Philly musicians shine through Grammy noms list as Beyoncé ties record

LOS ANGELES — Beyoncé has propelled herself into the highest Grammy echelon: The star singer claimed a leading nine nominations Tuesday, making her tied — with her husband Jay-Z — as the most nominated music act in the history of the awards show.

Beyoncé's “Break My Soul” reeled in record and song of the year nominations, while Renaissance — which ventured into the world of dance hall music — netted an album of the year nod. With Jay-Z also earning five nods this year, each spouse now holds the record for the most-ever Grammy nominations at 88 apiece.

Kendrick Lamar came away with the second-most nominations, with eight. Adele and Brandi Carlile both received seven nods. Harry Styles, Mary J. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream, and mastering engineer Randy Merrill each picked up six.

Other album of the year nominees include: Adele’s 30, ABBA’s Voyage, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe), Carlile’s In These Silent Days, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres, Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, Lizzo’s Special, and Styles’ Harry’s House.

Tracks competing with “Break My Soul” for record of the year include Styles’ “As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Adele’s “Easy On Me,” ABBA’s “Don’t Shut Me Down,” Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” and Carlile’s “You and Me On the Rock” featuring Lucius.

Christina Aguilera’s comeback to Latin music with her self-titled album earned her two nominations for best Latin pop album and immersive audio album. Among the 10 nominees for best new artist are Muni Long, Latto, and Eurovision winner Maneskin.

Philadelphia’s Jazmine Sullivan, who won two Grammys earlier this year for her album Heaux Tales, is up for three more: best R&B song and best R&B performance for her song, “Hurt Me So Good,” and with Philadelphia bass player and bandleader Adam Blackstone, she’s nominated for best traditional R&B performance for “Round Midnight,” from his 2022 album Legacy, even though the song is a composition by Thelonious Monk that belongs in the jazz category.

The War on Drugs, who won the 2018 best rock album Grammy for A Deeper Understading, are in the running for best rock song for “Harmonia’s Dream,” a song partly inspired by the group’s affection for the German motorik supergroup Harmonia. The track is from their 2021 album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, which has just been issued as a limited edition box set.

Philadelphia-born songwriter-producer Pop Wansel is also nominated for his work on Lizzo’s album Special, which is up for album of the year and pop vocal album.

The Baylor Project, the married jazz duo of Marcus and Jean Baylor, are nominated for jazz vocal album for The Evening: Live at Apparatus, and Marcus Baylor is competing for best improvised jazz solo for “Call Of The Drum.” Prolific Oklahoma songwriter Zach Bryan, who now lives in Philadelphia, is up for country solo performance for “Something In The Orange.”

West Philly-raised bass player Christian McBride — an eight-time Grammy winner — is in the running for one more, with his jazz instrumental album LongGone, a collaboration with Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, and Brian Blade.

Camden gospel singer Tye Tribbett is up for gospel album for his 2022 release All Things New and for gospel performance/song for “Get Up.” And Ryan Schwabe is nominated for best engineered album, non-classical, for Adolescence, by Baynk.

There’s more! All three nominations in the “best opera recording” have Philadelphia connections.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is conductor in Metropolitan Opera releases of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice and Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Anthony Davis’s X, The Life And Times Of Malcolm X had its origins in Philadelphia, developed in 1985 by the American Music Theater Festival.

A Nézet-Séguin recording, “Verdi Requiem — The Met Remembers 9/11,” was nominated in the “best choral performance” category, as was Philadelphia-based Crossing choir with conductor Donald Nally for its recording “Born.”

Nézet-Séguin, as pianist, was nominated under the “best classical solo vocal album” heading with soprano Renée Fleming for “Voice Of Nature — The Anthropocene.” He also was noted for “best classical compendium” for “A Concert For Ukraine.”

A Beethoven string quartet recording by Curtis Institute-based Dover Quartet was nominated in the “best chamber music/small ensemble performance” category.

Time for Three got a nod under “best classical instrumental solo” for “Letters For The Future” with conductor Xian Zhang and the Philadelphia Orchestra, in works of Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts.

Philadelphia also showed up under “best contemporary classical composition” — in a nomination for composer Puts’s work on that same album, Contact.

The academy added a special song for social change and five new categories including songwriter of the year, which Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy’s CEO, says will further help diversify the 65th edition of the annual awards.

The nonclassical songwriter category will recognize one individual who was the “most prolific” nonperforming and nonproducing songwriter for a body of new work during an eligibility year. It will take a different approach than song of the year, which awards the songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melodies to one song.

Mason said implementing the songwriters category is a “significant” step forward for the music industry. Last year, a rule update allowed that any songwriter, producer, engineer or featured artist on a work nominated for album of the year could ultimately earn a nomination.

Nearly half of this year’s leading nominees — announced by the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and Smokey Robinson — are women and more than half are people of color, according to the recording academy. The ceremony will be held Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.

Staff writers Dan DeLuca and Peter Dobrin contributed to this article.