (via Billboard).
Wednesday, January 31
A Celebration of Craft: Presented by Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings
The Grammy Museum
7 p.m.
Recording Academy private event: by invitation only
Thursday, February 1
2024 Recording Academy Honors presented by the Black Music Collective
Fairmont Century Plaza
7 p.m.
Recording Academy private event: by invitation only
Friday, February 2
Grammy U Masterclass, Presented by Mastercard
11 a.m.: Doors
1 p.m.: Panel/Livestream
Recording Academy event: by invitation only
26th Annual Entertainment Law Initiative Honoring Michael Kushner
Beverly Wilshire Hotel
11 a.m.
Recording Academy private event: by invitation only
MusiCares Person of the Year Honoring Jon Bon Jovi
Los Angeles Convention Center
5 p.m.
MusiCares event
UnitedMasters: A Celebration Of Independence
Featuring Uncle Waffles, Tokischa and special guests
Hollywood Palladium
9:30 p.m.
By invitation only
Saturday, February 3
Special Merit Awards Ceremony and 66th Annual Grammy Nominees Reception
Wilshire Ebell Theatre
2:30 p.m.
Recording Academy private event: by invitation only
Pre-Grammy Gala
Honoring Jon Platt
The Beverly Hilton
7 p.m.
Recording Academy private event: by invitation only
Sunday, February 4
66th Annual Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony
Peacock Theater
11:30 a.m.: Doors
12:30 p.m.: Awards Ceremony
Recording Academy event
66th Annual Grammy Awards Telecast
Hosted by Trevor Noah
Crypto.com Arena
5 to 8:30 p.m.
Recording Academy event
Grammy Celebration
Los Angeles Convention Center, West Hall
8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Recording Academy event
The Grammys will return for their 66th annual awards show next February at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles, California. The upcoming awards boast a hefty list of nominees, with SZA taking the most with 9 nominations. And once again, with comedian and The Daily Show host Trevor Noah hosting the 2024 awards show.
Noah has hosted the show quite a few times over the past few years, and has instantly become a crowd favorite. Warming up the crowd with his witty humor and timely jokes, it’s no wonder he keeps getting asked to come back.
How many times has Trevor Noah hosted the Grammys?
Noah has previously hosted the Grammy Awards three times — the 65th awards in 2023, the 64th awards in 2022, and the 63rd awards in 2021. The 66th awards in 2024 will mark his fourth time hosting the awards.
Noah announced the news earlier this week during his Spotify exclusive podcast What Now? With Trevor Noah.
“I’m excited about that,” Noah said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Trevor Noah isn’t a professional musician, but he has had a noteworthy role in the music industry in recent years: Since 2021, he has hosted the Grammy Awards ceremony. He’s done it for the past three years now, and in 2024, he’ll keep the run alive as he hosts the show for a fourth time.
On a new episode of his What Now? With Trevor Noah podcast shared yesterday (December 13), Noah said (as Variety reports), “I think it’s also important to acknowledge something: I’m hosting the Grammys. I’m excited about that, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy the Grammys because I get to watch the show in person and then experience and comment on it in person while it is happening.”
Worth noting is that in addition to hosting, Noah actually has a nomination this year, too, in the Best Comedy Album category for I Wish You Would. He’s up against Chris Rock’s Selective Outrage, Dave Chappelle’s What’s In A Name?, Sarah Silverman’s Someone You Love, and Wanda Sykes’s I’m An Entertainer.
In a 2022 interview, Noah explained what he likes about hosting the show, saying, “I’m enjoying the fact that we’re juggling flaming swords. […] You develop a deep appreciation for what these people are doing beyond just the music that they make.”
The 2024 Grammys are set for February 4, 2024. In the meantime, find the full list of nominees here.
A Grammy Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop aired on Sunday, December 10 after the live show in November, and once it was out in the open, executive producer Questlove answered fans’ questions on Twitter. In addition to allegeding that the stress of producing the show cost him a couple of teeth, he also revealed which rap star’s declined invitation “hurt the most.”
The pick might be a surprise for fans whoo weren’t around for that artist’s dominant run in the ’90s, but that’s why we have the Hip-Hop 50 celebration in the first place: to teach or remind younger fans where the culture came from from and how it’s evolved. “Of all the ‘No’s,’” the Roots drummer wrote. “Hammer hurt the most. We really wanted him to have his flowers.”
