Grammys Playlist 2021: From Taylor Swift to Stallion Megan Thee, Eight songs to Stream ahead of awards

Dua Lipa: “Don’t Start Now”

British pop singer Dua Lipa is one of just two artists up for three of the four biggest awards of the night: record of the year, most prestigious Grammy; album of the year, dedicated to actors, producers and song engineers; and song of the year, which recognizes composers and songwriters. (The fourth major award is Best New Artist, which she won in 2019.) Post Malone, the pop-rap player, won nods for album, album and song of the year. But 25-year-old Dua Lipa has been widely seen in industry circles as consolidating her A-list status last year with her second album “Future Nostalgia.” His most popular single, “Don’t Start Now,” is a kiss-loving track (“walk away, you know how”) that sparked one of last year’s biggest musical moves: Next -disc-influenced pop animation. Along with artists like Lady Gaga and acclaimed Jessie Ware, Dua Lipa made dance music for a year when we couldn’t dance.

Stallan Megan Thee: “Savage” (Featuring Beyoncé)

Female rappers are thriving like never before. Megan Thee Stallion, a technically skilled Houston rapper who has often worked with the Southern Juicy J rapper and influential producer, was ubiquitous in 2020. “Savage,” which hit No. 1 and was named for album of the year, a sensation on TikTok exploded its own popularity last year, including hits like rapper singer Doja Cat’s single album “Say So” (another album nominee of the year) . Winning Megan Thee Stallion made “Savage” the second rap song of all time to win record of the year, after Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” ​​in 2019. And if she wins best new artist , is the first female rapper to win the award from Lauryn Hill in 1999.

Phoebe Bridgemen: “Graceland Too”

Rock music has been dominated by women for some time now. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has won praise for her meticulous, sensitive lyrics. “Graceland Too,” a song about trying to be there for a suicidal friend, is from her album “Punisher. “Ms Bridgers has four nominations, including best new artist – placing her at the forefront of the female rock movement which includes acts such as St. Bridgers. Vincent, Haim (album of the year) and Brittany Howard. Interestingly, the five nominated for best rock performance this year are female or female actors, including Ms. Bridgers, who started playing cover songs at the Pasadena, Calif., Farmers Market, a decade ago. “I remember Elvis Costello, Neil Young – I remember composing City and Color, Bright Eyes covers,” she told the Magazine in 2018. “And then I started putting on my own songs. in there. ”

DaBaby: “Rockstar” (Featuring Roddy Ricch)

This track by North Carolina rapper DaBaby, who alone has over a billion streams on Spotify, was hard to escape last year. (Post Malone also has a huge influence on the so-called “rockstar.”) These pop-rap tracks, where artists sing as much as rap, are a hip-hop-led soundtrack to the industry. music. Today, rappers are the new rock stars, combining flashy looks with catchy melodies to win lucrative deals – like 80s pop-metal bands of years ago. DaBaby’s No. 1 on “Rockstar,” which has been nominated for album of the year, features something common among pop-rap songs: guitar or guitar-like sounds. With this radio-friendly rap style becoming so popular, some hip-hop fans have turned to a darker, more advanced, Brooklyn drill option – although this subgenre has lost the main his fan, Pop Smoke, last year.

Taylor Swift: “Exile” (Featuring Bon Iver)

Ms Swift’s “Oral Tradition” is considered to be ahead of this year’s chart. On her eighth studio album, the country music star has transformed into a mainstream take on the roots of her singer-songwriter and introduced a new sound: hushed, atmospheric indie-folk . “Fògarrach,” one of the best songs on the album, features Bon Iver singing together about a broken relationship (“You didn’t give a warning sign never ”/“ I gave so many signs ”). Platinum-certified “Oral History” is one of the most famous of the many “quarantine” records recorded by artists during the pandemic. Ms Swift has twice won the record of the year – for “Fearless” in 2008 and “1989.” in 2014 If she wins again, she will be in a great club with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. (Ms Swift, one of the actress of the night, is also up for song of the year for “Cardigan” – the fifth attempt to win that category.)

Beyoncé: “Black Parade”

Beyoncé has yet to release her 2016 hit album “Lemonade. But she backed nationwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality last year with the same “Black March,” celebrating Black culture. The song’s timing – which has nine writers, including her husband Jay-Z, according to Billboard – makes it a major contender for song and album of the year. But the “Black March” was not very successful. Despite taking home 24 awards and winning 79 nominations, Beyoncé won only one major award – the song of the year for “Single Women (Circle)” in 2010. However, if she wins eight of her nine nominations Sunday – she’s been nominated twice for this year’s record, so she can’t win nine – will break the record for most wins running over the Grammys.

Jacob Collier: “It Won’t Keep You” (featuring Rapsody)

This year’s record competition sometimes includes unlikely competitors. This time around the dark horses became a stampede – with unexpected nods for the retro-soul duo Black Pumas, R&B singer Jhené Aiko, old Coldplay rockets and Mr. Collier, a 26-year-old music singer. The album entitled Mr. Collier “Djesse Vol. 3 ”- the title refers to the nickname, JC – the third installment in a series of four albums. “I designed each album about a different place of music,” he told the Magazine recently. Unlike the supersonic Vol, orchestrated. 1 and the nearly intimate singer-songwriter-ish Vol. 2, Vol. 3 has a immersive, contemporary feel and a great jump on R&B. Named for “He Won’t Hold You,” nominated for best arrangement, instruments and vocals, the North London-based artist mixes elements of cappella, gospel, R&B and hip-hop. , solidifying the track with his deep singing voice.

The Week: “Blind Lights”

The elephant in the room on Sunday is the Weeknd, which has not been nominated for a single award – a snub that made national headlines and made him say this week that he would stop submitting his music to the Grammys . Baffled everyone: The pop-R&B star was the 2020 best-selling artist for Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, according to a spokesperson. Reviews from his album “After Hours” were strong. His famous event “Blinding Lights” is the first song in Billboard history that has remained in the top ten for an entire year. The Weeknd even played the Super Bowl. But when Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” set us up with pop-dance, “Blinding Lights” set us up with synth-pop: His tunes were clear, retro – inspired by a subgenre called “synthwave” – who provided the comfort of nostalgia in a very difficult year.

Write to Neil Shah at [email protected]