2025 Grammy Awards: Beyoncé is the top nominee

November 8, 2024

Beyoncé is the top nominee at the 65th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023 (Photo by Francis Specker/CBS)

The following is a press release from the Recording Academy:

Topping the list of nominees for the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards® are Beyoncé (11), Charli XCX (7), Billie Eilish (7), Kendrick Lamar (7), Post Malone (7), Sabrina Carpenter (6), Chappell Roan (6), and Taylor Swift (6). As the only peer-voted music award, the GRAMMY Awards® are selected by the Recording Academy®’s voting membership body of music makers, who represent all genres and creative disciplines, including recording artists, songwriters, composers, producers, mixers, and engineers. The nominees were announced via a livestream event on live.GRAMMY.com and YouTube. 

“Today we celebrate the amazing creative achievements of our music community,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. “It was an incredible year in music and these nominations reflect the work of a voting body that is more representative of the music community than ever before. The GRAMMY® became music’s most coveted award precisely because the recognition comes from one’s peers, and I’m so grateful for the Academy’s 13,000 voting members who take the time to evaluate all the amazing music, cast their votes, and honor their peers. Congratulations to all the nominees.” 

This year’s eligibility period includes recordings released between Sept. 16, 2023 – Aug. 30, 2024. The final round of GRAMMY voting, which will determine GRAMMY recipients, will take place Dec. 12, 2024 – Jan. 3, 2025. The 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards will return to Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Sun, Feb. 2, 2025, and will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT. Prior to the Telecast, the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony® will be held at the Peacock Theater at 12:30 p.m. PT and will be streamed live on live.GRAMMY.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel. The 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards will again be produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for the Recording Academy. Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor and Jesse Collins are executive producers. 

For more information about the 2025 GRAMMY Awards season, learn more about the annual GRAMMY Awards process; read our First Round Voting guide for the 2025 GRAMMYs; read our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section; view the official GRAMMY Awards Rules and Guidelines; and visit the GRAMMY Award Update Center for a list of real-time changes to the GRAMMY Awards process. 

2025 GRAMMY Nominations Full List


General Field

CATEGORY 1

Record Of The Year

Award to the Artist(s), Album Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), and/or Mixer(s), and Mastering Engineer(s) if other than the artist.

NOMINEES:

“Now and Then” The Beatles

Giles Martin & Paul McCartney, producers; Geoff Emerick, Steve Genewick, Jon Jacobs, Greg McAllister, Steve Orchard, Keith Smith, Mark ‘Spike’ Stent & Bruce Sugar, engineers/mixers; Miles Showell, mastering engineer

“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” –  Beyoncé

Beyoncé, Nate Ferraro, Killah B & Raphael Saadiq, producers; Hotae Alexander Jang, Alex Nibley & Stuart White, engineers/mixers; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer

“Espresso” – Sabrina Carpenter

Julian Bunetta, producer; Julian Bunetta & Jeff Gunnell, engineers/mixers; Nathan Dantzler, mastering engineer

“360” – Charli xcx

Cirkut & A. G. Cook, producers; Cirkut & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Idania Valencia, mastering engineer

“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” – Billie Eilish

FINNEAS & Billie Eilish, producers; Thom Beemer, Jon Castelli, Billie Eilish, Aron Forbes, Brad Lauchert, FINNEAS & Chaz Sexton, engineers/mixers; Dale Becker, mastering engineer

“Not Like Us” – Kendrick Lamar

Sean Momberger, Mustard & Sounwave, producers; Ray Charles Brown Jr. & Johnathan Turner, engineers/mixers; Nicolas de Porcel, mastering engineer

“Good Luck, Babe!” –  Chappell Roan

Dan Nigro, producer; Mitch McCarthy & Dan Nigro, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer

“Fortnight” – Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone

Jack Antonoff, Louis Bell & Taylor Swift, producers; Louis Bell, Bryce Bordone, Serban Ghenea, Sean Hutchinson, Oli Jacobs, Michael Riddleberger & Laura Sisk, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer


CATEGORY 2

Album Of The Year

Award to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s), Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and Mastering Engineer(s) credited with 20% or more playing time of the album.)

New Blue Sun – André 3000

André 3000 & Carlos Niño, producers; André 3000, Carlos Niño & Ken Oriole, engineers/mixers; André 3000, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau & Carlos Niño, songwriters; Andy Kravitz, mastering engineer

COWBOY CARTER – Beyoncé

Beyoncé, Terius “The-Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant & Dave Hamelin, producers; Matheus Braz, Brandon Harding, Hotae Alexander Jang, Dani Pampuri & Stuart White, engineers/mixers; Ryan Beatty, Beyoncé, Camaron Ochs, Terius “The-Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant, Dave Hamelin, S. Carter & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer

Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter

Jack Antonoff, Julian Bunetta, Ian Kirkpatrick & John Ryan, producers; Bryce Bordone, Julian Bunetta, Serban Ghenea, Jeff Gunnell, Oli Jacobs, Manny Marroquin, John Ryan & Laura Sisk, engineers/mixers; Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff, Julian Bunetta, Sabrina Carpenter, Ian Kirkpatrick, Julia Michaels & John Ryan, songwriters; Nathan Dantzler & Ruairi O’Flaherty, mastering engineers

BRAT – Charli xcx

Charli xcx, Cirkut & A. G. Cook, producers; A. G. Cook, Tom Norris & Geoff Swan, engineers/mixers; Charlotte Aitchison, Henry Walter, Alexander Guy Cook, Finn Keane & Jonathan Christopher Shave, songwriters; Idania Valencia, mastering engineer

Djesse Vol. 4 – Jacob Collier

Jacob Collier, producer; Ben Bloomberg, Jacob Collier & Paul Pouwer, engineers/mixers; Jacob Collier, songwriter; Chris Allgood & Emily Lazar, mastering engineers

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT – Billie Eilish

FINNEAS, producer; Thom Beemer, Jon Castelli, Billie Eilish, Aron Forbes, Brad Lauchert, FINNEAS & Chaz Sexton, engineers/mixers; Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters; Dale Becker, mastering engineer

Chappell Roan The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan

Daniel Nigro, producer; Mitch McCarthy & Daniel Nigro, engineers/mixers; Daniel Nigro & Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, songwriters; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT – Taylor Swift

Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift, producers; Zem Audu, Bella Blasko, Bryce Bordone, Serban Ghenea, David Hart, Mikey Freedom Hart, Sean Hutchinson, Oli Jacobs, Jonathan Low, Michael Riddleberger, Christopher Rowe, Laura Sisk & Evan Smith, engineers/mixers; Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift, songwriters; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer


CATEGORY 3

Song Of The Year

A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey)

“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” — Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)

“Die With A Smile” — Dernst Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars)

“Fortnight” — Jack Antonoff, Austin Post & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone)

“Good Luck, Babe!” — Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Daniel Nigro & Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan)

“Not Like Us” — Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar)

“Please Please Please” — Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter)

“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” — Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)


CATEGORY 4

Best New Artist

This category recognizes an artist whose eligibility-year release(s) achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and notably impacted the musical landscape.

Benson Boone
Sabrina Carpenter
Doechii
Khruangbin
Raye
Chappell Roan
Shaboozey
Teddy Swims


CATEGORY 5

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical

A Producer’s Award. (Artists’ names appear in parentheses.) (S) stands for Single, (T) stands for Track, and (A) stands for Album.

Alissia

“Bugs” (Jamila Woods) (T)

“DON’T MATTER” (Rae Khalil) (T)

“Honey” (BJ The Chicago Kid Featuring Chlöe) (T)

“IRREPLACEABLE (INTERLUDE)” (Rae Khalil) (T)

“IS IT WORTH IT” (Rae Khalil) (S)

“Love Takeover” (LION BABE) (S)

“Spend The Night” (BJ The Chicago Kid, Coco Jones) (T)

Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II

Algorithm (Lucky Daye) (A)

“Bar Song” (Koe Wetzel) (T)

“Die With A Smile” (Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars) (S)

“HERicane” (Lucky Daye) (T)

“I Love U” (Usher) (T)

“One Of Them Ones” (Usher) (T)

“Power of Two (From “Star Wars: The Acolyte”)” (Victoria Monét) (T)

“That’s You” (Lucky Daye) (T)

Ian Fitchuk

“AMEN” (Beyoncé) (T)

Angel Face (Stephen Sanchez) (A)

Deeper Well (Kacey Musgraves) (A)

Don’t Forget Me (Maggie Rogers) (A)

“Lemon” (Still Woozy) (S)

“Oh, Gemini” (ROLE MODEL) (S)

“Peaceful Place” (Leon Bridges) (S)

“Redemption Song (Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired By The Film)” (Leon Bridges) (S)

“Three Little Birds (Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired By The Film)” (Kacey Musgraves) (S)

Mustard

Faith Of A Mustard Seed (Mustard) (A)

“Not Like Us” (Kendrick Lamar) (S)

“Parking Lot” (Mustard & Travis Scott) (S)

Daniel Nigro

“Can’t Catch Me Now (From The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes)” (Olivia Rodrigo) (S)

Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess (Chappell Roan) (A)

“girl i’ve always been” (Olivia Rodrigo) (T)

“Good Luck, Babe!” (Chappell Roan) (S)

“so american” (Olivia Rodrigo) (T)

“stranger” (Olivia Rodrigo) (T)


CATEGORY 6

Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical

A Songwriter’s Award. (Artists’ names appear in parentheses.) (S) stands for Single, (T) stands for Track, and (A) stands for Album.

Jessi Alexander

“Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” (Luke Combs) (S)

“All I Ever Do Is Leave” (Luke Combs) (S)

“Chevrolet” (Dustin Lynch Featuring Jelly Roll) (S)

“Make Me A Mop” (Cody Johnson) (S)

“Never Left Me” (Megan Moroney) (S)

“No Caller ID” (Megan Moroney) (S)

“Noah” (Megan Moroney) (S)

“Remember Him That Way” (Luke Combs) (S)

“Roulette On The Heart” (Conner Smith & Hailey Whitters) (S)

Amy Allen

“Chrome Cowgirl” (Leon Bridges) (S)

“Espresso” (Sabrina Carpenter) (S)

“High Road” (Koe Wetzel & Jessie Murph) (S)

“Please Please Please” (Sabrina Carpenter) (S)

“run for the hills” (Tate McRae) (S)

“scared of my guitar” (Olivia Rodrigo) (T)

“Selfish” (Justin Timberlake) (S)

“Sweet Dreams” (Koe Wetzel) (S)

“Taste” (Sabrina Carpenter) (S)

Edgar Barrera

“Atención” (Ivan Cornejo) (T)

“(Entre Paréntesis)” (Shakira & Grupo Frontera) (T)

“It Was Always You (Siempre Fuiste Tú)” (Carin León & Leon Bridges) (S)

“No Se Vale” (Camilo) (T)

“The One (Pero No Como Yo)” (Carin León & Kane Brown) (S)

“POR EL CONTRARIO” (Becky G With Ángela Aguilar, Leonardo Aguilar) (T)

“Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” (Karol G) (S)

“Sincere” (Khalid) (T)

“TOMMY & PAMELA” (Peso Pluma & Kenia Os) (T)

Jessie Jo Dillon

“Am I Okay?” (Megan Moroney) (T)

“Go To Hell” (Post Malone) (T)

“Heaven By Noon” (Megan Moroney) (T)

“Lies Lies Lies” (Morgan Wallen) (S)

“MESSED UP AS ME” (Keith Urban) (S)

“Never Left Me” (Megan Moroney) (T)

“No Caller ID” (Megan Moroney) (T)

“Sorry Mom” (Kelsea Ballerini) (S)

“Two Hearts” (Post Malone) (T)

RAYE

“Ask & You Shall Receive” (Rita Ora) (S)

“Because I Love You” (Halle) (S)

“Dear Ben, Pt II” (Jennifer Lopez) (T)

“Genesis.” (RAYE) (S)

“Mother Nature” (RAYE & Hans Zimmer) (S)

“Paralyzed” (Lucky Daye Featuring RAYE) (T)

“RIIVERDANCE” (Beyoncé) (T)

“You’re Hired” (NEIKED Featuring Ayra Starr) (S)


Field 1: Pop & Dance/Electronic

CATEGORY 7

Best Pop Solo Performance

For new vocal or instrumental pop recordings. Singles or Tracks only.

“BODYGUARD” — Beyoncé

“Espresso” — Sabrina Carpenter

“Apple” — Charli xcx

“BIRDS OF A FEATHER” — Billie Eilish

“Good Luck, Babe!” — Chappell Roan


CATEGORY 8

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

For new vocal or instrumental duo/group or collaborative pop recordings. Singles or Tracks only.

“us.” — Gracie Abrams Featuring Taylor Swift

“LEVII’S JEANS” — Beyoncé Featuring Post Malone

“Guess” — Charli xcx & Billie Eilish

“the boy is mine” — Ariana Grande, Brandy & Monica

“Die With A Smile” — Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars


CATEGORY 9

Best Pop Vocal Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new pop vocal recordings.

Short n’ Sweet — Sabrina Carpenter

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT — Billie Eilish

eternal sunshine — Ariana Grande

Chappell Roan The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess — Chappell Roan

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT — Taylor Swift


CATEGORY 10

Best Dance/Electronic Recording

For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances. Vocal or Instrumental. Singles or tracks only.

“She’s Gone, Dance On” — Disclosure

Guy Lawrence & Howard Lawrence, producers; Guy Lawrence, mixer

“Loved” — Four Tet

Kieran Hebden, producer; Kieran Hebden, mixer

“leavemealone” — Fred Again.. & Baby Keem

Boo, Fred Again.., Alex Gibson, Kieran Hebden, LOOSE, Skrillex & Sid Stone, producers; Fred Again.. & Jay Reynolds, mixers

“Neverender” — Justice & Tame Impala

Gaspard Augé & Xavier De Rosnay, producers; Gaspard Augé, Xavier De Rosnay, Damien Quintard & Vincent Taurelle, mixers

“Witchy” — KAYTRANADA Featuring Childish Gambino

Lauren D’Elia & KAYTRANADA, producers; Neal H Pogue, mixer


CATEGORY 11

Best Dance Pop Recording

For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances. Vocal or Instrumental. Singles or tracks only.

