Grammy nominations are out Friday. Here's who we think will make the cut

To get it retired of the way: No, Taylor Swift’s sanction volition not predominate nominations for the 68th Grammy Awards erstwhile they’re announced Friday morning. Because it came retired successful aboriginal October, the popular superstar’s mega-blockbuster “The Life of a Showgirl” wasn’t eligible for information for adjacent year’s ceremonial (whose model ran from Aug. 31, 2024, to Aug. 30, 2025). So you’ll person to hold until adjacent autumn to spot the Recording Academy bestow Swift with her eighth information for medium of the year, arsenic so it’s definite to do. For now, present are our bets for who’s apt to amusement up successful the Grammys’ Top 4 categories, with imaginable honorees listed successful alphabetical order. Music’s astir prestigious awards amusement volition instrumentality spot Feb. 1 astatine Crypto.com Arena successful downtown Los Angeles.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Bad Bunny, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”
Justin Bieber, “Swag”
Sabrina Carpenter, “Man’s Best Friend”
Elton John & Brandi Carlile, “Who Believes successful Angels?”
Lady Gaga, “Mayhem”
Kendrick Lamar, “GNX”
Laufey, “A Matter of Time”
Tyler, the Creator, “Chromakopia”

Possible surprise: The Weeknd, “Hurry Up Tomorrow”

Lamar and Gaga are some perennial nominees for the Grammys’ flagship prize (though neither has ever won), and Bad Bunny’s chances were lone bolstered by his enactment to header adjacent year’s Super Bowl halftime show. The Recording Academy can’t get capable of young fogeys similar Laufey, whose pop-jazz balladry mightiness evoke voters’ memories of Norah Jones. And ticker retired for a imaginable quality by the Weeknd pursuing his highly theatrical reconciliation with the academy (after a yearslong boycott) during this past February’s show.

RECORD OF THE YEAR

Justin Bieber, “Daisies”
Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”
Billie Eilish, “Wildflower”
Lady Gaga, “Abracadabra”
Kendrick Lamar and SZA, “Luther”
Chappell Roan, “The Subway”
Rosé and Bruno Mars, “Apt.”
Alex Warren, “Ordinary”

Possible surprise: Huntr/x, “Golden”

Lamar won this class successful February with “Not Like Us,” which means he’d astir surely crook up again adjacent if “Luther” hadn’t topped Billboard’s Hot 100 for 13 weeks. (Once you’re successful with the academy, you’re mostly successful — spot Eilish’s 5 erstwhile nods for grounds of the year.) Roan’s “The Subway” didn’t person the commercialized legs of immoderate of her earlier hits, but it’s the benignant of grandly affectional ballad that voters love. A motion for “Apt.” oregon for “Golden,” the second from Netflix’s inescapable “KPop Demon Hunters,” would beryllium the archetypal for a K-pop enactment successful grounds of the year; “Golden” would beryllium the archetypal way by a cartoon radical to beryllium nominated since, uh, “The Chipmunk Song” successful 1959.

SONG OF THE YEAR

“Daisies,” written by Eddie Benjamin, Justin Bieber, Daniel Chetrit, Dijon, Tobias Jesso Jr., Carter Lang, Mk.gee and Dylan Wiggins (performed by Justin Bieber)
“Lover Girl,” written by Laufey and Spencer Stewart (performed by Laufey)
“Luther,” written by Jack Antonoff, Roshwita Bacha, Matthew Bernard, Atia Boggs, Scott Bridgeway, Sam Dew, Marvin Gaye, Kendrick Lamar, Mark Spears, SZA and Kamasi Washington (performed by Kendrick Lamar and SZA)
“Manchild,” written by Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff and Sabrina Carpenter (performed by Sabrina Carpenter)
“Ordinary,” written by Mags Duval, Cal Shaprio, Alex Warren and Adam Yaron (performed by Alex Warren)
“That’s So True,” written by Gracie Abrams and Audrey Hobert (performed by Gracie Abrams)
“The Subway,” written by Daniel Nigro and Chappell Roan (performed by Chappell Roan)
“Wildflower,” written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (performed by Billie Eilish)

Possible surprise: “All My Love,” written by Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin and Moses Martin (performed by Coldplay)

At the astir caller Grammys ceremony, 5 of the 8 nominees for grounds of the twelvemonth were besides nominated for opus of the year. (The grounds prize goes to performers and producers, portion opus of the twelvemonth goes to songwriters.) So expect plentifulness of overlap present on with imaginable nods for songs by Gracie Abrams — a Taylor disciple successful a twelvemonth with nary Taylor — Laufey and Coldplay, the past of whom has stayed competitory astatine the Grammys for mode longer than you mightiness person thought.

BEST NEW ARTIST

Olivia Dean
Ravyn Lenae
Megan Moroney
Gigi Perez
Sombr
Leon Thomas
Alex Warren
Lola Young

Possible surprise: Jensen McRae

Of this year’s caller hitmakers, Warren has had the astir illustration occurrence by acold with his brooding (and quasi-Christian) “Ordinary,” which has logged 10 weeks astatine No. 1 and racked up much than 1 cardinal streams connected Spotify. Yet women person easy outnumbered men successful this class implicit the past decennary — the past feline to really triumph was Chance the Rapper successful 2017 — which means nominations volition astir apt spell to the likes of Moroney, the crafty state star; Lenae, of “Love Me Not” fame; and Dean and Young, some of whom beryllium successful a agelong lineage of Grammy-fave U.K. psyche singers that besides includes Adele, Sam Smith and Amy Winehouse. A motion for McRae, an L.A.-based up-and-comer with a flair for the folk-pop confessional, is nary uncertainty a agelong changeable — astatine slightest until you retrieve that her indie label, Dead Oceans, made it into the contention past twelvemonth with Khruangbin.