Unpredictable as always, the 59th Annual Grammy Awards should make for fantastic betting opportunities once more, even for those that aren’t necessarily musically-inclined.
In a year without the likes of Taylor Swift (no album released in 2016) and Macklemore (he’s such an unruly mess, really), the field appears to be wide open — save for a couple of veteran sirens who’ll go head-to-head with one another in a great number of categories.
Let’s take a look below at the nominees for each of the Grammy’s four major categories along with the odds for each entrant’s chances of winning accompanied by our predictions for who will come out on top on February 12.
By the way… are we the only ones that think the late, great David Bowie got totally robbed?
Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to the Earth (+2,000)
For as more thematically and musically vibrant Beyoncé’s Lemonade is, it’s still hard to argue the fact that majority of the Grammy’s critics simply love Adele. 25, the British singer/songwriter’s third studio album, was a massive financial hit that sold 20 million albums worldwide and also broke the single-week sales record in the United States.
Apart from commercial success, Adele also has a mean streak at the Grammys as we speak. In 2012, she got six nominations for her work on her second album 21, and won every one of those nominations. In fact, she was nominated for three more awards between 2013 and 2014, winning all three them all too. That’s now nine-straight nominations that resulted into wins for Ms. Adkins.
Another thing is that it took nearly four years for Adele to release her follow-up to 21, which made the anticipation for 25 all the more fervent and with expectations for it having been met to the fullest. Meanwhile, Beyoncé’s been releasing music on an annual basis that it’s almost no surprise when another album of hers in under way and bound to be a smash. And with that, the folks at the Grammys may choose to give the 20-time award winner a break this year. Quite a pity too because Lemonade is arguably Bey’s best album to date.
Perhaps this is the one category that Beyoncé has the best chance of preventing another Adele sweep from happening. The Record of the Year award recognizes excellence in the overall composition of a song, from the artist to the producers and the sound engineers/mixers.
When you pit “Formation” against “Hello”, the greater level of detail and craft in the former is evident. Queen Bey holds nothing back in illustrating certain African-American nuances that fire away like meme-worthy catchphrases; all tied together by another stellar production piece from Mike Will Made-It (of “Black Beatles” fame).
This category is also one that has eluded Beyoncé’s career as well, so maybe the Grammys’ panel would award the ROTY award to her as a consolation prize of sort as to not make Adele’s impending domination too obvious.
This is where things get real hairy, as the winner for the Best New Artist Award in more recent years have not sided with a particular genre; pop in 2016 (Meghan Trainor), R&B in 2015 (Sam Smith), hip-hop in 2014 (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), alternative rock in 2013 (fun.) and folk rock in 2012 (Bon Iver).
This should be a race mainly between Chance the Rapper and Maren Morris. Both of them have released a good number of non-major-label material prior to being recognized in 2016, but Chance the Rapper’s presence in the media – particularly during the presidential elections – gives him a slight upper hand over the 26-year-old country singer/songwriter/producer.
In addition, Morris had just won the 2016 New Artist of the Year award at the Country Music Awards on the strength of her first major label album Hero and the single “My Church”, whereas Chance’s release last year was his Coloring Bookmixtape, which was just as critically acclaimed but one that he technically shouldn’t have even made anybody any money off of at all.
And God help us all if those one-hit wonders The Chainsmokers win this award. As far as we know, Chano’s own track also titled “Chain Smoker” from his underappreciated Acid Rap mixtape from 2013 beats everything that the electro-pop duo has in their entire discography. Heck, would the Chain Smokers be as successful right now if they didn’t even have a female vocal track from Halsey in their hit single “Closer”?
Contrary to Record of the Year, the Song of the Year award focuses mainly on the singing and songwriting aspect of the nominated tracks. Having said that, this is where “Hello” is a virtual lock to win.
Adele’s stunning voice and lyricism is front-and-center in most of her songs, and “Hello” has her patented booming yet earnest and soul-filled vocals that are rarely as powerful compared to her other songs. This track captivated just about everybody that listened to it even in mere passing, with neither “Formation” nor Justin Bieber’s Ed Sheeran-featured “Love Yourself” able to hold a candle to another one of Adele’s masterpiece ballads.
On a side note: who’s responsible for including Mike Posner’s song about taking drugs on a Mediterranean island in this here list of nominees? We want answers!
Writer’s Prediction: Adele – “Hello”
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