Of all the “No’s”….Hammer hurt the most. We really wanted him to have his flowers
Although Quest didn’t go into details about why any of the invited artists turned down the show (most likely did so due to scheduling conflicts), Quest also confirmed that 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, and Wu-Tang Clan were all asked. And while there are clearly fans who were disappointed, the producer called it a “blessing in disguise.”
“Got a gazillion ‘no’s’ but mid edit we were like this was a blessing in disguise,” he explained. “The reason this is dope is because ‘Normally’ we only celebrate ‘the winners’ & ignore ‘the loved.’ This changes all of that.” He’s not wrong; the full list of performers includes some oft-overlooked names in the rap discussion, from DJ Quik and Yo-Yo to Three 6 Mafia and everyone in between. For a full list of performers, see below.
Got a gazillion “no’s” but mid edit we were like this was a blessing in disguise. The reason this is dope is because “Normally” we only celebrate “the winners” & ignore “the loved”. This changes all of that. https://t.co/c0B8IYVsHv
Queen Latifah and Monie Love — “Ladies First”
MC Sha-Rock — “It’s The Joint”
Roxanne Shanté — “Roxanne’s Revenge”
J.J. Fad — “Supersonic”
MC Lyte — “Cha Cha Cha”
Remy Ma — “All The Way Up”
Latto — “Put It On Da Floor”
Ensemble Finale — “U.N.I.T.Y.”
HIP-HOP SOUTH
Jeezy — “Put On”
T.I. — “What You Know”
Bun B — “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)”
GloRilla — “Tomorrow 2”
Three 6 Mafia — “Stay Fly”
Jermaine Dupri — “Welcome to ATL”
Boosie Badazz — “Wipe Me Down”
Uncle Luke — “Scarred” / I Wanna Rock (Doo Doo Brown)”
PUBLIC ENEMY
“Don’t Believe the Hype”
“Fight the Power / Welcome To The Terrordome”
“Bring The Noise”
WEST COAST
With Battlecat as DJ, and Mustard as hypeman:
Warren G — “Regulate”
The Luniz — “5 On It”
The Lady of Rage — “Afro Puffs”
YG — “Who Do You Love”
Tyga — “Rack City”
Roddy Ricch — “Ballin’”
DJ Quik — “Tonite”
Yo-Yo — “You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo”
Cypress Hill — “Hand On The Pump” / “How I Could Just Kill A Man”
Too $hort — “Blow The Whistle”
E-40 — “Tell Me When To Go”
Will Diddy’s Grammy nomination be taken away, and will he be welcome at the 2024 show? That’s unclear as of now, but the Recording Academy is at least looking into it.
“We are taking this matter very seriously and we are in the process of evaluating it with the time and care that it deserves,” the Recording Academy said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone.
As for Diddy’s nomination, based on recent precedent, it doesn’t appear likely it will be rescinded. In response to Marilyn Manson receiving a Grammy nomination in 2021, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said at the time:
“We won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration. We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria. If it is, they can submit for consideration.
What we will control is our stages, our shows, our events, our red carpets. We’ll take a look at anyone who is asking to be a part of that, asking to be in attendance, and we’ll make our decisions at that point. But we’re not going to be in the business of restricting people from submitting their work for our voters to decide on.”
Find the full list of 2024 Grammy nominations here.
Recently Questlove, musician, author, and director, served as curator for the Grammys‘ tribute to 50 years of hip-hop, bringing together pioneers like Grandmaster Flash and newcomers like Lil Uzi Vert. While the transitions through the decades appeared smooth onstage, Questlove was falling apart behind the scenes. On December 7, during an interview on Grammy.com, Questlove claimed due to the sheer level of stress brought on by all of the planning, he lost two teeth by the end of the process.
“After the success of the thing that we did in March — that 12-minute revue thing — I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “For 12 minutes, that was like going through damn near, and I’m not even using hyperbolic statements by saying, coming out within an inch of my life.”
He continued, “When that moment was literally over, and I was on the airplane landing back in New York, two of my teeth fell out. That’s the level of stress I was [under]. Imagine landing in JFK, and I got to rush to ‘The Tonight Show,’ but then it’s like, Oh, wait, what’s happening? Oh God, no! My teeth are falling out! And going to emergency surgery. My whole takeaway was like: Never again.”
