Surprising facts about the 2020 Grammy nominees

Two years after Neil Portnow, the former president of the Recording Academy, told female artists to “step it up” and earn more Grammy attention, they’ve built on 2019’s success and dominated even more categories in 2020. Women make up more than half of all nominees in the top four categories and carve out a majority in areas like Best Pop Solo Performance (all women: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Lizzo and Taylor Swift), Best Country Song (Tanya Tucker, Ashley McBryde and Miranda Lambert), Best Country Album (Reba McEntire, Pistol Annies and Tanya Tucker) and even Best Rock Performance (Bones UK, Brittany Howard and Karen O & Danger Mouse).

Rapper and singer Lizzo sort of came out of nowhere, going from releasing two previous albums and never earning a Grammy nomination to nabbing eight nods for 2020 — more than any other artist at the event. The 31-year-old Midwest-born musician’s array of nominations is also notable for its diversity: Lizzo earned one herself for Best New Artist, one for Best R&B Performance for the song “Exactly How I Feel,” one for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song “Jerome,”  two (Album of the Year and Best Urban Contemporary Album) for her record “Cuz I Love You” and another three for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for her hit song “Truth Hurts.”

What do all three of the top nominees have in common? Lizzo, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X are all first-time nominees, and, of course, they also all have one nod in the Best New Artist category. As we already mentioned, Lizzo leads with eight nominations, but Eilish and Lil Nas X are hot on her tail with six apiece.

In case you haven’t noticed, we dig coincidences. So we find it amusing that not only do pop superstar Ariana Grande and R&B sensation H.E.R. both have five nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, but they also both won their first honors at the 61st Grammys. Last year, Grande nabbed Best Pop Vocal Album for “Sweetener,” and H.E.R. scored both Best R&B Album for her self-titled release and Best R&B Performance for the song “Best Part.”

Ariana Grande is still young, so it’s easy to forget that she’s actually been hanging around the Grammys for a while. Grande’s last four albums, 2019’s ”Thank U, Next,” 2018’s “Sweetener,” 2016’s “Dangerous Woman” and 2014’s “My Everything," have all been nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, and that’s just one category. Including her five nods this year, Grande has garnered a total of 11 Grammy nominations, and she’s still just 26 years old.

Although he hasn’t won anything yet, Lil Nas X can already boast the fact that he earned more Grammy nods (six) than any other male artist. It’s worth noting that Lil Nas X also sits atop the list of male nominees as a proud gay man; he came out publicly over the summer, right in the midst of the success of his hit song, “Old Town Road (Remix),” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, and the release of his debut EP, “7.”

Four nods is an impressive haul for a first-time nominee, especially for someone who just released a debut album in May. Yet R&B singer Lucky Daye has actually been in front of our face — or better yet, our ears — for quite a while. The New Orleans-born musician appeared on a Season 4 episode of “American Idol” back in 2005 and received unanimous approval but was soon eliminated. No matter, as Daye soon found himself co-writing songs for big names like Boyz II Men, Trey Songz, Mary J. Blige and Keith Sweat, among others.

Gary Clark Jr.’s angry, anti-racist anthem, “This Land,” was inspired by a true incident in which a neighbor couldn’t believe that Clark, a young black man, owned his 50-acre Texas property with his wife. Still fresh with rage, the guitar phenom found solace in the studio after tearing through a take of what would eventually be the titular track of his 2019 album — and the source of Clark’s four Grammy nominations, including Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Contemporary Blues Album and Best Music Video. Clark already owns a Grammy from last year, but curiously it was in a different category than the four aforementioned awards and was instead for Best Traditional R&B Performance.

Flamenco musician Rosalía has also already made her mark on the world, as she’s the first nominee in the history of the Best New Artist category to sing entirely in Spanish. “El Mal Querer,” the Barcelona-native’s second studio album, was also nominated for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album. That category, on the other hand, is used to seeing some Spanish lyrics.

Rosalía’s Fellow Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album nominee, Bad Bunny, has some additional tough competition in the category: himself. The Puerto Rican trap singer earned a nod for his 2018 debut, “X 100pre,” but earlier this year he also released a collaboration with Colombian reggaeton singer J Balvin, titled “Oasis,” and that record found its way into the category too. 

Billie Eilish and Lizzo are both blazing new trails, as they are the only first-time nominees to ever garner nods in all four of the top categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Eilish also sets another record, as the 17-year-old is the youngest person to ever be nominated in all four of those categories. However, with a Dec. 18 birthday, the “Bad Guy” singer will actually be 18 years old when the event rolls around.