“Make You Mine” — Madison Beer

Madison Beer & Leroy Clampitt, producers; Mitch McCarthy, mixer

“Von dutch” — Charli xcx

Finn Keane, producer; Tom Norris, mixer

“L’AMOUR DE MA VIE [OVER NOW EXTENDED EDIT]” — Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish & FINNEAS, producers; Jon Castelli & Aron Forbes, mixers

“yes, and?” — Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande, ILYA & Max Martin, producers; Serban Ghenea, mixer

“Got Me Started” — Troye Sivan

Ian Kirkpatrick, producer; Alex Ghenea, mixer


CATEGORY 12

Best Dance/Electronic Album

For vocal or instrumental albums. Albums only.

BRAT — Charli xcx

Three — Four Tet

Hyperdrama — Justice

TIMELESS — KAYTRANADA

Telos — Zedd


CATEGORY 13

Best Remixed Recording

A Remixer’s Award. (Artists’ names appear in parentheses for identification.) Singles or Tracks only.

“Alter Ego – KAYTRANADA Remix” — KAYTRANADA, remixer (Doechii Featuring JT)

“A Bar Song (Tipsy) [Remix]” — David Guetta, remixer (Shaboozey & David Guetta)

“Espresso (Mark Ronson x FNZ Working Late Remix)” — FNZ & Mark Ronson, remixers (Sabrina Carpenter)

“Jah Sees Them – Amapiano Remix” — Alexx Antaeus, Footsteps & MrMyish, remixers (Julian Marley & Antaeus)

“Von dutch” — A.G. Cook, remixer (Charli xcx & A.G. Cook Featuring Addison Rae)


CATEGORY 14

Best Rock Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or collaborative rock recordings.

“Now and Then” —  The Beatles

“Beautiful People (Stay High)” — The Black Keys

“The American Dream Is Killing Me” — Green Day

“Gift Horse” — IDLES

“Dark Matter” — Pearl Jam

“Broken Man” — St. Vincent


Field 2: Rock, Metal & Alternative Music

CATEGORY 15

Best Metal Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or collaborative metal recordings.

“Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” — Gojira, Marina Viotti & Victor Le Masne

“Crown of Horns” — Judas Priest

“Suffocate” — Knocked Loose Featuring Poppy

“Screaming Suicide” — Metallica

“Cellar Door” — Spiritbox


CATEGORY 16

Best Rock Song

A Songwriter(s) Award. Includes Rock, Hard Rock and Metal songs. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“Beautiful People (Stay High)” — Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney, Beck Hansen & Daniel Nakamura, songwriters (The Black Keys)

“Broken Man” — Annie Clark, songwriter (St. Vincent)

“Dark Matter” — Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Pearl Jam)

“Dilemma” — Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool & Mike Dirnt, songwriters (Green Day)

“Gift Horse” — Jon Beavis, Mark Bowen, Adam Devonshire, Lee Kiernan & Joe Talbot, songwriters (IDLES)


CATEGORY 17

Best Rock Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new rock, hard rock or metal recordings.

Happiness Bastards — The Black Crowes

Romance — Fontaines D.C.

Saviors — Green Day

TANGK — IDLES

Dark Matter — Pearl Jam

Hackney Diamonds — The Rolling Stones

No Name — Jack White


CATEGORY 18

Best Alternative Music Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or collaborative Alternative music recordings.

“Neon Pill” — Cage The Elephant

“Song Of The Lake” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

“Starburster” — Fontaines D.C.

“BYE BYE” — Kim Gordon

“Flea” — St. Vincent


CATEGORY 19

Best Alternative Music Album

Vocal or Instrumental.

Wild God — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Charm — Clairo

The Collective — Kim Gordon

What Now — Brittany Howard

All Born Screaming — St. Vincent


Field 3: R&B, Rap & Spoken Word Poetry

CATEGORY 20

Best R&B Performance

For new vocal or instrumental R&B recordings.

“Guidance” — Jhené Aiko

“Residuals” — Chris Brown

“Here We Go (Uh Oh)” — Coco Jones

“Made For Me (Live On BET)” — Muni Long

“Saturn” — SZA


CATEGORY 21

Best Traditional R&B Performance

For new vocal or instrumental traditional R&B recordings.

“Wet” — Marsha Ambrosius

“Can I Have This Groove” — Kenyon Dixon

“No Lie” — Lalah Hathaway Featuring Michael McDonald

“Make Me Forget” — Muni Long

“That’s You” — Lucky Daye


CATEGORY 22

Best R&B Song

A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“After Hours” — Diovanna Frazier, Alex Goldblatt, Kehlani Parrish, Khris Riddick-Tynes & Daniel Upchurch, songwriters (Kehlani)

“Burning” — Ronald Banful & Temilade Openiyi, songwriters (Tems)

“Here We Go (Uh Oh)” — Sara Diamond, Sydney Floyd, Marisela Jackson, Courtney Jones, Carl McCormick & Kelvin Wooten, songwriters (Coco Jones)

“Ruined Me” — Jeff Gitelman, Priscilla Renea & Kevin Theodore, songwriters (Muni Long)

“Saturn” — Rob Bisel, Carter Lang, Solána Rowe, Jared Solomon & Scott Zhang, songwriters (SZA)


CATEGORY 23

Best Progressive R&B Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded progressive vocal tracks derivative of R&B.

So Glad to Know You — Avery*Sunshine

En Route — Durand Bernarr

Bando Stone & the New World — Childish Gambino

Crash — Kehlani

Why Lawd? — NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge)


CATEGORY 24

Best R&B Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new R&B recordings.

11:11 (Deluxe) — Chris Brown

VANTABLACK — Lalah Hathaway

Revenge — Muni Long

Algorithm — Lucky Daye

COMING HOME — Usher


CATEGORY 25

Best Rap Performance

For a Rap performance. Singles or Tracks only.

“Enough (Miami)” — Cardi B

“When The Sun Shines Again” — Common & Pete Rock Featuring Posdnuos

“NISSAN ALTIMA” — Doechii

“Houdini” — Eminem

“Like That” — Future & Metro Boomin Featuring Kendrick Lamar

“Yeah Glo!” — GloRilla

“Not Like Us” — Kendrick Lamar


CATEGORY 26

Best Melodic Rap Performance

For a solo or collaborative performance containing both elements of R&B melodies and Rap.

“KEHLANI” — Jordan Adetunji Featuring Kehlani

“SPAGHETTII” — Beyoncé Featuring Linda Martell & Shaboozey

“We Still Don’t Trust You” — Future & Metro Boomin Featuring The Weeknd

“Big Mama” — Latto

“3” — Rapsody Featuring Erykah Badu


CATEGORY 27

Best Rap Song

A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“Asteroids” — Marlanna Evans, songwriter (Rapsody Featuring Hit-Boy)

“Carnival” — Jordan Carter, Raul Cubina, Grant Dickinson, Samuel Lindley, Nasir Pemberton, Dimitri Roger, Ty Dolla $ign, Kanye West & Mark Carl Stolinski Williams, songwriters (¥$ (Kanye West & Ty Dolla $Ign) Featuring Rich The Kid & Playboi Carti)

“Like That” — Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, Kobe “BbyKobe” Hood, Leland Wayne & Nayvadius Wilburn, songwriters (Future & Metro Boomin Featuring Kendrick Lamar)

“Not Like Us” — Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar)

“Yeah Glo!” — Ronnie Jackson, Jaucquez Lowe, Timothy McKibbins, Kevin Andre Price, Julius Rivera III & Gloria Woods, songwriters (GloRilla)


CATEGORY 28

Best Rap Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new rap recordings.

Might Delete Later — J. Cole

The Auditorium, Vol. 1 — Common & Pete Rock

Alligator Bites Never Heal — Doechii

The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) — Eminem

We Don’t Trust You — Future & Metro Boomin


CATEGORY 29

Best Spoken Word Poetry Album

For albums containing greater than 50% playing time of new spoken word poetry recordings.

CIVIL WRITES: The South Got Something To Say — Queen Sheba

cOncrete & wHiskey Act II Part 1: A Bourbon 30 Series — Omari Hardwick

Good M.U.S.I.C. Universe Sonic Sinema Episode 1: In The Beginning Was The Word — Malik Yusef

The Heart, The Mind, The Soul — Tank and The Bangas

The Seven Number Ones — Mad Skillz


Field 4: Jazz, Traditional Pop, Contemporary Instrumental & Musical Theater

CATEGORY 30

Best Jazz Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or collaborative jazz recordings.

“Walk With Me, Lord (SOUND | SPIRIT)” — The Baylor Project

“Phoenix Reimagined (Live)” — Lakecia Benjamin Featuring Randy Brecker, Jeff “Tain” Watts & John Scofield

“Juno” — Chick Corea & Béla Fleck

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Me” — Samara Joy Featuring Sullivan Fortner

**”Little Fears”**— Dan Pugach Big Band Featuring Nicole Zuraitis & Troy Roberts


CATEGORY 31

Best Jazz Vocal Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal jazz recordings.

Journey In Black — Christie Dashiell

Wildflowers Vol. 1 — Kurt Elling & Sullivan Fortner

A Joyful Holiday — Samara Joy

Milton + esperanza — Milton Nascimento & esperanza spalding

My Ideal — Catherine Russell & Sean Mason


CATEGORY 32

Best Jazz Instrumental Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new instrumental jazz recordings.

Owl Song — Ambrose Akinmusire Featuring Bill Frisell & Herlin Riley

Beyond This Place — Kenny Barron Featuring Kiyoshi Kitagawa, Johnathan Blake, Immanuel Wilkins & Steve Nelson

Phoenix Reimagined (Live) — Lakecia Benjamin

Remembrance — Chick Corea & Béla Fleck

Solo Game — Sullivan Fortner


CATEGORY 33

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new large ensemble jazz recordings.

Returning To Forever — John Beasley & Frankfurt Radio Big Band

And So It Goes — The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra

Walk A Mile In My Shoe — Orrin Evans & The Captain Black Big Band

Bianca Reimagined: Music for Paws and Persistence — Dan Pugach Big Band

Golden City — Miguel Zenón


CATEGORY 34

Best Latin Jazz Album

For vocal or instrumental albums containing greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.

Spain Forever Again — Michel Camilo & Tomatito

Cubop Lives! — Zaccai Curtis

COLLAB — Hamilton de Holanda & Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Time And Again — Eliane Elias

El Trio: Live in Italy — Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernández, John Beasley & José Gola

Cuba And Beyond — Chucho Valdés & Royal Quartet

As I Travel — Donald Vega Featuring Lewis Nash, John Patitucci & Luisito Quintero


CATEGORY 35

Best Alternative Jazz Album

For vocal or instrumental albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new Alternative jazz recordings.

Night Reign — Arooj Aftab

New Blue Sun — André 3000

Code Derivation — Robert Glasper

Foreverland — Keyon Harrold

No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin — Meshell Ndegeocello


CATEGORY 36

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new traditional pop recordings.

À Fleur De Peau — Cyrille Aimée

Visions — Norah Jones

Good Together — Lake Street Dive

Impossible Dream — Aaron Lazar

Christmas Wish — Gregory Porter


CATEGORY 37

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new contemporary instrumental recordings.

Plot Armor — Taylor Eigsti

Rhapsody In Blue — Béla Fleck

Orchestras (Live) — Bill Frisell Featuring Alexander Hanson, Brussels Philharmonic, Rudy Royston & Thomas Morgan

Mark — Mark Guiliana

Speak To Me — Julian Lage


CATEGORY 38

Best Musical Theater Album

For albums containing greater than 51% playing time of new recordings. Award to the principal vocalist(s), and the album producer(s) of 50% or more playing time of the album. The lyricist(s) and composer(s) of 50% or more of a score of a new recording are eligible for an Award if any previous recording of said score has not been nominated in this category.

Hell’s Kitchen — Shoshana Bean, Brandon Victor Dixon, Kecia Lewis & Meleah Joi Moon, principal vocalists; Adam Blackstone, Alicia Keys & Tom Kitt, producers (Alicia Keys, composer & lyricist) (Original Broadway Cast)

Merrily We Roll Along — Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez & Daniel Radcliffe, principal vocalists; David Caddick, Joel Fram, Maria Friedman & David Lai, producers (Stephen Sondheim, composer & lyricist) (New Broadway Cast)

The Notebook — John Clancy, Carmel Dean, Kurt Deutsch, Derik Lee, Kevin McCollum & Ingrid Michaelson, producers; Ingrid Michaelson, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)

The Outsiders — Joshua Boone, Brent Comer, Brody Grant & Sky Lakota-Lynch, principal vocalists; Zach Chance, Jonathan Clay, Matt Hinkley, Justin Levine & Lawrence Manchester, producers; Zach Chance, Jonathan Clay & Justin Levine, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast)

Suffs — Andrea Grody, Dean Sharenow & Shaina Taub, producers; Shaina Taub, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)

The Wiz — Wayne Brady, Deborah Cox, Nichelle Lewis & Avery Wilson, principal vocalists; Joseph Joubert, Allen René Louis & Lawrence Manchester, producers (Charlie Smalls, composer & lyricist) (2024 Broadway Cast Recording)


Field 5: Country & American Roots Music

CATEGORY 39

Best Country Solo Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo country recordings.

“16 CARRIAGES” — Beyoncé

“I Am Not Okay” — Jelly Roll

“The Architect” — Kacey Musgraves

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — Shaboozey

“It Takes A Woman” — Chris Stapleton


CATEGORY 40

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

For new vocal or instrumental duo/group or collaborative country recordings.

“Cowboys Cry Too” — Kelsea Ballerini With Noah Kahan

“II MOST WANTED” — Beyoncé Featuring Miley Cyrus

“Break Mine” — Brothers Osborne

“Bigger Houses” — Dan + Shay

“I Had Some Help” — Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen


CATEGORY 41

Best Country Song

A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“The Architect” — Shane McAnally, Kacey Musgraves & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Kacey Musgraves)

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey)

“I Am Not Okay” — Casey Brown, Jason DeFord, Ashley Gorley & Taylor Phillips, songwriters (Jelly Roll)

“I Had Some Help” — Louis Bell, Ashley Gorley, Hoskins, Austin Post, Ernest Smith, Ryan Vojtesak, Morgan Wallen & Chandler Paul Walters, songwriters (Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen)

“TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” — Brian Bates, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)


CATEGORY 42

Best Country Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new country recordings.

COWBOY CARTER — Beyoncé

F-1 Trillion — Post Malone

Deeper Well — Kacey Musgraves

Higher — Chris Stapleton

Whirlwind — Lainey Wilson


CATEGORY 43

Best American Roots Performance

For new vocal or instrumental American Roots recordings. This is for performances in the style of any of the subgenres encompassed in the American Roots Music field including bluegrass, blues, folk or regional roots. Award to the artist(s).

