Kendrick Lamar dominates Grammy Awards nominations – Taylor Swift receives 7 nods

Kendrick Lamar led the field for Grammy Nominations including Album of the Year, lifting rap music to a new level. “It is always an honor to be nominated for a Grammy”. Rihanna among others were snubbed. Each had seven nominations.

The Weeknd’s song “Face” was extremely successful on the charts, and his song “The Hills” still is.

Also scoring big was rapper Drake, with five nominations. Saxophonist Jimmy Greene, the father of one of the children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting, earned two nominations for an album inspired by his late daughter Ana Márquez-Greene.

His song “Really Love” was nominated for Record of the Year, although he was passed over for Album of the Year.

However, Rihanna failed to receive any nominations at all this year.

To Pimp a Butterfly is his third studio album. It’s noted for its fusion of funk, jazz and poetry. This isn’t MacFarlane’s first Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy nomination, either – he also got the nod a few years ago for his first album, “Music Is Better Than Words”.

All three will also vie for the Album of the Year award along with Alabama Shakes and Chris Stapleton. James Bay, Tori Kelly and Meghan Trainor are all reasonably popular and sufficiently talented, at least if a strong natural singing voice is still what we’re looking for in our new artists. He’s nominated twice for both best rap song with “Alright” and for co-writing Kanye West’s “All Day”, as well as best music video for “Alright” and “Bad Blood”. His work “Traveller” being nominated for Album of the Tear shows that this critical success is continuing.

Lana Del Rey was another artist who was completely overlooked in all categories, much to the dismay of her huge fan following.

But the reason the Hello singer missed out on any Grammy nods is simple – her latest album wasn’t eligible as it missed the cut off.

Neil Portnow, president and chief executive of The Recording Academy, said: “The diversity in the creative community is what makes music a universal language, and it’s gratifying to see the vibrancy of today’s artistic landscape reflected in this year’s nominations”. Winners are picked by the group’s 13,000 voting members. And while it’s not completely unexpected that the fifth spot would go to Shakes, it is surprising that the band would steal that spot from a seasoned veteran like James Taylor or Don Henley or Tony Bennett since the academy has a reputation for reserving top nominations for long-respected older artists. Whether it signals that rap is becoming more mainstream is still an open question. There is no doubt that Kendrick Lamar is deserving of the nominations, his album “To Pimp A Butterfly” was released over 6 months ago – and is still making waves and generating buzz.