Kendrick the King: Rapper leads Grammys with 11 nominations

Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd earned top nominations for the 2016 Grammy Awards.

The eclectic nature of this year’s nominations is perhaps best exemplified in the Album Of The Year category, where nominees range from the alternative and soulful rock of Alabama Shakes to Lamar’s thought-provoking jazz-infused rap, the classic country sounds of Chris Stapleton, the pop emergence of Swift, and the genre-bending R&B style of The Weeknd. In this category, he’ll face off against Taylor Swift (“Blank Space”), Little Big Town (“Girl Crush), Wiz Khalifa (“See You Again), and Ed Sheeran (“Thinking Out Loud”)””.

“Uptown Funk“, the party anthem by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, was also in contention for Record of the Year.

The nominees for best new artist are Sam Hunt, Meghan Trainor, James Bay, Tori Kelly and Courtney Barnett.

The Recording Academy, the music industry body that determines the nominations, had more surprising choices for Album of the Year, generally considered the most prestigious category. Swift and The Weeknd each received seven nominations, the second highest amount behind Lamar.

She faces competition in both categories from her friend Ed Sheeran, whose track “Thinking Out Loud” has been given a nod.

Other notable nominees include married duo Joey + Rory for best country duo/group performance (they recently announced Joey is ending her cancer treatment after a recurrence of tumors); actress Amy Poehler with her first Grammy nomination for best spoken world album for “Yes Please”; and actor Seth MacFarlane for best traditional pop vocal album, competing with albums from Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett, Barry Manilow and Josh Groban.

His song “Really Love” was nominated for Record of the Year, although he was passed over for Album of the Year. The Recording Academy’s members were only allowed to nominate and consider recordings that were released between October 1, 2014, and September 30, 2015, which means albums like Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” and One Direction’s “Made in the A.M.”, which were released November 13, and Adele’s “25”, which dropped November 27, weren’t eligible for consideration.

Best R&B album: “Coming Home”, Leon Bridges; “Black Messiah”, D’Angelo and The Vanguard; “Cheers to the Fall”, Andra Day; “Reality Show”, Jazmine Sullivan; “Forever Charlie”, Charlie Wilson.