Awards season is definitely in full swing, as the 58th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony is set to hand out those coveted golden gramophones to the best artists from the recording industry over the past year.
Much like what we previously did for the four main categories at this year’s Oscars, we here at TopBet have some sweet odds for each nominee from the four major Grammy categories, which you can instantly wager on before the actual event commences this February 15.
We’ve also got our predictions below for those general fields, but with a slightly different take at that. Instead of simply predicting the possible winners based on the odds and the artists’ credentials, we’ve also added our own personal takes on who we’d love to emerge triumphant this coming Monday night.
And with that, let’s now break down the four major categories at this year’s Grammys and how each nominee stands from our perspective and in the eyes of bookmakers in Vegas.If you’re eager to get in on some exciting Oscar betting action as well, don’t miss out on our coverage the Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress categories at the upcoming 88th Annual Academy Awards.
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58th Annual Grammy Awards Odds and Predictions
Album of the Year
Nominees (odds):
Taylor Swift – 1989 (-400)Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (+275)
The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness (+570)
Alabama Shakes – Sound and Color (+1,000)
Chris Stapleton – Traveller (+1,800)
Who We Want to Win: 1989 is arguably Taylor Swift’s most mature and edgy release to date, but we ourselves couldn’t help but be enamored by the lyrical and sonic grandeur of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly.
Who Will Likely Win: This award basically does boil down to a battle between Swift and Lamar. The former has been a staple favorite at basically every edition of the Grammys, while the latter earned the most nominations with 13 at this year’s ceremony (while Swift bagged a total of seven noms).
Considering that TPAB garnered praises from virtually every music critic upon its release (with an astounding Metacritic score of 96 to be exact), had relatively swell mainstream success, and that the last hip-hop/rap act to win this award was Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below from way back in 2004, it’s about time that K-Dot proudly wins the big one for the urban music scene once more.
Final Prediction: To Pimp A Butterfly (+275) wins the most prolific award of the night.
Record of the Year
Nominees (odds):
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk!” (-350)
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space” (+320)
The Weeknd – “I Can’t Feel My Face” (+500)
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud” (+1,000)
D’Angelo and the Vanguard – “Really Love” (+2,500)
Who We Want to Win: To be quite honest, we’re really not as thrilled with these nominees for the Record of the Year category as we ought to be. If we had to pick one, though, we’d go with The Weeknd’s “I Can’t Feel My Face”.
The Weeknd – the preferred moniker of Canadian Singer-songwriter Abel Tesfaye, missing vowel and all – got a massive push over the past few years by churning out drugged-out and misogynistic R&B mixtapes. He later broke through mainstream airplay’s stratosphere with more soulful, less self-centered singles, and none bigger and catchier than his ROTY-nominated track here.
Believe us; he’s as close to the late, great Michael Jackson as we’ll ever hear on the radio today.
Who Will Likely Win: There’s no denying the overwhelming success and airplay garnered by “Uptown Funk!”. Not just in the United States, but worldwide. By now, Bruno Mars is basically the new Midas of pop music: he just turns any track with him in it into a instant earworm.
Final Prediction: “Uptown Funk!” (-350) wins and does the exclamation point in its title justice.
Song of the Year
Nominees (odds):
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space” (-160)
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud” (+190)
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again” (+450)
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright” (+900)
Little Big Town – “Girl Crush” (+1,400)
Who We Want to Win: We can’t emphasize enough just how fantastic Kendrick Lamar’s second major-label release truly is. To Pimp A butterfly masterfully fused funk/soul/jazz rhythms with Kendrick’s triple-time delivery down to an art, and with a gripping socio-political theme to boot.
All of these elements definitely stand out in “Alright”, which was even accompanied by a striking music video to further stress the importance of the song’s message about the police brutality incidents at the time of its release.
Who Will Likely Win: Taylor Swift won’t go home empty-handed that’s for sure, and her nomination in this category is hers for the taking. Then Again, Ed Sheeran’s entry is one that the Grammy Panel normally goes gaga over, and even “Girl Crush” is that sort of country hit has that rare wide appeal across all demographics.
However, this is already Swift’s fourth-career nomination for SOTY, and she has so far gone 0-for-3 in this category. If there’s one noble consolation for Tay in the event that Kendrick runs away with a ton of golden statuettes indeed, this is it.
Final Prediction: “Blank Space” (-160) fills is titular void with a Grammy award for Song of the Year.
Best New Artist
Nominees (odds):
Meghan Trainor (-180)
James Bay (+250)
Sam Hunt (+375)
Courtney Barnett (+900)
Tori Kelly (+1,400)
Who We Want to Win: From out of nowhere, Aussie low-fi rocker Courtney Barnett bagged a nomination in this category, and we couldn’t be happier when that news broke out.
The 28-year-old’s debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, was one of 2015’s simpler yet more captivating surprises. On her album, Barnett substitutes crisp production and catchy riffs with playfully poetic, heart-on-sleeve lyrics and uncomplicated melodies. Her first effort was also beloved by pundits, as it had the second-most number of points in Metacritic’s consolidation of the critics’ 2015 year-end lists (behind none other than Lamar’s TPAB).
Who Will Likely Win: Meghan Trainor. Yup, that same 22-year-old internet sensation-turned chart-topper that brought you this.
We really don’t know a whole lot else about the rest of the nominees (and so does probably every Regular Joe tuning in to this category), so we’ll simply assume that the Grammy panel will like grant this honor to the artist with the most public exposure and Youtube hits.
Final Prediction: We’ve actually had indie darlings like Arcade Fire and Bon Iver take us by surprise at the Grammys lately. Barnett (+900) virtually has the same critical backing and underdog status as the two previously mentioned artists, so we’re going out on a limb here and ultimately pick the Aussie to take home the award for Best New Artist.
Create a betting account now, and who knows? Maybe you’ll be singing a different tune after you cash in big from your bets on this year’s Grammy Awards!
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