Kendrick Lamar leads Grammy nominations with 11 nods; Taylor Swift, The Weeknd

The Recording Academy announced nominations for the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards, reflecting a diverse blend of talented music makers.

For song of the year, a songwriters award, Lamar got a nod for “Alright” and Swift for “Blank Space”, while Little Big Town scored for “Girl Crush”, Wiz Khalifa with Charlie Puth for “See You Again” and Sheeran for “Thinking Out Loud”. He single-handedly carries the nominations of Song of the Year, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Music Video in addition to Album of the Year.

Sam Hunt, meanwhile, lands right in the middle of a competitive Best New Artist race, opposite Courtney Barnett, James Bay, Tori Kelly and Meghan Trainor. The sleeper in this grouping is R&B artist D’Angelo, who, after a 14-year hiatus from the industry, put out “Black Messiah”, which was hailed by music critics and spawned the nominated cut, “Really Love”. To Pimp a Butterfly and Beauty Behind the Madness, The Weeknd’s sophomore work, were also in contention for Album of the Year. While none of in that trio is a specific shock – all have been enormously lauded all through the yr & the late 2014 release of Swift’s “1989” album guaranteed she wouldn’t be eligible until the 2016 formal occasion (very similar to Adele – we will see loads of her in 2017) – a number of unlikely names popped out. And I’m not afraid to say it. Debating why we like or don’t like albums is what makes music and specifically hip hop so great. Behind Lamar, pop megastar Taylor Swift followed with seven nods, nominated for the five-time platinum smash album 1989, along with the saucy hit Blank Space in the song and record of the year categories.

He was nominated for two awards Monday including Album of the Year for “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes. They attempted to rectify that embarrassment last year, awarding him two trophies for his uplifting single “i” in 2014, and nominating him for 11 awards this year – just one shy of Michael Jackson’s all-time record of 12 (1984), and ahead of Eminem (2001), Beyoncé (2010), Kanye West (2005), and Lauryn Hill (1999), who all had ten.

Kendrick Lamar is nominated for To Pimp A Butterfly. In fact, most of the progressive wins, like Kacey Musgraves’ for Country Song and Album in 2013, have been in country-exclusive categories. Let us take a look at who is leading in the list. The Weeknd’s nominations include best pop solo performance for “Can’t Feel My Face” and urban contemporary album for “Beauty”. Rock band Foo Fighters embarked on an ambitious endeavor to celebrate its 20th year as a band with the HBO documentary miniseries “Sonic Highways”, which chronicled the group recording its eighth album in recording studios all over the country.

Like the CMAs, Stapleton has a strong chance of winning Grammy gold because he is beloved and respected in the music community: He has written songs for just about every hot country act, from George Strait to Luke Bryan to Kenny Chesney, and he earned acclaim – and Grammy nominations – as the lead singer of bluegrass band The SteelDrivers. “But the real question is, what the hell am I going to wear?”

More than 21,000 submissions were entered for the 83 Grammy categories, and voting for the second round, completed by mail and starting next week, ends on January 15, 2016.