“Blame It On Eve” — Shemekia Copeland

“Nothing In Rambling” — The Fabulous Thunderbirds Featuring Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal & Mick Fleetwood

“Lighthouse” — Sierra Ferrell

“The Ballad Of Sally Anne” — Rhiannon Giddens


CATEGORY 44

Best Americana Performance

For new vocal or instrumental Americana performance. Award to the artist(s).

“YA YA” — Beyoncé

“Subtitles” — Madison Cunningham

“Don’t Do Me Good” — Madi Diaz Featuring Kacey Musgraves

“American Dreaming” — Sierra Ferrell

“Runaway Train” — Sarah Jarosz

“Empty Trainload Of Sky” — Gillian Welch & David Rawlings


CATEGORY 45

Best American Roots Song

A Songwriter(s) Award. Includes Americana, bluegrass, traditional blues, contemporary blues, folk or regional roots songs. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“Ahead Of The Game” — Mark Knopfler, songwriter (Mark Knopfler)

“All In Good Time” — Sam Beam, songwriter (Iron & Wine Featuring Fiona Apple)

“All My Friends” — Aoife O’Donovan, songwriter (Aoife O’Donovan)

“American Dreaming” — Sierra Ferrell & Melody Walker, songwriters (Sierra Ferrell)

“Blame It On Eve” — John Hahn & Will Kimbrough, songwriters (Shemekia Copeland)


CATEGORY 46

Best Americana Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental Americana recordings.

The Other Side — T Bone Burnett

$10 Cowboy — Charley Crockett

Trail Of Flowers — Sierra Ferrell

Polaroid Lovers — Sarah Jarosz

No One Gets Out Alive — Maggie Rose

Tigers Blood — Waxahatchee


CATEGORY 47

Best Bluegrass Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental bluegrass recordings.

I Built A World — Bronwyn Keith-Hynes

Songs of Love and Life — The Del McCoury Band

No Fear — Sister Sadie

Live Vol. 1 — Billy Strings

Earl Jam — Tony Trischka

Dan Tyminski: Live From The Ryman — Dan Tyminski


CATEGORY 48

Best Traditional Blues Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental traditional blues recordings.

Hill Country Love — Cedric Burnside

Struck Down — The Fabulous Thunderbirds

One Guitar Woman — Sue Foley

Sam’s Place — Little Feat

Swingin’ Live at The Church in Tulsa — The Taj Mahal Sextet


CATEGORY 49

Best Contemporary Blues Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental contemporary blues recordings.

Blues Deluxe Vol. 2 — Joe Bonamassa

Blame It On Eve — Shemekia Copeland

Friendlytown — Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour

Mileage — Ruthie Foster

The Fury — Antonio Vergara


CATEGORY 50

Best Folk Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental folk recordings.

American Patchwork Quartet — American Patchwork Quartet

Weird Faith — Madi Diaz

Bright Future — Adrianne Lenker

All My Friends — Aoife O’Donovan

Woodland — Gillian Welch & David Rawlings


CATEGORY 51

Best Regional Roots Music Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental regional roots music recordings.

25 Back To My Roots — Sean Ardoin And Kreole Rock And Soul

Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & The Golden Eagles Featuring J’Wan Boudreaux

Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — New Breed Brass Band Featuring Trombone Shorty

Kuini — Kalani Pe’a

Stories From The Battlefield — The Rumble Featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr.


Field 6: Gospel & Contemporary Christian Music

CATEGORY 52

Best Gospel Performance/Song

This award is given to the artist(s) and songwriter(s) (for new compositions) for the best traditional Christian, roots gospel, or contemporary gospel single or track.

Church Doors” — Yolanda Adams; Sir William James Baptist & Donald Lawrence, songwriters

“Yesterday” — Melvin Crispell III

“Hold On (Live)” — Ricky Dillard

“Holy Hands” — DOE; Jesse Paul Barrera, Jeffrey Castro Bernat, Dominique Jones, Timothy Ferguson, Kelby Shavon Johnson, Jr., Jonathan McReynolds, Rickey Slikk Muzik Offord & Juan Winans, songwriters

“One Hallelujah” — Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Erica Campbell & Israel Houghton Featuring Jonathan McReynolds & Jekalyn Carr; G. Morris Coleman, Israel Houghton, Kenneth Leonard, Jr., Tasha Cobbs Leonard & Naomi Raine, songwriters


CATEGORY 53

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song

This award is given to the artist(s) and songwriter(s) (for new compositions) for the best contemporary Christian music single or track (including pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin, or rock).

“Holy Forever (Live)” — Bethel Music, Jenn Johnson Featuring CeCe Winans

“Praise” — Elevation Worship Featuring Brandon Lake, Chris Brown & Chandler Moore; Pat Barrett, Chris Brown, Cody Carnes, Steven Furtick, Brandon Lake & Chandler Moore, songwriters

“Firm Foundation (He Won’t)” — Honor & Glory Featuring Disciple

“In The Name Of Jesus” — JWLKRS Worship & Maverick City Music Featuring Chandler Moore; Austin Armstrong, Ran Jackson, Chandler Moore, Sajan Nauriyal, Ella Schnacky, Noah Schnacky & Ilya Toshinskiy, songwriters

“In The Room” — Maverick City Music, Naomi Raine & Chandler Moore Featuring Tasha Cobbs Leonard; G. Morris Coleman, Tasha Cobbs Leonard & Naomi Raine, songwriters

“That’s My King” — CeCe Winans; Taylor Agan, Kellie Gamble, Llyod Nicks & Jess Russ, songwriters


CATEGORY 54

Best Gospel Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded, vocal, traditional or contemporary/R&B gospel music recordings.

Covered Vol. 1 — Melvin Crispell III

Choirmaster II (Live) — Ricky Dillard

Father’s Day — Kirk Franklin

Still Karen — Karen Clark Sheard

More Than This — CeCe Winans


CATEGORY 55

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded, vocal, contemporary Christian music, including pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin, or rock recordings.

Heart Of A Human — DOE

When Wind Meets Fire — Elevation Worship

Child Of God — Forrest Frank

Coat Of Many Colors — Brandon Lake

The Maverick Way Complete — Maverick City Music, Naomi Raine & Chandler Moore


CATEGORY 56

Best Roots Gospel Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded, vocal, traditional/roots gospel music, including country, Southern gospel, bluegrass, and Americana recordings.

The Gospel Sessions, Vol 2 — Authentic Unlimited

The Gospel According To Mark — Mark D. Conklin

Rhapsody — The Harlem Gospel Travelers

Church — Cory Henry

Loving You — The Nelons


Field 7: Latin, Global, Reggae & New Age, Ambient, or Chant

CATEGORY 57

Best Latin Pop Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new Latin pop recordings.

Funk Generation — Anitta

El Viaje — Luis Fonsi

GARCÍA — Kany García

Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran — Shakira

ORQUÍDEAS — Kali Uchis


CATEGORY 58

Best Música Urbana Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new Música Urbana recordings.

nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana — Bad Bunny

Rayo — J Balvin

FERXXOCALIPSIS — Feid

LAS LETRAS YA NO IMPORTAN — Residente

att. Young Miko


CATEGORY 59

Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new Latin rock or alternative recordings.

Compita del Destino — El David Aguilar

Pa’ Tu Cuerpa — Cimafunk

Autopoiética — Mon Laferte

GRASA — NATHY PELUSO

¿Quién trae las cornetas? — Rawayana


CATEGORY 60

Best Música Mexicana Album (Including Tejano)

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new regional Mexican (banda, norteño, corridos, gruperos, mariachi, ranchera and Tejano) recordings.

Diamantes — Chiquis

Boca Chueca, Vol. 1 — Carín León

ÉXODO — Peso Pluma

De Lejitos — Jessi Uribe


CATEGORY 61

Best Tropical Latin Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new tropical Latin recordings.

MUEVENSE — Marc Anthony

Bailar — Sheila E.

Radio Güira — Juan Luis Guerra 4.40

Alma, Corazón y Salsa (Live at Gran Teatro Nacional) — Tony Succar, Mimy Succar

Vacilón Santiaguero — Kiki Valera


CATEGORY 62

Best Global Music Performance

For new vocal or instrumental Global music recordings.

“Raat Ki Rani” — Arooj Aftab

“A Rock Somewhere” — Jacob Collier Featuring Anoushka Shankar & Varijashree Venugopal

“Rise” — Rocky Dawuni

“Bemba Colorá” — Sheila E. Featuring Gloria Estefan & Mimy Succar

**”Sunlight To My Soul”**— Angélique Kidjo Featuring Soweto Gospel Choir

“Kashira” — Masa Takumi Featuring Ron Korb, Noshir Mody & Dale Edward Chung


CATEGORY 63

Best African Music Performance

For new vocal or instrumental African music recordings.

“Tomorrow” — Yemi Alade

“MMS” — Asake & Wizkid

“Sensational” — Chris Brown Featuring Davido & Lojay

“Higher” — Burna Boy

“Love Me JeJe” — Tems


CATEGORY 64

Best Global Music Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental Global Music recordings.

ALKEBULAN II — Matt B Featuring Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Paisajes — Ciro Hurtado

Heis — Rema

Historias de un Flamenco — Antonio Rey

Born in the Wild — Tems


CATEGORY 65

Best Reggae Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new reggae recordings.

Take It Easy — Collie Buddz

Party With Me — Vybz Kartel

Never Gets Late Here — Shenseea

Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired By The Film (Deluxe) — (Various Artists)

Evolution — The Wailers


CATEGORY 66

Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new vocal or instrumental new age recordings.

Break of Dawn — Ricky Kej

Triveni — Wouter Kellerman, Éru Matsumoto & Chandrika Tandon

Visions Of Sounds De Luxe — Chris Redding

Opus — Ryuichi Sakamoto

Chapter II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn — Anoushka Shankar

Warriors Of Light — Radhika Vekaria


Field 8: Children’s, Comedy, Audio Books, Visual Media & Music Video/Film

CATEGORY 67

Best Children’s Music Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new musical or spoken word recordings that are created and intended specifically for children.

Brillo, Brillo! — Lucky Diaz And The Family Jam Band

Creciendo — Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats

My Favorite Dream — John Legend

Solid Rock Revival — Rock For Children

World Wide Playdate — Divinity Roxx and Divi Roxx Kids


CATEGORY 68

Best Comedy Album

For albums containing greater than 75% playing time of new recordings.

Armageddon — Ricky Gervais

The Dreamer — Dave Chappelle

The Prisoner — Jim Gaffigan

Someday You’ll Die — Nikki Glaser

Where Was I — Trevor Noah


CATEGORY 69

Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording

For an album that is spoken word in format.

All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words (Various Artists) — Guy Oldfield, producer

…And Your Ass Will Follow — George Clinton

Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones — Dolly Parton

Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration — Jimmy Carter

My Name Is Barbra — Barbra Streisand


CATEGORY 70

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media

Award to the principal artist(s) and/or ‘in studio’ producer(s) of a majority of the tracks on the album. Award also goes to appropriately credited music supervisor(s).

The Color Purple — (Various Artists)

Deadpool & Wolverine — (Various Artists)

Maestro: Music By Leonard Bernstein — London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bradley Cooper

Saltburn — (Various Artists)

Twisters: The Album — (Various Artists)


CATEGORY 71

Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media (Includes Film And Television)

Award to Composer(s) for an original score created specifically for a current motion picture, television show, or series.

American Fiction — Laura Karpman, composer

Challengers — Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, composers

The Color Purple — Kris Bowers, composer

Dune: Part Two — Hans Zimmer, composer

Shōgun — Nick Chuba, Atticus Ross & Leopold Ross, composers


CATEGORY 72

Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media

Award to Composer(s) for an original score created specifically for, or as a companion to, video games and other interactive media.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — Pinar Toprak, composer

God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla — Bear McCreary, composer

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 — John Paesano, composer

Star Wars Outlaws — Wilbert Roget, II, composer

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord — Winifred Phillips, composer


CATEGORY 73

Best Song Written For Visual Media

A Songwriter(s) award. For a song (melody & lyrics) written specifically for a motion picture, television, video game or other visual media. Singles or Tracks only.

Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma [From “Twisters: The Album”] — Jessi Alexander, Luke Combs & Jonathan Singleton, songwriters (Luke Combs)

Better Place [From “TROLLS Band Together”] — Amy Allen, Shellback & Justin Timberlake, songwriters (*NSYNC & Justin Timberlake)

Can’t Catch Me Now [From “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”] — Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters (Olivia Rodrigo)

It Never Went Away [From “American Symphony”] — Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson, songwriters (Jon Batiste)

Love Will Survive [From “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”] — Walter Afanasieff, Charlie Midnight, Kara Talve & Hans Zimmer, songwriters (Barbra Streisand)


CATEGORY 74

Best Music Video

Award to the artist, video director, and video producer.

“Tailor Swif” — A$AP Rocky

Vania Heymann & Gal Muggia, video directors

“360” — Charli xcx

Aidan Zamiri, video director; Jami Arceo & Evan Thicke, video producers

“Houdini” — Eminem

Rich Lee, video director; Kathy Angstadt, Lisa Arianna & Justin Diener, video producers

“Not Like Us” — Kendrick Lamar

Dave Free & Kendrick Lamar, video directors; Jack Begert, Sam Canter & Jamie Rabineau, video producers

“Fortnight” — Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone

Taylor Swift, video director; Jil Hardin, video producer


CATEGORY 75

Best Music Film

For concert/performance films or music documentaries. Award to the artist, video director, and video producer.

“American Symphony” — Jon Batiste

Matthew Heineman, video director; Lauren Domino, Matthew Heineman & Joedan Okun, video producers

“June” — (June Carter Cash)

Kristen Vaurio, video director; Josh Matas, Sarah Olson, Jason Owen, Mary Robertson & Kristen Vaurio, video producers

Kings From Queens” — Run DMC

Kirk Fraser, video director; William H. Masterson III, video producer

“Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple” — Steven Van Zandt

Bill Teck, video director; Robert Cotto, David Fisher & Bill Teck, video producers

“The Greatest Night in Pop” — (Various Artists)

Bao Nguyen, video director; Bruce Eskowitz, George Hencken, Larry Klein, Julia Nottingham, Lionel Richie & Harriet Sternberg, video producers


Field 9: Package, Notes & Historical

CATEGORY 76

Best Recording Package

For the best artistic package of an album.

