As of October 11, final-round voting for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards is underway, with Grammy voters are now meticulously evaluating entries in 88 of the 94 Grammy categories. Nominees in the remaining six categories are determined by committees.
Voters may notice some intriguing trends as they assess the entry lists such as the number of entries in three of the “General Field” categories, often referred to as the “Big Four,” has decreased, possibly due to the Recording Academy’s new policy, now in its second year, of charging a fee for entries beyond five “courtesy entries.”
Best Reggae Album category received 65 submissions, down from 67 last year and 125 the previous year. For the biggest category “Song of the Year” (642 entries), there were are 23 times more entries this year than in the least populated category, “Best Opera Recording” (28 entries).
Reggae is not alone however as the “Record of the Year” category has 615 entries, a slight decrease from 619 last year. “Album of the Year” has 476 entries, down from 518, the lowest amount of submissions since 2005. While “Song of the Year” has 642 entries, down from 686.
Taking a broader perspective, this year’s 615 entries for “Record of the Year” mark the lowest number in that category since 2004. The 476 entries for “Album of the Year” represent the lowest count since 1995, and the 642 entries for “Song of the Year” are the fewest since 2005. This trend reflects a positive change, as entry lists were becoming unwieldy. Asking people to sift through 1,463 entries, as was the case for “Record of the Year” just three years ago, is a significant task.
The one Big Four category that saw an increase in entries was “Best New Artist,” with 405 entries this year, up from 368 last year.
“Best African Music Performance” received 122 entries in the first year the award will be presented.
This year also marks the first time that “Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical” and “Producer of the Year, Non-Classical” have been moved to the General Field, effectively making it the “Big Six.” The “Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical” category, now in its second year, has only about one-third of the number of entries for “Producer of the Year, Non-Classical,” which was introduced in 1974. This discrepancy is likely due to the new category’s stringent rules, which aim to spotlight songwriters who are not also artists or producers.
All three categories added this year have a substantial number of entries. There are 159 entries for “Best Alternative Jazz Album,” 122 for “Best African Music Performance,” and 107 for “Best Pop Dance Recording.”
The most crowded songwriting category (besides “Song of the Year”) is “Best American Roots Song” with 297 entries. Surprisingly, the country genre, often associated with songwriting, lags behind other genres with 139 entries.
Here are all the songwriting categories, ranked from most to least entries this year: “Song of the Year” (642), “Best American Roots Song” (297), “Best Rock Song” (271), “Best Rap Song” (214), “Best R&B Song” (207), “Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song” (189), “Best Gospel Performance/Song” (175), “Best Song Written for Visual Media” (144), and “Best Country Song” (139).
The Recording Academy keeps track of the number of entries in each category, with specific rules outlined in the guidelines booklet. For example, a category must have at least 40 distinct artist entries. If a category receives between 25 and 39 entries, only three recordings will receive nominations that year. This applies to categories like “Best Opera Recording,” which had 28 entries this year, and “Best Música Urbana Album,” which had 37.
Each professional and voting member of the Recording Academy receives five courtesy entries each year, and those who find the entry fees burdensome can request fee waivers.
The rules also state that if a category receives fewer than 25 entries for three consecutive years, it will go on hiatus for the current year, with no award given, and entries will be screened into the next most suitable category. Fortunately, this does not apply to any categories this year.
In an exclusive with WMV last year, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he would like to see more categories included like Dancehall.
Over the years there has been reports in Jamaican media from US based Grammy voting members, that the reggae category has been under threat and could be removed from the awards, and that it makes no sense to even consider asking The Academy to include a separate Dancehall category at the Grammys. Harvey debunked that notion and said, indeed reggae has had many good submissions over the years.
This year, and every year previously since 1985, “The Best Reggae Album” entries come out above the 15 categories with the lowest entries.
“No, we’ve had really good submissions in the reggae category, I think over the last 5 years we’ve had almost 700 submissions. It’s down a little bit this year, for the most part we’ve had really good numbers in that category and we don’t arbitrarily decide which categories to implement or to remove, its all based on submissions and if you get good submissions in the category there will be no purpose for us to remove it,” Harvey confirmed.
As for whether there will ever be a dancehall category separate from the “Best Reggae Album” category, Harvey said, “we have worked really hard over the last two years to include more music not less…we want more people from more genres, from more regions and make sure we are honoring them properly. It’s possible only because anything is possible.”
He proposed that dancehall interests apply through the Recording Academy’s voting process.
“When it comes to categories it just depends on who submits. If the dancehall community wanted its own category and they felt so strongly about it- and the stakeholders in that category felt like ‘we want to have our own category’, and they submit it and they have the right language in the proposal, the right rationale as to why its important and they get the right signers and the right language and justification, you will have a new category,” he said.
This year dancehall biggest star Popcaan did not submit his fifth studio album “Great Is He” for Grammy consideration. No clear reason was given by his management when WMV contacted his team.
The nominations for six categories are determined by committees, rather than by voters at large. These categories are “Best Recording Package,” “Best Boxed/Special/Limited Edition,” “Best Album Notes,” “Best Historical Album,” “Best Remixed Recording,” and “Best Immersive Audio Album.”
First-round voting for the 66th annual Grammy Awards opened on October 11 and closes on October 20. Nominees will be announced on November 10 (five days earlier than last year). The final-round voting window extends from December 14 through January 4, 2023, which is the same as last year. The winners will be revealed on Sunday, February 4, 2024, at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center) in Los Angeles.
Here are the categories with the most and fewest entries this year.
Categories with the Most Entries
- “Song of the Year” – 642
- “Record of the Year” – 615
- “Best Music Video” – 592
- “Album of the Year” – 476
- “Best New Artist” – 405
- “Best Jazz Performance” – 370
- “Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical” – 350
- “Best Instrumental Composition” – 340
- “Best Rock Performance” – 335
- “Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals” – 314
- “Best Alternative Music Performance” – 301
- “Best American Roots Song” – 297
- “Best Pop Solo Performance” – 281
- “Best Global Music Performance” – 280
- “Best Rock Song” – 271
Categories with the Fewest Entries
- “Best Opera Recording” – 28
- “Best Música Urbana Album” – 37
- “Best Gospel Album” – 45
- “Best Choral Performance” – 49
- “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” – 50
- “Best Roots Gospel Album” – 50
- “Best Traditional Blues Album” – 51
- “Best Contemporary Blues Album” – 51
- “Best Spoken Word Poetry Album” – 51
- “Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album”
- Best tropical Latin album, 54
- Best musical theater album, 56
- Best Latin jazz album, 57
- Best classical solo vocal album, 58
- Songwriter of the year, non-classical, 58