It looks like the culture owes Questlove a considerable debt and reimbursement for medical expenses.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
As more music moguls face recriminations regarding their alleged sexual misconduct, one more has been added to the list. Former Grammys CEO Mike Greene has been accused of sexual assault by a former Recording Academy executive in a lawsuit against both Greene and the Academy, according to Rolling Stone.
In the 55-page suit, the former Recording Academy’s Los Angeles chapter executive director, Terri McIntyre, says Greene sexually harassed and assaulted her over the two-year period she held the position (1994-1996). She also alleges that The Recording Academy was negligent in handling her complaints against him and even helped cover them up. Greene stepped down in 2002 after being accused of separate incidents sexual misconduct.
Greene was notable for establishing the Latin Recording Academy and Latin Grammys during his tenure as CEO, which lasted from the late ’80s to 2002. After he stepped down, the Academy cleared him of wrongdoing and paid him nearly $8 million in severance.
In response to Rolling Stone‘s request for a comment, a Recording Academy rep said, “In light of pending litigation, the Academy declines to comment on these allegations, which occurred nearly 30 years ago. Today’s Recording Academy has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual misconduct and we will remain steadfast in that commitment.”
McIntyre claims that she was drugged and raped by Greene in 1994. She says she never reported the incident out of fear of retaliation; in spite of this, she says Greene continued to harrass her, grope her, and sexually assaulted her again at his home sometime later. More details can be read in Rolling Stone‘s report.
McIntyre’s complaint is the second suit against a former Grammys executive in the past month. In November, an anonymous accuser sued Neil Portnow — who served as Greene’s successor from 2002 to 2019 — also drugged and raped her in 2019. It’s the second accusation against Portnow since 2020.
Gospel singer Bobbi Storm had a pretty great day recently: She’s a member of the group Maverick City Music, which just earned 2024 Grammy nominations for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song (for “God Problems”) and Best Gospel Album (for The Maverick Way). (The group also performed with Quavo during the Grammy’s “In Memoriam” segment earlier this year.) How she decided to celebrate, though, raised some eyebrows.
In a video that Storm shared on Instagram on November 10 (last Friday, the day the Grammy nominations were announced), she’s on a plane, standing in the aisle, being scolded by a flight attendant, who told her, “If you’re not able to follow my instructions, you will not be able to take this flight.”
Storm obliges, then tells her fellow passengers about the Grammy nods before singing “We Can’t Forget Him” quietly.
A spokesperson for Delta told USA Today, “Delta has been in contact with the customer. For the safety of our customers and crew, it’s always important to follow crew instructions.”
In the caption of her post, Storm wrote, “At the end of the day God is glorified!!!! Tell me, how are you choosing love on purpose??? Blessings to you all from your #FearlessFlightSinger [winking emoji] #WeCantForgetHim #TheMaverickWay.”
Not everybody was on board with her stunt, though. One Instagram commenter wrote, “This is one of the most egotistical things I’ve ever seen. You think because you’re Grammy nominated that rules don’t apply to you and the plane is your stage? Work on that ego sis.” Another said, “You were completely in the wrong, and I hope you ended up on the no fly list.”
As the nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards were rolled out today, Victoria Monét shared an emotional video of her watching the livestream with her loved ones. Given that her debut album, Jaguar II, dropped in August, she was a strong contender for at least one nod — and she very much surpassed that.
Each time Monét’s name was called over the television, she gasped in shock as those around her cheered. At times, she falls on the floor and is crying at a different moment. The video then cuts to an image of “On My Mama” being nominated for Record Of The Year.
At the end, one of Monét’s group members reads off that she was nominated for seven total Grammys, including Best New Artist, Best R&B Album, Best R&B Performance, Best R&B Song, Best Traditional R&B Performance, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
She hugs members of her group and as expected, is extremely happy about the results. Since seeing the video on social media, fans have loved just how pure the joy is from Monét and those finding out she is nominated a ton.
“I am in complete shock and total gratitude for what has happened for us today!!!!” she captioned on Instagram.
Check out Victoria Monét‘s Grammy nomination reveal video below.
