Grammys Chief Harvey Mason Jr. has praised Beyonce’s ability to cross genres with her music.
Beyonce is among the nominees in the Best Album and Best Country Album categories for ‘Cowboy Carter’ – the country-inspired record that she released earlier this year – while ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ has been nominated for the Song of the Year accolade and Harvey says the nominations have “credibility” because they are voted for by experts in each category.
He told Variety: “Remember our ’10/3′ rule, where you can only vote in three fields — which means that as a voter, you’re not just following your favourite artist around [every category], saying ‘I like this artist, I don’t care what type of music they make, I’m gonna vote for them everywhere.’ So when you see an artist nominated across genres, those are different voting bodies voting for that same artist in different genres. To me, that really, really adds credibility, because people with expertise in rock or rap or country or folk are voters are [solely] evaluating the music that’s in their category.”
Beyonce is now the most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammy Awards, after receiving 11 nominations for the latest awards.
She and her husband Jay Z – who have been married since 2008 – were previously tied on 88 nominations each, but Beyonce has managed to pull clear of her husband, as she received the most nominations for the upcoming awards show.
Beyonce has never won the Album Of The Year prize, despite being nominated in the category on four previous occasions. And earlier this year, Jay-Z actually slammed the Grammys for overlooking Beyonce for the top award.
The rap star said: “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady. But she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album Of The Year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys; never won Album Of The Year. That doesn’t work.”
Beyonce will face competition for the coveted award from Andre 3000, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Jacob Collier, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift.
The Grammy Awards will be held on February 2, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.