The Avett Brothers — Jonny Black & Giorgia Sage, art directors (The Avett Brothers)

Baker Hotel — Sarah Dodds & Shauna Dodds, art directors (William Clark Green)

BRAT — Brent David Freaney & Imogene Strauss, art directors (Charli xcx)

F-1 Trillion — Archie Lee Coates IV, Jeffrey Franklin, Blossom Liu, Kylie McMahon & Ana Cecilia Thompson Motta, art directors (Post Malone)

Hounds Of Love The Baskerville Edition — Kate Bush & Albert McIntosh, art directors (Kate Bush)

Jug Band Millionaire — Andrew Wong & Julie Yeh, art directors (The Muddy Basin Ramblers)

Pregnancy, Breakdown, And Disease — Lee Pei-Tzu, art director (iWhoiWhoo)


CATEGORY 77

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package

For the best package of a special edition album.

Half Living Things — Patrick Galvin, art director (Alpha Wolf)

Hounds Of Love The Boxes Of Lost At Sea — Kate Bush & Albert McIntosh, art directors (Kate Bush)

In Utero — Doug Cunningham & Jason Noto, art directors (Nirvana)

Mind Games — Simon Hilton & Sean Ono Lennon, art directors (John Lennon)

Unsuk Chin — Takahiro Kurashima & Marek Polewski, art directors (Unsuk Chin & Berliner Philharmoniker)

We Blame Chicago — Rebeka Arce & Farbod Kokabi, art directors (90 Day Men)


CATEGORY 78

Best Album Notes

Award to the album notes writer.

After Midnight — Tim Brooks, album notes writer (Ford Dabney’s Syncopated Orchestras)

The Carnegie Hall Concert — Lauren Du Graf, album notes writer (Alice Coltrane)

Centennial — Ricky Riccardi, album notes writer (King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band & Various Artists)

John Culshaw — The Art Of The Producer – The Early Years 1948-55 — Dominic Fyfe, album notes writer (John Culshaw)

SONtrack Original De La Película “Al Son De Beno” — Josh Kun, album notes writer (Various Artists)


CATEGORY 79

Best Historical Album

For historical albums containing reissues or compilations. Award to compilation producers and mastering engineers.

Centennial — Meagan Hennessey & Richard Martin, compilation producers; Richard Martin, mastering engineer (King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band And Various Artists)

Diamonds And Pearls: Super Deluxe Edition — Charles F. Spicer, Jr. & Duane Tudahl, compilation producers; Brad Blackwood & Bernie Grundman, mastering engineers (Prince & The New Power Generation)

Paul Robeson – Voice of Freedom: His Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings — Tom Laskey & Robert Russ, compilation producers; Nancy Conforti & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Paul Robeson)

Pepito y Paquito — Pepe De Lucía & Javier Doria, compilation producers; Jesús Bola, mastering engineer (Pepe De Lucía And Paco De Lucía)

The Sound Of Music (Original Soundtrack Recording – Super Deluxe Edition) — Mike Matessino & Mark Piro, compilation producers; Steve Genewick & Mike Matessino, mastering engineers (Rodgers & Hammerstein & Julie Andrews)


CATEGORY 80

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

An Engineer’s Award. (Artists’ names appear in parentheses.)

Algorithm — Dernst Emile II, Michael B. Hunter, Stephan Johnson, Rachel Keen, John Kercy, Charles Moniz & Todd Robinson, engineers; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer (Lucky Daye)

Cyan Blue — Jack Emblem, Jack Rochon & Charlotte Day Wilson, engineers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer (Charlotte Day Wilson)

Deeper Well — Craig Alvin, Shawn Everett, Mai Leisz, Todd Lombardo, John Rooney, Konrad Snyder & Daniel Tashian, engineers; Greg Calbi, mastering engineer (Kacey Musgraves)

empathogen — Beatriz Artola, Zach Brown, Oscar Cornejo, Chris Greatti & Mitch McCarthy, engineers; Joe La Porta, mastering engineer (WILLOW)

i/o — Tchad Blake, Oli Jacobs, Katie May & Dom Shaw, engineers; Matt Colton, mastering engineer (Peter Gabriel)

Short n’ Sweet — Bryce Bordone, Julian Bunetta, Serban Ghenea, Jeff Gunnell, Oli Jacobs, Ian Kirkpatrick, Jack Manning, Manny Marroquin, John Ryan & Laura Sisk, engineers; Nathan Dantzler & Ruairi O’Flaherty, mastering engineers (Sabrina Carpenter)


CATEGORY 81

Best Engineered Album, Classical

An Engineer’s Award. (Artists’ names appear in parentheses.)

Adams: Girls Of The Golden West — Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, engineers; Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, mastering engineers (John Adams, Daniela Mack, Ryan McKinny, Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines, Los Angeles Philharmonic & Los Angeles Master Chorale)

Andres: The Blind Banister — Silas Brown, Doron Schachter & Michael Schwartz, engineers; Matt Colton, mastering engineer (Andrew Cyr, Inbal Segev & Metropolis Ensemble)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit — Mark Donahue & John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Clear Voices In The Dark — Daniel Shores, engineer; Daniel Shores, mastering engineer (Matthew Guard & Skylark Vocal Ensemble)

Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina — Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, engineers; Alexander Lipay & Dmitriy Lipay, mastering engineers (Gustavo Dudamel, María Dueñas, Los Angeles Philharmonic & Los Angeles Master Chorale)


CATEGORY 82

Producer Of The Year, Classical

A Producer’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) (S) stands for Single, (T) stands for Track, and (A) stands for Album.

Erica Brenner

Biber: Mystery Sonatas (Alan Choo, Jeannette Sorrell & Apollo’s Fire) (A)

Handel: Israel In Egypt (Jeannette Sorrell, Apollo’s Singers & Apollo’s Fire) (A)

Mozart: Piano Sonatas, Vols. 5 & 6 (Orli Shaham) (A)

Songs For A Friend – A Tribute To Trumpeter Ryan Anthony (Various Artists) (A)

Sonic Alchemy (YuEun Kim, Mina Gajić & Coleman Itzkoff) (A)

Christoph Franke

Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies (Antonello Manacorda & Kammerakademie Potsdam) (A)

Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1, 5, 6 & 10 (Dénes Várjon & Antje Weithaas) (A)

Brahms, Viotti & Dvořák: Orchestral Works (Tanja Tetzlaff, Christian Tetzlaff, Paavo Järvi & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) (A)

Mozart: Sinigaglia (Noah Bendix-Balgley) (A)

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2 (Kirill Petrenko & Berliner Philharmoniker) (A)

The Vienna Recital (Yuja Wang) (A)

Morten Lindberg

Mor (Karen Haugom Olsen & Nidaros Domkor) (A)

Pax (Nina T. Karlsen, Ensemble 96 & Current Saxophone Quartet) (A)

Sommerro: Borders (Nick Davies & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra) (A)

Dmitriy Lipay

Adams: Girls Of The Golden West (John Adams, Daniela Mack, Ryan McKinny, Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines, Los Angeles

Philharmonic & Los Angeles Master Chorale) (A)

Messiaen: Des Canyons Aux Étoiles… (Ludovic Morlot & Seattle Symphony) (A)

Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina (Gustavo Dudamel, Gabriela Ortiz, María Dueñas, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale) (A)

Elaine Martone

Bartók: String Quartet No.3; Suite From ‘The Miraculous Mandarin‘ (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)

The Book Of Spells (Merian Ensemble) (A)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)

Divine Mischief (Julian Bliss, J. Eric Wilson & Baylor University Wind Ensemble) (A)

Joy! (John Morris Russell & Cincinnati Pops) (A)

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)

Schubert: The Complete Impromptus (Gerardo Teissonnière) (A)

Stranger At Home (Shachar Israel) (A)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra) (A)

Dirk Sobotka

American Dreams (Louis Langrée & Cincinnati Symphony) (A)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) (A)

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, ‘From The New World’; American Suite (Nathalie Stutzmann & Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) (A)

Radiance Untethered – The Choral Music Of John Wykoff (Cameron F. Labarr & Missouri State University Chorale) (A)


Field 10: Production, Engineering, Composition & Arrangement

CATEGORY 83

Best Immersive Audio Album

For albums in any genre that provide a new immersive audio experience. Award to the immersive mix engineer, immersive mastering engineer, and immersive producer (if applicable).

Avalon — Bob Clearmountain, immersive mix engineer; Rhett Davies & Bryan Ferry, immersive producers (Roxy Music)

Genius Loves Company — Michael Romanowski, Eric Schilling & Herbert Waltl, immersive mix engineers; Michael Romanowski, immersive mastering engineer; John Burk, immersive producer (Ray Charles With Various Artists)

Henning Sommerro: Borders — Morten Lindberg, immersive mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive producer (Trondheim Symphony Orchestra)

i/o (In-Side Mix) — Hans-Martin Buff, immersive mix engineer; Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel & Richard Russell, immersive producers (Peter Gabriel)

Pax — Morten Lindberg, immersive mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive producer (Ensemble 96 & Current Saxophone Quartet)


CATEGORY 84

Best Instrumental Composition

A Composer’s Award for an original composition (not an adaptation) first released during the Eligibility Year. Singles or Tracks only.

“At Last” — Shelton G. Berg, composer (Shelly Berg)

“Communion” — Christopher Zuar, composer (Christopher Zuar Orchestra)

“I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A “Rap” Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time” — André 3000, Surya Botofasina, Nate Mercereau & Carlos Niño, composers (André 3000)

“Remembrance” — Chick Corea, composer (Chick Corea & Béla Fleck)

“Strands” — Pascal Le Boeuf, composer (Akropolis Reed Quintet, Pascal Le Boeuf & Christian Euman)CATEGORY 85

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

“Baby Elephant Walk – Encore” — Michael League, arranger (Snarky Puppy)

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” — Jacob Collier, Tori Kelly & John Legend, arrangers (Jacob Collier Featuring John Legend & Tori Kelly)

“Rhapsody In Blue(Grass)” — Béla Fleck & Ferde Grofé, arrangers (Béla Fleck Featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz & Bryan Sutton)

“Rose Without The Thorns” — Erin Bentlage, Alexander Lloyd Blake, Scott Hoying, A.J. Sealy & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (Scott Hoying Featuring säje & Tonality)

“Silent Night” — Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (säje)


CATEGORY 86

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals

An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles  or Tracks only.

“Alma” — Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (säje Featuring Regina Carter)

“Always Come Back” — Matt Jones, arranger (John Legend)

“b i g f e e l i n g s” — Willow, arranger (WILLOW)

“Last Surprise (From “Persona 5″)” — Charlie Rosen & Jake Silverman, arrangers (The 8-Bit Big Band Featuring Jonah Nilsson & Button Masher)

“The Sound Of Silence” — Cody Fry, arranger (Cody Fry Featuring Sleeping At Last)


Field 11: Classical

CATEGORY 87

Best Orchestral Performance

Award to the conductor and the orchestra.

“Adams: City Noir, Fearful Symmetries & Lola Montez Does The Spider Dance” — Marin Alsop, conductor (ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra)

“Kodály: Háry János Suite; Summer Evening & Symphony In C Major” — JoAnn Falletta, conductor (Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra)

“Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina” — Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)

“Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Rakastava, & Lemminkäinen” — Susanna Mälkki, conductor (Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra)

“Stravinsky: The Firebird” — Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)


CATEGORY 88

Best Opera Recording

Award to the conductor, album producer(s), and principal soloists, and to the composer and librettist (if applicable) of a world premiere Opera recording only.

“Adams: Girls Of The Golden West” — John Adams, conductor; Paul Appleby, Julia Bullock, Hye Jung Lee, Daniela Mack, Elliot Madore, Ryan McKinny & Davóne Tines; Dmitriy Lipay, producer (Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Master Chorale)

“Catán: Florencia En El Amazonas” — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Mario Chang, Michael Chioldi, Greer Grimsley, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Mattia Olivieri, Ailyn Pérez & Gabriella Reyes; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)

“Moravec: The Shining” — Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Tristan Hallett, Kelly Kaduce & Edward Parks; Blanton Alspaugh, producer (Kansas City Symphony; Lyric Opera Of Kansas City Chorus)

“Puts: The Hours” — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming & Kelli O’Hara; David Frost, producer (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Metropolitan Opera Chorus)

“Saariaho: Adriana Mater” — Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Fleur Barron, Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan & Christopher Purves; Jason O’Connell, producer (San Francisco Symphony; San Francisco Symphony Chorus; Timo Kurkikangas)


CATEGORY 89

Best Choral Performance

Award to the conductor, and to the choral director and/or chorus master where applicable and to the choral organization/ensemble.

“Clear Voices In The Dark” — Matthew Guard, conductor (Carrie Cheron, Nathan Hodgson, Helen Karloski & Clare McNamara; Skylark Vocal Ensemble)

“A Dream So Bright: Choral Music Of Jake Runestad” — Eric Holtan, conductor (Jeffrey Biegel; True Concord Orchestra; True Concord Voices)

“Handel: Israel in Egypt” — Jeannette Sorrell, conductor (Margaret Carpenter Haigh, Daniel Moody, Molly Netter, Jacob Perry & Edward Vogel; Apollo’s Fire; Apollo’s Singers)

“Ochre” — Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)

“Sheehan: Akathist” — Elaine Kelly, conductor; Melissa Attebury, Stephen Sands & Benedict Sheehan, chorus masters (Elizabeth Bates, Paul D’Arcy, Tynan Davis, Aine Hakamatsuka, Steven Hrycelak, Helen Karloski, Enrico Lagasca, Edmund Milly, Fotina Naumenko, Neil Netherly, Timothy Parsons, Stephen Sands, Miriam Sheehan & Pamela Terry; Novus NY; Artefact Ensemble, The Choir Of Trinity Wall Street, Downtown Voices & Trinity Youth Chorus)


CATEGORY 90

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

Award to the ensemble and conductor if applicable.

“Adams, J.L.: Waves & Particles” — JACK Quartet

“Beethoven For Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97, ‘Archduke'” — Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos & Emanuel Ax

“Cerrone: Beaufort Scales” — Beth Willer, Christopher Cerrone & Lorelei Ensemble

“Home” — Miró Quartet

“Rectangles and Circumstance” — Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion


CATEGORY 91

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Award to the instrumental soloist(s) and to the conductor when applicable.

“Akiho: Longing” — Andy Akiho

“Bach: Goldberg Variations” — Víkingur Ólafsson

“Eastman: The Holy Presence Of Joan D’Arc” — Seth Parker Woods; Christopher Rountree, conductor (Wild Up)

“Entourer” — Mak Grgić (Ensemble Dissonance)

“Perry: Concerto For Violin & Orchestra” — Curtis Stewart; James Blachly, conductor (Experiential Orchestra)


CATEGORY 92

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

Award to vocalist(s), collaborative artist(s) (e.g., pianists, conductors), producer(s), and recording engineers/mixers with greater than 50% playing time of new material.