The 2024 Grammy Awards nominations have been announced, and as usual, there are plenty of surprises and snubs to discuss. Although the Recording Academy added some new categories this year to accommodate the emergence of Afropop as a global force, it looks like another growing genre was left out in the cold. Meanwhile, as country music experiences a resurgence, some of the genre’s most dominant stars missed out on the biggest looks of the year. And even though the Grammys have taken huge steps in addressing the awards’ shortcomings in rap and R&B, they appear to have overlooked some of the year’s most talked-about projects and artists.
Here are the biggest surprises and snubs of the 2024 Grammy nominations.
PinkPantheress Wasn’t Nominated Despite A Breakout Year
“Boy’s A Liar” was one of the biggest hits of the past year, sticking its index finger directly on the pulse of the zeitgeist. From predicting the resurgence of the 2-step/garage sounds that shaped huge hits like “Seven” and “Super Shy” (more on them later) to introducing the non-rap-fan population to the pop culture juggernaut that is Ice Spice, “Boy’s A Liar” was an inescapable phenomenon and the fact that PinkPantheress couldn’t get a record, song, or Best New Artist nomination speaks to both how competitive the field was this year and how much further the Academy has to go in bridging that pesky generation gap.
Barbie Took Over
Here’s how dominant the Barbie soundtrack was this year: the Best Song Written For Visual Media category only features ONE non-Barbie song (Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” from Wakanda Forever) and a Barbie song is nominated in both eligible Big Four categories, as well as for Rap Song of the Year. The doll who does it all is practically guaranteed at least one win at this year’s awards — even at the cost of me and my editor’s bet about “Peaches” from Mario and “Dear Alien” from Asteroid City. And Across The Spider-Verse deserved more.
Foo Fighters Weren’t Nominated For Album Of The Year
In somewhat of a break from Grammy tradition, Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are wasn’t nominated for Album Of The Year, despite the recent death of drummer Taylor Hawkins and the album’s emotional material. It’s grim to think about, but in past years, you could reliably expect a consolation posthumous nomination. It’s downright disheartening to think that this time the Grammys ignored the macabre tradition.
Country Dominated The Charts But Got (Mostly) Shut Out Of The Big Four
The general awards are always controversial but there’s an argument to be made here. While the Big Four are almost never actually tied to commercial achievement — hello Esperanza Spalding — Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, and Morgan Wallen all utterly dominated the charts this year, yet it appears that if this was taken into consideration, it wasn’t enough to lift them out of their respective niches. Perhaps the ideological fractures in that fanbase had an effect. At least there is Jelly Roll.
Where Are The K-Pop Stars?
During the eligibility period this past year, a bunch of songs from K-pop acts took over the American charts. Fifty Fifty’s “Cupid” has been impossible to get away from (I may or may not have tried), New Jeans’ “Super Shy” became a mall P.A. mainstay, and Jung Kook’s solo hit “Seven” peaked at No. 1 on the Hot 100. What makes K-pop’s absence from this year’s nominations stranger is how ubiquitous K-pop has been at the Grammys for the past handful of years, with BTS performing “Dynamite” in 2021 and “Yet To Come” earning a history-making nomination in 2022.
Reggaeton And Latin Trap Were Locked Out Too
Take everything said about K-pop above and translate it into Spanish. Sure, there’s a Latin Grammys, but that smells suspiciously of “separate but equal,” you know? You’d think Bad Bunny or Karol G would warrant a nod, even if Grammys voters could hardly be expected to tunnel all the way down to discover newer breakout artists like Myke Towers or Rauw Alejandro. Again, with the Latin Grammys coming just a few weeks after the “standard issue” ceremony, perhaps interested voters were just too distracted to manage both sets of ballots. Still, it’s a black mark for sure.
Gunna Didn’t Make The Cut For Best Rap Album
Yes, awards nominations are subjective, but there’s a general consensus among rap fans online — corroborated by chart performance — that Gunna had one of the standout albums of the year, if not the only one with any real staying power. Yet, it seems Grammy voters went for the lowest-hanging fruit: Killer Mike and Nas are obvious “prestige” picks for the Gen X hip-hop heads that mostly make up the part of the Academy most well-versed in rap (heyo), while Drake and Travis Scott are brand-friendly pop mainstays. However Utopia only spent four weeks on the Billboard 200 — a massive drop off from his last two projects, and reception was largely lukewarm. Metro Boomin is a nice addition, but again, for the wrong album (Across The Spider-Verse getting snubbed is going to give me heartburn for the rest of the year).
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
