Kelly Clarkson. Photo: Brian Bowen Smith
Texas was tough to find among the full field of nominees for the 66th annual Grammy Awards, which were announced Friday morning.
What was not difficult to find was the dominance of women in nearly every major category: R&B singer-songwriter SZA led the overall field with nine total nominations, followed by Victoria Monet with seven total nominations.
Brandy Clark, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and the all-female trio boygenius picked up six nominations apiece. (Jack Antonoff and Jon Batiste also have six nominations apiece.)
Fittingly, in a year focused on female artists, the Dallas-bred singer-songwriter Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) was one of the presenters during the livestreamed Grammy nominations special.
“Music is changing lives every minute of every day,” she said prior to introducing nominees for Best Rock Album, Best Alternative Performance and Best Alternative Music Album. “Every note that’s ever been played has affected someone.”
Just six Texas-tied artists were nominated outright — including collaborations, a total of eight Texas-rooted musicians were included in the whole field overall — making it one of the thinnest years for Texas music in recent Grammys memory.
Fort Worth-born pop superstar Kelly Clarkson picked up a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album for Chemistry, while the Austin-based Black Pumas snagged a nod for Best Rock Performance, for “More Than a Love Song.”
Houston’s Robert Glasper picked up a pair of nominations for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for “Back to Love,” and the Arlington-formed acappella group Pentatonix earned a nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for its seasonally themed Holidays Around the World.
Fort Worth native and perennial Grammy fixture Kirk Franklin further increased his staggering total — with this latest nod, his overall number of nominations swells to 31, with 19 wins to date — as he picked up a nomination for Best Gospel Performance/Song for “All Things.”
Willie Nelson, himself nominated a whopping 56 times prior to this year’s announcement, was nominated for Best Bluegrass Album for his recently released Bluegrass.
Elsewhere, Texas made cameos in various categories: Rising star Zach Bryan’s duet with Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything,” was nominated for both Best Country Song and Country Duo/Group Performance, while Billy Strings’ “California Sober,” which features Nelson, was nominated for Best American Roots Song, and George Strait’s Blue Clear Sky was nominated for Best Immersive Audio Album.
The Grammys ceremony will be held on February 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and broadcast live on CBS. The full list of nominations for all 94 categories can be found at Grammy.com.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on X (@prestonjones). Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