Beyond The Years – Unpublished Songs Of Florence Price — Karen Slack, soloist; Michelle Cann, pianist

A Change Is Gonna Come — Nicholas Phan, soloist; Palaver Strings, ensembles

Newman: Bespoke Songs — Fotina Naumenko, soloist; Marika Bournaki, pianist (Nadège Foofat; Julietta Curenton, Colin Davin, Mark Edwards, Nadia Pessoa, Timothy Roberts, Ryan Romine, Akemi Takayama, Karlyn Viña & Garrick Zoeter)

Show Me The Way — Will Liverman, soloist; Jonathan King, pianist

Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder — Joyce DiDonato, soloist; Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor (Il Pomo d’Oro)


CATEGORY 93

Best Classical Compendium

Award to the artist(s) and to the album producer(s) and engineer(s) of over 50% playing time of the album, and to the composer and librettist (if applicable) with over 50% playing time of a world premiere recording only.

Akiho: BeLonging — Andy Akiho & Imani Winds; Andy Akiho, Sean Dixon & Mark Dover, producers

American Counterpoints — Curtis Stewart; James Blachly, conductor; Blanton Alspaugh, producer

Foss: Symphony No. 1; Renaissance Concerto; Three American Pieces; Ode — JoAnn Falletta, conductor; Bernd Gottinger, producer

Mythologies II — Sangeeta Kaur, Omar Najmi, Hilá Plitmann, Robert Thies & Danaë Xanthe Vlasse; Michael Shapiro, conductor; Jeff Atmajian, Emilio D. Miler, Hai Nguyen, Robert Thies, Danaë Xanthe Vlasse & Kitt Wakeley, producers

Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina — Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Dmitriy Lipay, producer


CATEGORY 94

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

A Composer’s Award. (For a contemporary classical composition composed within the last 25 years, and released for the first time during the Eligibility Year.) Award to the librettist, if applicable.

Casarrubios: Seven For Solo Cello — Andrea Casarrubios, composer (Andrea Casarrubios)

Coleman: Revelry — Valerie Coleman, composer (Decoda)

Lang: Composition As Explanation — David Lang, composer (Eighth Blackbird)

Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina — Gabriela Ortiz, composer (Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic & Los Angeles Master Chorale)

Saariaho: Adriana Mater — Kaija Saariaho, composer (Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fleur Barron, Nicholas Phan, Christopher Purves, Axelle Fanyo, San Francisco Symphony Chorus & Orchestra)

2022 American Music Awards: Taylor Swift is the top winner

November 20, 2022

The following is a press release from ABC:

Taylor Swift at the 2022 American Music Awards at the the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Nvoember 20, 2022 (Photo courtesy of ABC)

Taylor Swift broke her own record of the most wins of any artist in the history of the American Music Awards Sunday night by clinching the top spot in the winner’s circle with six wins at the “2022 American Music Awards” (AMAs), to bring her total count to 40 wins. The year’s hottest night in music represents top achievements in music determined by the fans, for the fans. Hosted by Wayne Brady, the thrilling evening filled with world premiere performances and pop-culture moments aired live on ABC from the Microsoft Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles.

Show highlights included the following:

  •  Eight-time AMA nominee P!NK skated in from the streets of Los Angeles for an epic start to the AMAs, opening the show with a powerful world premiere performance of her brand-new single “Never Gonna Not Dance Again.” She later graced the stage for a moving and powerful performance of “Hopelessly Devoted To You” dedicated to the inspirational life and career of 10-time AMA winner Olivia Newton-John.
  • This year’s AMA host Wayne Brady bantered with the audience, singing about how he prepared to host the AMAs in his opening monologue. Brady also tapped into his “Dancing With The Stars” skills to perform a number alongside his current DWTS partner, Witney Carson. Later in the show, Brady tapped into members of his audience including Niecy Nash-Betts for a random selection of words, which he used to improvise a rap on stage.
  • Two-time nominee Bebe Rexha made her U.S. television performance debut of her global smash hit “I’m Good (Blue)” in an out of this world futuristic performance.
  • Global superstar and Favorite Female Latin Artist winner Anitta made her AMAs stage debut with her smash hit “Envolver” and was joined by two-time AMA winner Missy Elliott who surprised fans hitting the stage to join Anitta for “Lobby.” The two danced through a hotel lobby celebrating the first-ever performance of their smash hit.
  • Country superstar, 17-time AMA winner and all-time Favorite Country Album record-holder Carrie Underwood flew through the theater on a neon orb to the stage to perform her hittrack “Crazy Angels.”
  • First-time nominee GloRilla made her AMAs stage debut with a surprise performance alongside last year’s AMA host Cardi B for their hit “Tomorrow 2.”
  • Imagine Dragons hit the stage for a fiery performance, singing a medley of their hits including “Bones.” The band was later joined by Atlanta rapper J.I.D. for a striking performance of their duo hit “Enemy.”
  • Multiplatinum rapper Lil Baby performed a medley of his smash hits “California Breeze” and “In a Minute” in a suave performance on the AMAs stage.
  • Artist, songwriter and actor Yola took the stage to perform her powerful original song “Break the Bough,” named the American Music Awards SONG OF SOUL, a spotlight moment that highlights an artist that uses music to invoke social change. Yola’s colorful performance showcased her vocal abilities and star power.
  • New Artist of the Year winner Dove Cameron made her AMAs stage debut in a theatrical performance of her hit single “Boyfriend.”
  • Presented by longtime friend Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie received his 18th AMA award with the prestigious Icon Award. Later in the evening, stars joined together to honor Richie with tribute performances, including two-time AMA winner Stevie Wonder and two-time AMA nominee Charlie Puth,who performed a medley of Richie’s hit songs complete with dueling pianos and scat singing.
  • Superstars Jimmie Allen, Ari Lennox, Yola, Muni Long, Melissa Ethridge, Dustin Lynch, and Smokey Robinson joined Wonder and Puth on the stage for an epic surprise recreation of the 1986 AMAs performance of “We Are The World,” a nostalgic highlight of the evening with Lionel joining the group on stage.
  • Adding the musical connectivity to a night filled with superstar performances, tributes and pop culture moments, iconic DJ, producer/rapper and philanthropist D-Nice was the resident 2022 AMAs House DJ.
  • In tribute to the life and career of Loretta Lynn, country star Jimmie Allen took the stage for a quick rendition of one of her greatest hits.
  • Host Wayne Brady led a moment of tribute to the late rapper Takeoff, speaking to his life, career and success in the music industry.

Winner Highlights of the “2022 American Music Awards”:

  • Taylor Swift broke her own record with six AMA wins, making the 40-time winner the most decorated artist in AMAs history. Her album “Red (Taylor’s Version)” earned the awards for Favorite Country Album, Favorite Pop Album and Favorite Music Video, while Swift also won Favorite Female Pop Artist, Favorite Female Country Artist and Artist of the Year. In 2013, Swift won the AMA for Favorite Country Album for the first version of her album “Red.”
  • Last year’s Artist of the Year winners BTS took home two AMAs this year, including the first-ever AMA for Favorite K-Pop Artist.
  • Six-time nominee this year Beyoncé won two awards tonight for Favorite Female R&B Artist and Favorite R&B Album for her latest album, “Renaissance.”
  • Ghost took home the first-ever AMA for Favorite Rock Album for their latest album “Impera.”
  • This year’s most-nominated artist, Bad Bunny, took home two AMAs for Favorite Male Latin Artist, Favorite Latin Album for “Un Verano Sin Ti.”
  • Elton John won his first AMA since 1998 for Collaboration of the Year for his hit “Cold Heart – PNAU Remix” with Dua Lipa.
    First-time AMA nominee Dove Cameron took home this year’s New Artist of the Year award.
  • Anitta, a first-time nominee this year, won the AMA for Favorite Female Latin Artist.

Presenters throughout the night included Dan + Shay, Dustin Lynch, Ellie Goulding, Jessie James Decker, Jimmie Allen, Karrueche Tran, Kelly Rowland, Kim Petras, Liza Koshy, Latto, Meghan Trainor, Melissa Etheridge, Niecy Nash-Betts, Roselyn Sanchez, Sabrina Carpenter, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Smokey Robinson.


2022 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS
Artist of the Year: Taylor Swift
New Artist of the Year: Dove Cameron
Collaboration of the Year: Elton John & Dua Lipa “Cold Heart – PNAU Remix”
Favorite Touring Artist: Coldplay
Favorite Music Video: Taylor Swift “All Too Well: The Short Film”
Favorite Male Pop Artist: Harry Styles
Favorite Female Pop Artist: Taylor Swift
Favorite Pop Duo or Group: BTS
Favorite Pop Album: Taylor Swift “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Favorite Pop Song: Harry Styles “As It Was”
Favorite Male Country Artist: Morgan Wallen
Favorite Female Country Artist: Taylor Swift
Favorite Country Duo or Group: Dan + Shay
Favorite Country Album: Taylor Swift “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Favorite Country Song: Morgan Wallen “Wasted on You”
Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist: Kendrick Lamar
Favorite Female Hip-Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj
Favorite Hip-Hop Album: Kendrick Lamar “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers”
Favorite Hip-Hop Song: Future ft. Drake & Tems “WAIT FOR U”
Favorite Male R&B Artist: Chris Brown
Favorite Female R&B Artist: Beyoncé
Favorite R&B Album: Beyoncé “Renaissance”
Favorite R&B Song: Wizkid ft. Tems “Essence”
Favorite Male Latin Artist: Bad Bunny
Favorite Female Latin Artist: Anitta
Favorite Latin Duo or Group: Yahritza Y Su Esencia
Favorite Latin Album: Bad Bunny “Un Verano Sin Ti”
Favorite Latin Song: Sebastián Yatra “Dos Oruguitas”
Favorite Rock Artist: Machine Gun Kelly
Favorite Rock Song (NEW): Måneskin “Beggin’”
Favorite Rock Album (NEW): Ghost “Impera”
Favorite Inspirational Artist: for KING & COUNTRY
Favorite Gospel Artist: Tamela Mann
Favorite Dance/Electronic Artist: Marshmello
Favorite Soundtrack: “ELVIS”
Favorite Afrobeats Artist (NEW): Wizkid
Favorite K-Pop Artist (NEW): BTS

2022 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARD WINNERS BY ARTIST
Taylor Swift (6): Artist of the Year, Favorite Music Video, Favorite Female Pop Artist, Favorite Pop Album,  Favorite Female Country Artist, Favorite Country Album
Bad Bunny (2): Favorite Male Latin Artist, Favorite Latin Album
Beyonce (2): Favorite Female R&B Artist, Favorite R&B Album
BTS (2): Favorite Pop Duo or Group, Favorite K-Pop Artist
Harry Styles (2): Favorite Male Pop Artist, Favorite Pop Song
Kendrick Lamar (2): Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist, Favorite Hip-Hop Album
Morgan Wallen (2): Favorite Male Country Artist, Favorite Country Song
Tems (2): Favorite Hip-Hop Song, Favorite R&B Song
Wizkid (2): Favorite R&B Song, Favorite Afrobeats Artist (NEW)
Anitta (1): Favorite Female Latin Artist
Chris Brown (1): Favorite Male R&B Artist
Coldplay (1): Favorite Touring Artist
Dan + Shay (1): Favorite Country Duo or Group
Dove Cameron (1): New Artist of the Year
Drake (1): Favorite Hip-Hop Song
Dua Lipa (1): Collaboration of the Year
Elton John (1): Collaboration of the Year
“ELVIS” (1): Favorite Soundtrack
for KING & COUNTRY (1):Favorite Inspirational Artist
Future (1): Favorite Hip-Hop Song
Ghost (1): Favorite Rock Album (NEW)
Machine Gun Kelly (1):Favorite Rock Artist
Måneskin (1): Favorite Rock Song (NEW)
Marshmello (1): Favorite Dance/Electronic Artist
Nicki Minaj (1): Favorite Female Hip-Hop Artist
Sebastián Yatra  (1): Favorite Latin Song
Tamela Mann (1): Favorite Gospel Artist
Yahritza Y Su Esencia (1): Favorite Latin Duo or Group

About the “2022 American Music Awards”:

  • The AMAs represents the year’s top achievements in music determined by the fans, for the fans. Last year’s show stands as the most social telecast of 2021 with 46.5 million interactions, underscoring the role fans play in the annual event. A vibrant night of non-stop music, the AMAs features a powerful lineup featuring first-time collaborations and exclusive world premiere performances from music’s biggest names – from Pop to Rap, R&B to Country, Latin to K-Pop – and more, as well as memorable moments that live on in pop culture.
  • As the world’s largest fan-voted awards show, the AMAs air globally across a footprint of linear and digital platforms in more than 120 countries and territories.
  • The “2022 American Music Awards” winners are voted entirely by fans.Nominees are based on key fan interactions – as reflected on the Billboard charts – including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay, and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partner Luminate, and cover the eligibility period of Sept. 24, 2021, through Sept. 22, 2022.
  • Airing live on ABC, the “2022 American Music Awards” are produced by dick clark productions and Jesse Collins Entertainment. Jesse Collins is showrunner and executive producer. Dionne Harmon, Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, and Larry Klein are also executive producers. For the latest AMA news, exclusive content and more, follow the AMAs on social (FacebookTwitterInstagramTikTokSnapchat and YouTube), online at theamas.com and ABC.com, and join the conversation by using the official hashtag for the show, #AMAs.

ABOUT DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
dick clark productions is the world’s largest producer and proprietor of televised live event entertainment programming with the “Academy of Country Music Awards,” “American Music Awards,” “Billboard Music Awards,” “Golden Globe Awards,” “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” and the “Streamy Awards.” dick clark productions owns one of the world’s most extensive and unique entertainment archive libraries with more than 60 years of award-winning shows, historic programs, specials, performances and legendary programming. For more information please visit www.dickclark.com.

