A month from tomorrow will be “Music’s Biggest Night”, in other words the 2016 Grammy Awards. The award show will be taking place in its usual location, The Staples Center in Los Angeles, with its usual host of the festivities, rap legend LL Cool J, to hold it down for over three hours of music, madness, pandemonium, winners and Kanye acting a fool. Question is though, who is going to win, and who should win in the four main categories of the night? (Record, Album, Song, New Artist). We here at Manhattan Digest break down the will and the should come Grammy night. Who do you think will take home Grammy gold?
Record Of The Year-
D’Angelo & The Vanguard- “Really Love”
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars- “Uptown Funk”
Ed Sheeran- “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift- “Blank Space”
The Weeknd- “Can’t Feel my Face”
Who Will Win- Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars- “Uptown Funk”
Who Should Win- Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars- “Uptown Funk”
Out of the four categories, this is pretty much the only one where the “will” and “should” actually match up. “Really Love” is the surprise nominee in here, as there were several others that seemed to be more of a shoe in for this category (See You Again, Love Me Like You Do, Shut Up And Dance, Fight Song) so D’Angelo should just be happy with the nod. The other three songs are all great in their own way, but “Uptown Funk” really was the runaway hit at the tail end of 2014 all the way into the spring of 2015, and almost broke Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men’s record for the longest running number one single of all time when it spent 14 weeks at number one, two weeks behind MC & Boyz II Men.
Album Of The Year-
Kendrick Lamar- “To Pimp A Butterfly”
Taylor Swift- “1989”
The Weeknd- “Beauty Behind The Madness”
Alabama Shakes- “Sound & Color”
Chris Stapleton- “Traveller”
Who Will Win- Alabama Shakes
Who Should Win- Kendrick Lamar
The way too obvious choice here is Taylor Swift. She was also the way too obvious choice three years ago for “Red” and Daft Punk came out from under her to win, so I don’t think she has this on lock. Alabama Shakes might sound surprising to some, but when you think of the recent list of winners for this category (Beck, Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire) you really aren’t that far off from them really having a great shot at winning. Plus the album is stellar, so I can’t knock that. In the history of The Grammy’s, only two hip-hop albums have ever won this award. Lauryn Hill did it in 1999 with “The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill” and then Outkast did it six years later with “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below”. This award REALLY REALLY should go to Kendrick as “Pimp” was the best album of 2015. I just hope the voters can really pull it together and give it to him, but history tends to repeat itself at these things so my money is somewhat on Alabama Shakes.
Song Of The Year-
Kendrick Lamar- “Alright”
Taylor Swift- “Blank Space”
Little Big Town- “Girl Crush”
Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth- “See You Again”
Ed Sheeran- “Thinking Out Loud”
Who Will Win- “Blank Space”
Who Should Win- “Alright” or “Girl Crush”
OK, Tay Tay, I’ll give you this one. “Blank Space” is a fantastically written song and the 2nd best song off of 1989 (Right behind “Out Of The Woods”) so lyrically it does stand out. All five of these do, but given how huge Taylor is and that she is somewhat of a Grammy darling I’ll give this to her. Last time a country act won this award was about six years ago when Lady Antebellum won for “Need You Now”, and as much as I would love to see Little Big Town take the award home for this somewhat controversial song, I don’t think it will happen although it is freaking awesome. Same goes for “Alright”, but he will win this for other categories he is in.
Best New Artist-
Courtney Barnett
Tori Kelly
Sam Hunt
James Bay
Meghan Trainor
Who Will Win- Meghan Trainor
Who Should Win- James Bay
This category screams “Singer-Songwriter” and I am absolutely fine with that. Five great nominees here, just wish Hozier was one of them. I had him not only as the nominee but the shoo in to win. Nevertheless, Meghan will most likely win this but there might be an upset in fairly unknown Courtney Barnett as The Grammy’s have done the less obvious in the past. I’m fine with any of these five winning, although I think James Bay is an extraordinary talent. We will see come Grammy night!
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