Billie Eilish may be the youngest to appear in the big four categories, but she’s nowhere near the youngest to ever be nominated for any Grammy. Currently, Leah Peasall of the Peasall Sisters holds the record, as she contributed to (and won) a 2002 Grammy for contributing to the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack when she was just 8 years old. Although slightly older but still 8, gospel singer Deleon Richards holds the youngest record for an individual, with names like Zac Hanson (of Hanson), Michael Jackson, Marie Osmond and LeAnn Rimes also appearing atop the list. As for the oldest artist in 2020? That’s 86-year-old Willie Nelson, who earned a Best Country Solo Performance nod this year for “Ride Me Back Home” — the 52nd nomination of his career.

Before he became known for his music career, FINNEAS, aka Finneas O’Connell, was known for a small role in the 2011 film “Bad Teacher, as the Dunphy’s later-season neighbor Ronnie Jr. on a couple of episodes of “Modern Family” and for his short stint as Alistair on “Glee.” Now the rising musician — who just released his debut album, “Blood Harmony,” in October — is also the owner of five Grammy nominations. He shares three of these nods with Billie Eilish, as FINNEAS is her co-writer, co-producer and brother.

We’ve already mentioned that movie and TV fans knew Finneas O’Connell before he was FINNEAS, and his fellow Producer of the Year, Non-Classical nominees were also previously known for something other than producing. Jack Antonoff has produced Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey, but he first found fame fronting the band Fun and later Bleachers. Ricky Reed helmed the band Facing New York and is the mastermind behind the satirical Auto-Tuned music act Wallpaper—two things he started way before producing everyone from Twenty One Pilots and Jason Derulo to Pitbull and Lizzo. And finally, Dan Auerbach is, of course, half of The Black Keys when he’s not making records for Ray LaMontagne, The Pretenders and Lana Del Rey. 

If you haven’t seen the video of Post Malone dancing and singing in the audience during Shania Twain’s American Music Awards performance, do yourself a favor and watch it now. The 24-year-old rapper was only a toddler when Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” was released in 1997, but he still knew all the words, much to the entertainment of the world. Even more surprising, Twain is also a fan of Malone. On “The Talk” the day after the awards show, Twain revealed that she hopes to one day duet with the Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nominee, and even has a song in mind — which she already wrote especially for the two of them! Maybe next year we’ll see Twain and Malone sharing a nod in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category.

After winning his first Grammy — Best Rap Performance for “Bubblin” — last year, Anderson Paak is back again with two more nominations for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Album. But how much do you know about the 33-year-old rapper, singer and multi-instrumentalist? Brandon Paak Anderson has a mixed background, with a dad who is black and a mother who was orphaned after being born during the Korean War to a South Korean mother and a black American soldier father. Coincidentally, Paak later married a South Korean woman himself, and they have since had two sons together named Soul Rasheed and Shine.

There are a lot of first-timers and newcomers among the 2020 Grammy nominees, but one category is already chock full of Grammy gold. Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album includes Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, Elvis Costello, John Legend and Barbra Streisand, who collectively own an all-time total of 108 Grammy nominations and 23 wins. The only winless one of the bunch is Bocelli, but he could change that with some success from “Sì,” his 16th studio album. 

There’s a nominated artist this year who first received Grammy attention back in 1973 as a teenager and was last nominated in 1994 — a full 25 years ago! That artist is country musician Tanya Tucker, who made her name with hits like “What’s Your Mama’s Name?” and “Strong Enough to Bend” once upon a time but fell out of the public eye and struggled with some personal issues over the years. However, Tucker’s first album release in 10 years — or 17 years, if we’re only considering albums with original material — and hit single “Bring My Flowers Now” have shown that she’s back with a vengeance. In fact, Tucker landed a personal-best four nominations this year: Best Country Album, Song of the Year, Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance.

If you’re not caught up with the rap game, then the name Mustard might be unfamiliar —although it’s hard to avoid his hit song “Ballin’” featuring Roddy Ricch. However, the Best Rap/Sung Performance nominee has now released three studio albums, two mixtapes and more than a dozen singles and has collaborated with the likes of Nicki Minaj, Migos, Ty Dolla $ign, Travis Scott, YG and Meek Mill as both a performer and producer. Going back to his monicker, the story behind the name isn’t as complicated as you might think. Mustard was born Dijon Isaiah McFarlane on June 5, 1990 in Los Angeles, so “Mustard” only makes sense.

After lighting up the airwaves in the ‘90s with hits like “Zombie,” “Linger” and “Dreams,” the Cranberries went on a hiatus in 2003 that ended up totaling six years. Their reunion would last for nine years and two new albums, but the Cranberries disbanded for good in 2018 when singer Dolores O’Riordan suddenly passed away at the age of 46 after accidentally drowning in a bathtub. Still, November 20, 2019 saw a new record release by the Cranberries, “In the End,” which features previously recorded vocals by O’Riordan and received enough praise to earn a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album.