ABOUT ABC ENTERTAINMENT
ABC Entertainment’s compelling programming includes “Grey’s Anatomy,” the longest-running medical drama in primetime television; ratings juggernaut “The Bachelor” franchise; riveting dramas “Big Sky,” “The Good Doctor,” “A Million Little Things,” “The Rookie” and “Station 19”; trailblazing comedies “Abbott Elementary,” “The Conners,” “The Goldbergs,” “Home Economics” and “The Wonder Years”; popular game shows, including “The $100,000 Pyramid,” “Celebrity Family Feud,” “The Chase,” “Press Your Luck” and “To Tell the Truth”; star-making sensation “American Idol”; “Judge Steve Harvey,” the network’s strongest unscripted series debut in a year; reality phenomenon “Shark Tank”; family favorites “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Holey Moley”; “General Hospital,” which heads into its milestone 60th season on the network; and late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”; as well as the critically acclaimed, Emmy®Award-winning “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” specials. The network also boasts some of television’s most prestigious awards shows, including “The Oscars®,” “The CMA Awards” and the “American Music Awards.”

ABC programming can also be viewed on Hulu.

ABOUT JESSE COLLINS ENTERTAINMENT
Founded in 2012, Jesse Collins Entertainment (JCE) is a full-service television and film production company that has played an integral role in producing many of television’s most memorable moments in music entertainment. The Emmy® winning company has a multi-year overall agreement with ViacomCBS Cable Networks. On the film side, the company also has a first look on JCE’s film development projects which could include Viacom’s film entities such as Paramount Players.  JCE’s award-winning and critically acclaimed television includes programming from its three divisions.  From the scripted division: scripted series—Real Husbands of Hollywood, American Soul and miniseries—The New Edition Story and The Bobby Brown Story.  From the unscripted division: unscripted series – Cardi Tries, My Killer Body with K. Michelle, DJ Cassidy’s Pass the Mic and Forward: The Future of Black Music, competition/game shows—Becoming A Popstar, Rhythm + Flow, Sunday Best, Hip Hop Squares and Nashville Squares, talk show – Face to Face with Becky G and children’s series—Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices (Emmy® Award winner).  From the specials division: award shows—The American Music Awards, BET Awards, Soul Train Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, Black Girls Rock!, BET Honors, UNCF’s An Evening of Stars and ABFF Honors, specials—The Super Bowl Halftime Show, CNN’s Juneteenth: A Global Celebration of Freedom, Martin: The Reunion, John Lewis: Celebrating A Hero, Love & Happiness: An Obama Celebration, Change Together: From The March On Washington To Today, A GRAMMY Salute to the Sounds of Change, Stand Up for Heroes, Dear Mama, Amanda Seales: I Be Knowin’, Def Comedy Jam 25, Leslie Jones: Time Machine, The All-Star Nickmas Spectacular and Rip the Runway.  Emmy® winner Jesse Collins, Founder and CEO, is the executive producer of all programming.  He is also an executive producer for the Grammy Awards.  He produced the 2021 Oscars.

Review: ‘Emergency’ (2022), starring RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, Sebastian Chacon and Sabrina Carpenter

January 21, 2022

by Carla Hay

RJ Cyler, Sebastian Chacon and Donald Elise Watkins in “Emergency” (Photo by Quantrell Colbert/Amazon Content Services)

“Emergency” (2022)

Directed by Carey Williams

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city on the East Coast of the U.S., the comedy film “Emergency” features a cast of African American and white characters (with a few Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After planning a night of partying on their college campus, two African American best friends and their Latino roommate have their plans go awry when they find an extremely intoxicated and barely conscious young white female in their house, and the pals have conflicts over what do about this problem.

Culture Audience: “Emergency” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in movies about misadventures of college partiers, but with themes of racial tension and how it affects people’s perspectives of dealing with law enforcement.

Madison Thompson, Sabrina Carpenter and Diego Abraham in “Emergency” (Photo courtesy of Amazon Content Services)

“Emergency” repeats a familiar comedy formula of male partiers getting into a big mess on one wild night, but there’s a Black Lives Matter spin on all the shenanigans. The movie’s heavy emotional turn toward the end makes it better than the average comedy about partiers caught up in a big problem, but some movie clichés still remain. Directed by Carey Williams and written by KD Davila, “Emergency” is likely to find an enthusiastic audience of supporters because the movie centers on characters who rarely get to be the lead characters in movies: black male college students. “Emergency” had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

“Emergency” opens with the introduction of the two best friends whose partying plans go haywire over fears that they’ll be wrongfully accused of a crime because they are African American. The two pals are undergraduate students in their last year at the fictional Buchanan University, which is in an unnamed city on the East Coast of the U.S. (“Emergency” was actually filmed in New York state.) Kunle, pronounced “kun-lay” (played by Donald Elise Watkins), is a straight-laced, straight-A student majoring in biology and has plans to go to graduate school at Princeton University. Sean (played by RJ Cyler) is a rebellious stoner with a vaping habit and no plans after he graduates. Sean’s college major is not mentioned in the movie.

Kunle and Sean are ready to party one weekend night in the spring, and they want to make it legendary. The university’s Black Student Union headquarters has a “hall of fame” wall displaying commemorative portrait plaques of black students at the school who were the first to achieve something at the university. For example, there are plaques for the first black student to be the school’s newspaper editor, or the first black student to be student government president. “Emergency” pokes fun of this “first black student” tribute wall by also having plaques for trivial things, such as the first black student to use 3-D printing.

Sean and Kunle want to get on the “hall of fame” wall as the first black students to do the Legendary Tour. What is the Legendary Tour? It’s a tour of seven major campus parties happening on the same night, for one night of the year. The parties are invitation-only with distributed passes, and it’s extremely difficult for anyone to score passes for all seven parties.

Not surprisingly, party-loving Sean is the one who’s more caught up than Kunle is in reaching this Legendary Tour goal. Sean is the one who goes to the trouble of getting all the passes that he and Kunle need to complete the Legendary Tour. Kunle goes along with these plans, but he has other things on his mind. He has to complete a very important scientific lab project as part of his thesis required for graduation. The lab project includes meticulous examination and storage of bacteria cultures.

On the day of the Legendary Tour, Sean and Kunle talk about their upcoming party plans and their love lives. Sean has an ex-girlfriend named Asa (played by Summer Madison), another Buchanan University student, who’s done with Sean, but he might not be completely over his feelings for her. Kunle is romantically unattached too, but he has a crush on another student named Bianca (played by Gillian Rabin), who’s in at least one class with Sean and Kunle. Sean, who can be rude and crude, says in typical Sean speak when he and Kunle talk about Bianca: “She wants your dick, bro.”

The movie has only one classroom scene, near the beginning of the film. It appears to be a sociology class, where a white British instructor named Professor Clarke (played by Nadine Lewington) says that the topic of the day is hate speech. Sean, Kunle and Bianca are among the students in the class. Not surprisingly, the first word that Professor Clarke wants to discuss is the “n” word, which she says repeatedly, as if she enjoys saying it out loud and knows she’s allowed to say it in this academic context. “What makes this word so powerful?” Professor Clarke asks the students.

Even though the professor reminded the students that this topic of hate speech comes with a trigger warning, and the students signed forms acknowledging that they might hear offensive words during this hate speech topic, Sean whispers to Kunle during the class that he’s still offended. Sean gripes to Kunle: “Why is she teaching a class that she knows nothing about?” Professor Clarke then sees Sean and Kunle talking, and she singles them out to answer questions about the “n” word, which makes Sean even more offended. However, he doesn’t voice his concerns to the professor.

Outside, after the class ends, Sean continues to rant about how Professor Clarke said the “n” word many times in class. Kunle understands both sides of the issue, but he’s also annoyed that Sean is complaining about it to him, not the professor. Kunle reminds Sean that he could’ve said something to the professor about being offended, but Sean didn’t.

Sean’s response is to say: “We got one rule that we ask for white people to respect: ‘Thou shalt not say that one word.’ But they don’t like for us to tell them what to do, so they find loopholes.”

Kunle is more willing to give Professor Clarke the benefit of the doubt by saying she probably didn’t mean any offense. It’s the first sign in the movie that Sean and Kunle have different views of race relations between black people and white people in America. Those differing opinions cause conflicts later on in the movie, which eventually shows if any opinions of the two friends change after their crazy night.

“Emergency” doesn’t go into details over how Sean and Kunle met or how long they’ve been friends, but they’ve been friends since at least their first year at Buchanan University. Conversations in the movie drop some details indicating that Kunle and Sean come from very different family backgrounds. Viewers can see these contrasting backgrounds also shape Sean’s and Kunle’s different perspectives of life as an African American man.

Kunle (who appears to be an only child, since he doesn’t mention any siblings) has parents who are doctors and African immigrants. Kunle is also somewhat of a mama’s boy, since there’s a scene where he talks to his overprotective mother (voiced by Ebbe Bassey) on the phone. There’s a scene later in the movie where Kunle and Sean have a big argument, and Kunle implies that he’s smarter than Sean and has a brighter future because Kunle had a “better” upbringing than Sean.

Sean doesn’t mention his parents, but he comes from a less privileged background where members of his family have had entanglements with police. At one point in the movie, Sean mentions an unarmed cousin who was shot in the rear end by a cop. And there’s another scene in the movie that takes place in the home of Sean’s older brother Terence (played by Robert Hamilton III), who doesn’t want to get involved in Sean’s problems because Terence is on parole for an unnamed reason. It’s hinted in this conversation that Sean has also gotten into trouble with the law in the past, but the movie doesn’t go into any details.

Sean and Kunle live together in an on-campus house with a third student, who’s also in his last year at Buchanan. His name is Carlos (played by Sebastian Chacon), and he’s a nerdy pothead who desperately wants to be accepted by Sean and Kunle to be their close friend. Carlos, who’s an aspiring mechanical aerospace engineer, spends a lot of time by himself smoking marijuana and playing video games. Kunle treats Carlos with more tolerance than Sean does. Sean thinks Carlos is very corny, immature and weird. Carlos wears a fanny pack and likes to offer granola bars to people as a way to try to make friends.

This friendship dynamic is a formula that’s been used in several other comedy films about male buddies who go out for a night of partying: Two best friends—one who’s mild-mannered and polite, the other who is cocky and foul-mouthed—end up with a “third wheel” pal/acquaintance who’s an eccentric misfit. Examples include 2007’s “Superbad,” 2009’s “The Hangover” and Hulu’s 2020 silly stoner comedy “The Binge.” You can also go all the way back to “Three Stooges” movies to find this formula. “Emergency” stands out because all three of the men happen to be people of color.

Sean has meticulously mapped out his and Kunle’s plans for the Legendary Tour, including the order in which they’ll go to each party and what they’ll be doing at each party. Even though Carlos wants to party with Sean and Kunle, Sean doesn’t want Carlos tagging along because he thinks Carlos is too much of a dork. Sean and Kunle plan to take Sean’s car for their night of debauchery. Kunle drinks alcohol but doesn’t do drugs, while Sean gives the impression that he’s up for doing any kind of drug that comes his way. Sean is drunk and stoned throughout most of the movie.

Things start to go wrong on the night of the Legendary Tour when Sean and Kunle are all set to go to the first stop on tour, and Kunle remembers that he accidentally forgot to properly refrigerate his lab bacteria cultures. In a panic, he tells Sean that if the cultures are ruined, his thesis will be ruined too, and he won’t be able to graduate. Kunle is also worried that messing up this assignment will hurt his chances of going to Princeton.

Sean doesn’t want to go to the parties without Kunle, so he agrees to go with Kunle to take care of this problem. It’s a detour that will delay their partying for about 15 to 20 minutes, so Sean is slightly annoyed but willing to go along with this change of plans. Before they go to the lab, Sean and Kunle have to stop off at their house to get the lab keys. And that’s when things get crazy.

Soon after arriving in the house, Sean and Kunle notice that the front door is unlocked. And on the living room floor is a white teenage girl, dressed in a pink mini-skirt outfit and barely conscious. She’s so intoxicated that she can barely talk, so getting any information from her is useless. The teenager has no purse or ID on her either. And then she starts vomiting, for the first of several times in the movie.

A panicked Sean and Kunle go in Carlos’ room to find out what’s going on and who this mystery girl is, but Carlos has locked himself in his room, getting stoned and playing video games. Carlos doesn’t know who the teenager is and how she got into the house. Carlos is blamed for not knowing how this teenage girl got into the house when he was home, so he’s pressured into helping fix this problem.

Kunle’s first thought is to call 911, but Sean adamantly refuses because he’s certain that because they’re three young men of color in a house with an unconscious white female, they will automatically be blamed for a crime. There’s some back-and-forth arguing over what to do. Kunle hates Sean’s idea to secretly drop the teenager off at a nearby party, but Kunle agrees to the idea that they should anonymously bring her to a hospital.

Of course, there would be no “Emergency” movie if things went according to these friends’ plans. Sean, Kunle and Carlos put the mystery girl in the back of Sean’s car, as they drive to the nearest hospital. What they don’t know yet, but the audience finds out early on, is that her name is Emma (played by Maddie Nichols), and she’s the younger sister of a Buchanan student named Maddy (played by Sabrina Carpenter), who now knows that Emma is missing and is frantically looking for her.

Maddy invited Emma to hang out with her for some campus partying but lost track of Emma. Maddy doesn’t want to call the police to report Emma missing because Maddy is drunk and doesn’t want to get in trouble for underage drinking. And so, Maddy enlists the help of her level-headed friend Alice (played by Madison Thompson) and Alice’s love interest Rafael (played by Diego Abraham) to find Emma. Luckily, Emma has a Find My app on her phone, so that Maddy, Alice and Rafael can track the general area of where she is.

This phone tracking is crucial to a lot of the twists and turns in “Emergency,” but there are still a few plot holes where viewers have to suspend some disbelief. The biggest plot hole is that Maddy didn’t call Emma’s phone while looking for Emma. Maddy sends texts instead. If Maddy had called the phone, then Sean, Kunle and Carlos would’ve heard the phone ringing and found out right away that Emma had a phone, and none of this mess would’ve happened. And where exactly was Emma’s phone? Why were Sean, Kunle and Carlos not able to see it? Those questions are answered in the last third of the movie.

“Emergency” has a few contrivances to ramp up the comedy, such as Maddy, Alice and Raphael only having a bicycle and a hoverboard to get around for transportation. A running joke in the film is that Maddy (who’s too drunk to operate anything that moves) has to be stuck on the back of the bike, while whoever is operating the bike has to work extra hard to pedal the bike because of the extra weight. The movie makes a point of depicting Maddy as a very quick-tempered, bossy and entitled person.

If Maddy is afraid of getting busted by police for underage drinking, Sean is afraid of getting killed by police, just for being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sean repeatedly warns Kunle that it could happen to them. And so, there’s a scene where Sean and Kunle try to find white or Asian friends who can call 911 for them. Even though this scene is supposed to be hilarious, there’s some biting truth in how the scene comments on racial disparities between how law enforcement treats black people compared to other races.

