Kendrick Lamar leads Grammy nominations with 11

The Grammy awards will air live from the Staples Center on February 15 at 8 p.m., on CBS.

Amid the 2016 GRAMMY nominations announced this morning, one name was decidedly absent: Adele.

His song “Really Love” was nominated for Record of the Year, although he was passed over for Album of the Year. Singer/songwriters will vie in the high-profile category of best new artist: Courtney Barnett, James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly and Meghan Trainor. Indo-British director Asif Kapadia features in the nominees list of Best Music Film category for Amy, his documentary on late singer Amy Winehouse.

Stapleton’s “Traveler”, the slowest seller in this category, was something of a surprise victor for album of the year in last month’s Country Music Association Awards. Taylor Swift tied Tesfaye with seven nominations.

Elsewhere, Englewood’s Tony Bennett and pianist Bill Charlap were nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern”.

Also scoring big was rapper Drake, with five nominations, and a handful of producers, engineers and songwriters: Max Martin with six nominations, and Tom Coyne, Serban Ghenea and John Hanes with five.

Hiatus Kaiyote is nominated in the Best R&B Performance category for Breathing Underwater, with The Weeknd (Earned It) and Tamar Braxton (If I Don’t Have You) also in the running.

English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s viral ballad “Thinking Out Loud” was also nominated for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In a ideal world, the Recording Academy’s newfound enthusiasm would result in Lamar getting the top prize of the night, the Album of the Year Grammy, but, as Lamar’s work so often reminds listeners, this is not a flawless world. Reflecting a diverse blend of talented music makers, this year’s nominees were selected from more than 21,000 submissions entered. The cast recording for Broadway smash “Hamilton”, the subversive, pro-immigration musical about Alexander Hamilton from “In The Heights” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was nominated for “Best Musical Theater Album”. Their four nominations include best alternative music album as well as best rock performance and song for “Don’t Wanna Fight”.