“Emergency” also pokes fun at the hypocrisy of white people who claim to support the Black Lives Matter movement but are quick to assume that black people are criminals. This happens in a scene in a quiet suburban neighborhood where Emma has to be taken into some shrubbery so that she can urinate. A suspicious white couple (played by Melanie Jeffcoat and James Healy Jr.) in a nearby house see Sean sitting in his car alone on the street outside the house while this is going on. You can easily guess what happens from there, because the movie makes the point that if Sean had been white, this suspicious couple might have had a very different reaction. Ironically, there’s a Black Lives Matter sign on this couple’s lawn.

“Emergency” has a lot to say about race relations, racism and how they are affected by people’s perceptions and interactions with law enforcement. Even though it’s a fictional movie, it brings up many uncomfortable truths about how people are treated and see the world differently because of racial inequalities. Some viewers might laugh at how “paranoid” Sean acts throughout the entire movie. But sadly, his outlook is the reality of many people.

As a comedy, the movie has some slapstick ridiculousness and it tends to over-rely on gross-out vomit gags, but all of it doesn’t undermine the movie’s message. Cyler and Watkins are a dynamic duo in how they portray this realistic friendship. Their emotional moments that come later in the movie are well-acted and have a resonance that goes deeper than a typical comedy film. Chacon is quite good in his role as a sweet-natured misfit, while Carpenter plays her “entitled princess” role to the hilt.

Is “Emergency” a perfect movie? No. For a movie that’s supposed to be about life from an African American perspective, “Emergency” gives very little screen time or importance to African American women. Sean’s ex-girlfriend Asa is the movie’s only black female character who has more than one scene, but she’s in the movie for less than 10 minutes. In one of her brief appearances, Asa says to Sean about Kunle: “Don’t go dragging him into your bullshit. That boy is Black Excellence.”

“Emergency” is so focused on the pain and pressure that black men get from racism, it fails to mention or show that black women share this burden too. In fact, the Black Lives Matter movement was started by African American women. Filmmakers need to be more mindful of how black women are depicted in movies like “Emergency,” because these filmmakers can be guilty of the same sidelining of black women that happens in so-called “racially insensitive” and “racist” movies.

Despite these flaws in the movie, “Emergency” skillfully blends comedy with some of the serious issues presented in the film. The cast members also elevate the material, which could have been mishandled if the cast members weren’t talented. Sean is the flashiest character in “Emergency,” but the movie wants audiences to pay the most attention to Kunle’s perspective and how Kunle is affected by what he goes through in this story.

UPDATE: Amazon Studios will release “Emergency” in select U.S. cinemas on May 20, 2022. Prime Video will premiere the movie on May 27, 2022.

Review: ‘Work It,’ starring Sabrina Carpenter, Liza Koshy, Keiynan Lonsdale and Jordan Fisher

August 7, 2020

by Carla Hay

Neil Robles, Bianca Asilo, Tyler Hutchings, Liza Koshy, Jordan Fisher, Sabrina Carpenter, Nathaniel Scarlette and Indiana Mehta in “Work It” (Photo by Brendan Adam-Zwelling/Netflix)

“Work It” 

Directed by Laura Terruso

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramedy film “Work It” has a racially diverse cast (white, African American and Asian) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash:  A high-school senior, who’s an overachiever but a clumsy dancer, wants to win a group dance contest in order to impress a college admissions officer, so she recruits a group of misfits to train as dancers and dethrone the reigning champs.

Culture Audience: “Work It” will appeal primarily to people who like formulaic movies about students involved in dance contests.

Pictured in front row: Kalliane Bremault, Keiynan Lonsdale and Briana Andrade-Jones in “Work It” (Photo by Brendan Adam-Zwelling/Netflix)

Imagine a movie that takes almost every stereotypical plot in a teen movie and piles it on top of more clichés until it becomes a mindless mush of forgettable unoriginality. The result is the “Work It,” a dramedy that’s so derivative that even the movie’s title is recycled and bland. Directed by Laura Terruso and written by Alison Peck, “Work It” follows every formula of a teen dance movie to the point where people can predict what can happen even without seeing a second of this film. What saves “Work It” from being completely awful is much of the eye-catching choreography and the comedic talents of some of the cast members.

Here some of the high-school movie tropes in “Work it” that check a lot cliché boxes: Is there a nerdy protagonist who wants to transform into becoming more popular? Check. In “Work It,” she’s overachiever Quinn Ackerman (played by Sabrina Carpenter), a senior at the fictional Woodbright High School, which is located in an unnamed U.S. city. Quinn is consumed with her goal to get into Duke University, her late father’s alma mater.

Is there a big upcoming contest that will be a test of her popularity? Check. It’s the annual Work It dance competition, and Woodbright’s elite dance team the Thunderbirds are the reigning champs. Is there a sassy best friend who provides most of the comic relief? Check. She’s Jasmine “Jas” Hale (played by Liza Koshy), who is one of the best dancers on the Thunderbirds team.

Is there a villain? Check. The very arrogant captain of the Thunderbirds is Isaiah “Julliard” Pembroke (played Keiynan Lonsdale), who insists that people call him Julliard, because he’s convinced that he has what it takes to be admitted to this prestigious performing-arts college. Is there a love interest for the protagonist? Check. And is there a group of misfits who will band together with the protagonist to help her achieve her popularity goal? Check.

At the beginning of “Work it,” the conflict between Quinn and Julliard starts when Quinn, who has been a volunteer lightboard operator for the Thunderbirds, accidentally spills coffee on the lightboard during a Thunderbirds rehearsal. The accident results in a big electrical malfunction that singes the hair of one of the Thunderbirds named Brit Turner (played by Kalliane Bremault), who is one of Julliard’s fawning sidekicks.

Julliard storms into the studio control area with Brit and his other main sycophant Trinity (played by Briana Andrade-Jones), and rudely scolds Quinn about the mishap: “It is my responsibility to lead the team to a fourth consecutive victory!” Quinn makes a profuse apology and promises that the accident won’t happen again. But Julliard is not having it.

“Brit’s hair was singed,” he huffs imperiously. “She probably has to get bangs now, and she doesn’t have the face for it.” Julliard then haughtily fires Quinn by telling her, “You are banished from this room!”

Quinn’s feelings are hurt by the dismissal, but she has something bigger to worry about: her upcoming in-person interview with an admission officer at Duke University. Quinn, who narrates this film, explains in a voiceover that she’s fixated on attending Duke because her father was a Duke alum, and Quinn has happy memories of going to Duke football games and alumni events. Quinn says of Duke: “It feels like home—if you had a less than 6% acceptance rate.”

Quinn’s supportive mother Maria Ackerman (played by Naomi Snieckus) is equally enthusiastic about Quinn attending Duke. Maria and Quinn share a tendency to be worried, neurotic and over-prepared. They are both nervous wrecks by the time that Maria drives Quinn to Duke for Quinn’s interview.

At the interview, Quinn lists her qualifications for why she’s an ideal candidate for Duke: She’s a national Merit Scholar with a 4.0 GPA. She’s the student government treasurer at her high school. For extracurricular activities, she’s president of the school’s AV Club; she volunteers at a nursing home three days a week; and she plays the cello.

The Duke admissions officer Veronica Ramirez (played by Michelle Buteau) makes it clear to Quinn that she’s bored and unimpressed because other applicants have the same qualifications. Ms. Ramirez tells Quinn that they’re looking for risk-takers who are passionate about something, so Quinn blurts out that she really likes the Thunderbirds, who are the reigning champs of the Work It competition.

Ms. Ramirez comments that she loves the Work It competition, and she assumes that Quinn is part of the Thunderbirds dance team. Quinn doesn’t correct her and tell her the truth: That she’s not a dancer and she’s not even part of the Thunderbirds anymore as their lightboard operator.

But then, Quinn soon regrets this deliberate misleading, because Ms. Ramirez then excitedly tells Quinn that she’ll be at the Work It competition this year and that she looks forward to seeing Quinn there. The Work It contest happens before Quinn will find out if she got accepted into Duke, so she leaves the interview silently panicking over how she’s going to be able to get out of this big lie with the one person who can make or break her admission into Duke.

After thinking about writing an apology email confessing her lie, Quinn changes her mind and comes up with a desperate plan: She’ll learn how to dance in the few weeks left before the qualifying stage of the contest, audition for the Thunderbirds, and then get into the Work It competition as part of the Thunderbirds dance team. Quinn begs a reluctant Jas to be her dance teacher, by reminding Jas that Quinn has helped her with her academics, and it’s time to return the favor.

The big problem, of course, is that Quinn is an uncoordinated klutz. Quinn also wants to dancer/choreographer Jake Taylor (played by Jordan Fisher), who’s a few years older than she is, to coach her. Jake was expected to make it big as a dancer after a won a major dance contest, but his dance career was cut short after he got an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, and he disappeared from the professional dance scene.

Of course, Quinn tracks him down, and finds out that he’s been making a living teaching elementary-school-aged kids how to dance. Jake still has a lot of talent, but the injury has shaken his confidence in becoming a professional dancer again. Quinn shows up unannounced at one of his classes and tells him that she wants him to teach her how to dance and she won’t take no for an anwer. He’s annoyed and amused by Quinn’s persistence and basically tells her to go away. But since he’s Quinn’s obvious love interest, this won’t be the last we see of Jake in this story.

Quinn’s audition for the Thunderbirds goes as badly as you think it does. Julliard gets a big laugh over Quinn’s humiliation, especially when she begs him to join the team. He sarcastically suggests that maybe Quinn should start her own dance team. And you just know she does.

Quinn’s first recruit is Jas, who’s reluctant at first to quit the Thunderbirds. But Julliard treats everyone on the Thunderbirds team like crap, so it isn’t long before Jas is all-in for Quinn’s team. Quinn can’t think of an official name, so she calls the team TBD—as in, to be determined.

And this is where the misfits come in: One by one, Quinn convinces other unlikely students at the school to join her team. Raven (played by Bianca Asilo) is a pessimistic Goth girl who likes to dance to heavy-metal songs for videos that she puts on social media. Chris Royo (played by Neil Robles) is a social outcast on his soccer team, but he has good rhythm. Quinn appeals to Chris’ ego by telling him that he’ll be more appreciated on her dance team than on the soccer team.

DJ Tapes (played by Nathaniel Scarlette) is a dancer who seems to be straight out of the ‘80s, with a boombox and hip-hop breakdancing style. Robby G. (Tyler Hutchins) is a tall, thin dorky type whose claim to fame is he was once seen doing a back flip. Quinn tracks him down at a karate dojo. Priya Singh (played by Indiana Mehta) is a sarcastic roller skater, who has a knack for twirling, so she’s enlisted for the dance team too.

“Work It” has the expected montages of Quinn and the rest of her motley crew being terrible dancers (except for Jas), with the expected clumsy falls and uncoordinated moves, with Quinn being the driving force for them not to give up. There’s also a running joke in the film that Jas has a crush on a hunky guy named Charlie (played by Drew Ray Tanner), who works as a salesman in a mattress store. And so, there are multiple scenes of Jas engaging in all sorts of hijinks (including asking Charlie to “spoon” with her on a bed mattress), in order to get his attention.

Koshy is one of the few bright spots in this dreadfully predictable film. Even though she and the other cast members have a lot of cringeworthy dialogue, Koshy’s comedic timing and facial expressions show that she has real knack for bringing a humorous flair that can elevate some horrible screenwriting. She’s a bit of a scene stealer. Lonsdale also looks like he’s having funny playing a flamboyant villain, even if the role at times veers too much into some stereotypical tropes that male dancers have catty, effeminate qualities.

Carpenter is just fine in her role as Quinn, the story’s heroine, although she’s played the “good girl” many times before on screen, so it’s not much of an acting stretch for her. As for Fisher, he is charming enough in his role, but his Jake character is written as kind of a blank slate, with no sense of who his family or friends are.

The chemistry and dancing between Carpenter and Fisher are fairly tame (this movie is no “Dirty Dancing”), as is most of the film’s humor. However, there is one scene where a male dancer’s erection is played for cheap laughs. The target audience for this movie is obviously kids in the age range of 12 to 17, so the erection scene is this movie’s way of being “edgy” for this type of audience.

Most of this movie’s attempts at humor fall flat and have very cheesy lines. For example, when Quinn and her dance team decide to go to the nursing home where she volunteers, so that they can practice in front of a live audience, the only person who’s in the audience is a nursing home resident, who ends up dying during the performance. Priya says as the man’s corpse is being taken away in an ambulance: “I’m pretty sure the key to a live audience is keeping them alive.”

The movie’s dancing and choreography are very “So You Think You Can Dance.” There are some eye-catching moments, but nothing that will make “Work It” a classic dance film. The movie’s soundtrack is also a predictable collection of pop tunes, including Dua Lipa’s “Break My Heart,” Normani’s “Motivation,” Ciara’s “Thinkin Bout You,” Meghan Trainor’s “Treat Myself” and Zara Larsson’s “WOW.”

All the energy put into the dance numbers still can’t erase the fact that “Work It” is hopelessly lazy when it comes to the generic way that the story is told. The only steps that this vapid movie seems concerned with are those that move from story cliché to story cliché.

Netflix premiered “Work It” on August 7, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘The Short History of the Long Road’

April 28, 2019

by Carla Hay

Sabrina Carpenter in “The Short History of the Long Road” (Photo by Cailin Yatsko)

“The Short History of the Long Road

Directed by Ani Simon-Kennedy

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 27, 2019.

There comes a point in any career of a Disney Channel or Nickelodeon star who wants to transition from “teen idol” to “serious artist” that he or she takes on a gritty role so that people will change their perception of them as just another pretty face. Sabrina Carpenter, a singer/actress who has done several Disney Channel projects, has chosen her first such transitional role in the emotional drama “The Short History of the Long Road.” In the movie, she plays a homeless teen named Nola Frankel, who is searching for her long-lost mother, who abandoned Nola as a baby.

In the beginning of the story, Nola is living out of a motorhome van with her father Clint (played by Steven Ogg), an over-protective, paranoid vagrant who thinks that settling down in one place and living among society are dangerous for the soul. Although Clint and Nola don’t live completely off the grid (he makes money by doing odd jobs, such as repairs), he has some quirky habits that have affected Nola’s outlook on life. One of those habits is whenever he and Nola see a movie in a theater or on TV, he won’t let her watch the movie’s ending. We find out early on in this story that Nola’s mother leaving the family has a lot to do with why Clint is raising Nola in a nomadic existence. Nola doesn’t know any other life, since she was raised that way since she was a toddler, and Clint is very reluctant to tell her details about her mother.

Although some people might think this movie is similar to the 2018 film “Leave No Trace” (another grim story about a homeless, paranoid father raising his teenage daughter outside of the norms of society), “The Short History of the Long Road” is not the same kind of movie because it’s not as depressing as “Leave No Trace.” For starters, Clint is the kind of parent who has a sense of adventure, and he doesn’t want to hide his daughter from the world, whereas the father in “Leave No Trace” wants to live in such extreme seclusion in the woods to the point where people can’t find him and his daughter. Although Clint doesn’t trust the school system, he’s educated Nola and passed on a love of books to his daughter—they often go to libraries in their travels—and he has no problems interacting with people in a friendly manner when he needs to make money. Clint also doesn’t keep Nola isolated, since they go to restaurants, stores and movie theaters.

Still, the mystery over what happened to Nola’s mother is starting to weigh on Nola, and Clint’s vague answers (“she zigged while we zagged”) aren’t going to satisfy her any longer. The only thing that Clint will tell her is that when he and Nola’s mother were a couple, they used to own a bar together, and she left Clint and Nola shortly after Nola was born. Clint promises he’ll tell Nola more about her mother when they get to New Orleans (Nola was named after the city’s nickname), but before they get there, something happens to Clint in the first third of the movie that leaves Nola on her own.

Nola is self-sufficient enough to know how to drive a car (even though she doesn’t have a license) and she can make basic repairs, but as a teenage girl, it’s harder for her than it was for her father to get people to hire her for odd jobs. In addition to dealing with the stress of being homeless, alone, and trying to get money legally, Nola has to dodge anyone who might turn her in to child welfare authorities if they find out she’s under 18. She also still has the goal to find her mother.

Although Carpenter is fairly convincing as a distressed teen and brings a certain plucky spirit to the role, what isn’t entirely convincing is how the movie’s screenplay (which was written by director Ani Simon-Kennedy) glosses over some very serious issues of what life would really be like for a teenage girl in Nola’s situation. Nola has to be the luckiest homeless teenage girl in the U.S., because not once does she have anyone try to take advantage of her.

Yes, Nola gets into some uncomfortable situations where she has to contemplate whether or not she’s going to steal in order to eat, but somehow she gets enough money for gas to travel from state to state. Not once is she ever robbed, conned or enticed into criminal activities by people who see that she’s desperate for cash. We don’t know if Clint ever taught Nola any physical self-defense skills because she doesn’t need to defend herself from that kind of harm in this story. Even with the protection of living in a van, she gets into some dicey situations where, if this were the real world, it would be very unlikely that she would walk away unscathed.

For example, in one part of the movie, Nola ends up crashing at an empty house that appears to be unoccupied because the house is in foreclosure. When a rowdy bunch of young male skateboarders enter the house to skate in the empty swimming pool, there’s some initial tension between the skateboarders and Nola, but then the skateboarders invite Nola to party with them in the house. Here’s a young, attractive female in a group of intoxicated, rebellious guys who know she’s homeless and on her own, so it’s kind of unbelievable that none of them would try to make any moves on her.

And her luck continues throughout the story: When Nola (who looks underage and doesn’t have a fake ID) gets caught sleeping in her van late at night in a parking lot, a security guard just shoos her away, even though she’s obviously an underage child out past curfew time. When she tries to steal gas from a recreational vehicle camper owned by a senior citizen, he catches her in the act, but goes easy on her by sending her off with just a warning instead of calling the police. The entire time that she’s traveling, when it’s obvious she’s on her own, she doesn’t have creepy guys offering to “help her out,” even though in real life we all know this would happen to her.

At a convenience store, a female customer named Marcie (played by Rusty Schwimmer) figures out that Nola is homeless, and invites her to eat at a church’s soup kitchen where Marcie happens to be a volunteer. When Marcie gains Nola’s trust, she later invites Nola to live with her, her husband and the other foster kids they are raising. Nola doesn’t stay for long—Marcie is a little too strict and a little too religious for Nola—because Nola is really on a mission to find her mother.

At another point in the story, Nola’s van (which is nicknamed The Hulk) breaks down, and needs repairs that Nola can’t afford to pay. So, she convinces the owner of an auto body shop, a tough-but-tender taskmaster named Miguel (played by Danny Trejo), to let her work for him in order to pay off the cost of the repairs. It isn’t long before Miguel lets Nola live rent-free at the body shop. While she lives and works at Miguel’s body shop, Nola notices a Navajo Indian teenage girl close to her age named Blue (played by Jashaun St. John), who keeps hanging around. Nola and Blue strike up a tentative friendship, and Blue reveals that she doesn’t like to be at home because her widowed father is abusing her. Blue dreams of escaping from her father by moving in with an aunt, who has invited Blue to live with her on a reservation.

It would be too much of a spoiler to reveal if Nola ever finds her mother. Getting the answer to that mystery is one of the main reasons why “The Short History of the Long Road” is more engaging than it should be, considering the movie’s sanitized portrayal of being a homeless teenage girl. Carpenter does as good of a job as she can with the script that she’s been given. This movie didn’t need to have any big, histrionic moments or non-stop mayhem. In fact, Carpenter’s adept portrayal of Nola’s quiet desperation is one of the best things about the film. However, a little more realism about the dangers of being a homeless teenage girl traveling alone across the country would have gone a long way in improving this story.

UPDATE: FilmRise will release “The Short History of the Long Road” in select U.S. theaters on June 12, 2020, and on digital and VOD on June 16, 2020.

2018 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour: lineup and tour dates announced

October 9, 2018

The following is a press release from iHeartMedia:

 iHeartMedia will celebrate the holiday season across the nation with its annual “iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour Presented by Capital One®” – the season’s spectacular music event, which captures the music and holiday spirit of the iHeartRadio app with performances by this year’s biggest recording artists. The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2018 Tour Presented by Capital One will stop in Dallas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Minneapolis; Boston; Philadelphia; New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Atlanta; Tampa and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale.

“Over the past 22 years, Jingle Ball has become one of the nation’s most iconic holiday events,” said Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia. “It’s the night where you can see all of the biggest pop artists of the year on one stage.”

Each year, iHeartMedia stations across the country host Jingle Ball concerts in local cities that feature performances by the year’s most iconic recording artists as well as emerging talent. Z100’s Jingle Ball in New York on Friday, December 7 will be carried live on 100 iHeartRadio CHR stations.  The CW Network will also exclusively livestream Z100’s Jingle Ball via CWTV.com and The CW App, and broadcast the event as an exclusive nationwide television special on December 16 at 8 p.m. EST/PST.

“What started as a Holiday concert in New York City in 1996, has grown into a 12-city arena tour, a nationwide network television special and a radio broadcast.” said John Sykes, President of Entertainment Enterprises for iHeartMedia.

For the fourth straight year, Capital One will be the national presenting partner for the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour. As part of this sponsorship, Capital One cardholders will be the first to get exclusive access to high demand tickets through a special iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Capital One Cardholder Pre-Sale in each city.

  •  The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Capital One Cardholder Pre-Sale begins on Wednesday, October 10 at 10 a.m. local time and runs through Saturday, October 13 at 10 a.m. local time, or while supplies last.  Tickets will be available at www.iHeartRadio.com/CapitalOne.
  • All other tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, October 15 at 12 p.m. local market time and will be available at www.iHeartRadio.com/JingleBall.

Exclusive Capital One Premier Access Packages will also be available in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York during the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Capital One Cardholder Pre-sale, while supplies last. In addition to the Capital One Cardholder Pre-Sale & Premier Access Packages, at each of the tour stops, one lucky Capital One cardholder will have the opportunity to announce an artist on stage. To learn more about these exclusive cardholder opportunities, visit www.iHeartRadio.com/CapitalOne.

The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2018 Schedule Includes:

Dallas, Texas – Tuesday, November 27 at 7:30 p.m. CST – 106.1 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at American Airlines Center

  • The star studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Calvin Harris, Alessia Cara, NF, Bebe Rexha, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter
  • Ticket information available via 1061kissfm.iheart.com

Los Angeles, Ca. – Friday, November 30, at 7:30 p.m. PST – KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at The Forum

  • The star studded lineup features: Cardi B, Shawn Mendes, Calvin Harris, Camila Cabello, Khalid with Special Guest Normani, Dua Lipa, G-Eazy, Alessia Cara, Bazzi and Bebe Rexha
  • Ticket information available via kiisfm.iheart.com

San Francisco – Saturday, December 1, at 7:30 p.m. PST – WiLD 94.9’s FM’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

  • The star studded lineup features: Calvin Harris, 5 Seconds of Summer, Alessia Cara, Khalid with Special Guest Normani, Sabrina Carpenter, Bazzi and Marc E. Bassy
  • Ticket information available via wild949.iheart.com

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. – Monday, December 3, at 7:30 p.m. CST – 101.3 KDWB’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul

  • The star studded lineup features: The Chainsmokers, 5 Seconds of Summer, Bebe Rexha, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter

Boston, Mass. – Tuesday, December 4, at 7:00 p.m. EST – KISS 108’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at TD Garden

  •  The star-studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, The Chainsmokers. G-Eazy, Khalid, Meghan Trainor and Bazzi

Philadelphia, Pa. – Wednesday, December 5, at 7:30 p.m. EST – Q102’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Wells Fargo Center

  •  The star studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Calvin Harris, 5 Seconds of Summer, Marshmello, Dua Lipa, G-Eazy and Bazzi

New York, N.Y. – Friday, December 7, at 7:00 p.m. EST – Z100’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Madison Square Garden

  • The star studded lineup features: Cardi B, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Calvin Harris, G-Eazy, Dua Lipa, Khalid with Special Guest Normani, Alessia Cara, Meghan Trainor, Bebe Rexha, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter
  • Ticket information available via Z100.iheart.com
  • Z100’s Jingle Ball 2018 will video stream exclusively live on CWTV.com and The CW App and will air as a television special on The CW Network on December 16 at 8 p.m. EST/PST.

Washington, D.C. – Monday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m. EST – Hot 99.5’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Capital One Arena

  • The star-studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, The Chainsmokers, G-Eazy, Meghan Trainor, NF, Bebe Rexha, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter

Chicago, Ill. – Wednesday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m. CST – 103.5 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Allstate Arena

  • The star-studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa, Alessia Cara, Bebe Rexha, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter

Atlanta, Ga. – Friday, December 14, at 7:30 p.m. EST – Power 96.1’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at State Farm Arena

  • The star-studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Calvin Harris, G Eazy, Marshmello, Bazzi, Alessia Cara and Sabrina Carpenter
  •  Ticket information available at power961.iheart.com

Tampa Bay, Fla. – Saturday, December 15, at 7:00 p.m. EST – 93.3 FLZ’s Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at Amalie Arena

  • The star-studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Marshmello, Khalid, NF, Bebe Rexha, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter

Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, Fla. – Sunday, December 16, at 7:30 p.m. EST – Y100 Jingle Ball 2018 Presented by Capital One at BB&T Center, Ft. Lauderdale

  • The star-studded lineup features: Shawn Mendes, Calvin Harris, Khalid, Marshmello, Bebe Rexha, Alessia Cara, Bazzi and Sabrina Carpenter
  • Ticket information available via y100.iheart.com

iHeartMedia and all of its broadcast radio stations are committed to inspiring and creating positive change that improves the lives of others. For the sixth consecutive year, 11 cities of the 2018 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour Presented by Capital One, including Los Angeles; San Francisco; Minneapolis; Boston; Philadelphia; New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Atlanta; Tampa and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale will partner with The Ryan Seacrest Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring today’s youth through entertainment and education focused initiatives. In addition, 106.1 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball in Dallas will work with the Kidd’s Kids program of the Kraddick Foundation, whose mission is to provide hope and happiness by creating beautiful memories for families of children with life-altering or life-threatening conditions. Each event will allocate a portion of ticket sales to its benefiting organization as well as offer exclusive packages through online auctions leading up to the events.

“The Ryan Seacrest Foundation is honored to team up with the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour for another year in an effort to continue to build and support our Seacrest Studios in children’s hospitals across the country,” said Meredith Seacrest, Executive Director & COO of the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. “We value our longstanding partnership with iHeartMedia and are proud to join forces once again to help lift the spirits of patients through our radio and TV programming.”

The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour Presented by Capital One will stop in Dallas; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Minneapolis; Boston; Philadelphia; New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Atlanta; Tampa and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale. Additional proud partners of this year’s national iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour events include: Capital One®, The CW Network, Macy’s and Tic Tac GUM. Multimarket partners include: FUJIFILM instax®, Gravity Blankets, LUMIFY™, Power Crunch Protein Energy Bars, and Splat Rebellious Hair Color.

The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour is produced by Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia and John Sykes, President of Entertainment Enterprises for iHeartMedia.

Artists and/or events subject to change or cancellation without notice

About Capital One

At Capital One (www.capitalone.com) we’re on a mission for our customers – bringing them great products, rewards, service, and access to unique and unforgettable experiences they are passionate about.  Capital One is a diversified bank that offers products and services to individuals, small businesses and commercial clients. We use technology, innovation and interaction to provide consumers with products and services to meet their needs. Learn more about Capital One cardholder access perks at capitalone.com/access.

About the Ryan Seacrest Foundation

The Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) dedicated to inspiring today’s youth through entertainment and education-focused initiatives. RSF’s first initiative is to build broadcast media centers — Seacrest Studios — within pediatric hospitals for patients to explore the creative realms of radio, television and new media. Founded in 2009, RSF currently has Seacrest Studios at hospitals in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Nashville, Orange County, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.ryanseacrestfoundation.org.​​​

About iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia is the number one audio company in the United States, reaching nine out of 10 Americans every month – and with its quarter of a billion monthly listeners, has a greater reach than any other media company in the U.S. The company’s leadership position in audio extends across multiple platforms including 850 live broadcast stations; streaming music, radio and on demand via its iHeartRadio digital service available across more than 250 platforms and 2,000 devices including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, TVs and gaming consoles; through its influencers; social; branded iconic live music events; and podcasts as the #1 commercial podcast publisher globally. iHeartMedia also leads the audio industry in analytics and attribution technology for its marketing partners, using data from its massive consumer base. iHeartMedia is a division of iHeartMedia, Inc. (PINK: IHRTQ). Visit iHeartMedia.com for more company information.

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