Adele poses with the Best Pop Solo Performance Award for "Easy on Me" in the press room during the 65th Grammy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Adele poses with the Best Pop Solo Performance Award for "Easy on Me" in the press room during the 65th Grammy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
The 66th Grammy Awards are taking place at 2pm today, here’s everything you need to know including how Kiwis can watch the red carpet and awards ceremony, who is hosting and which superstars are the nominee faves this year.
The 66th Grammy Awards are mere hours away and if you’re a huge music fan, or simply tuning in for the red carpet looks, there are a few things you need to know before the stars hit the carpet.
Taking place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, in true Grammy style, the majority of the awards will be handed out at the Premiere Ceremony which starts at 2pm NZT — which will be streamed for viewers on YouTube.
As for the main event, it looks slightly different this year with the Recording Academy announcing in June that the Grammys are adding three new categories: best pop dance recording, best African music performance and best alternative jazz album.
They also made a huge statement in regards to AI, with Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr telling AP that Grammy nominees and winners must be human creators. Put simply, this means AI, or music that contains AI-created elements, can be considered for a nomination, however if successful in landing a nomination, the Academy will not acknowledge the AI portion of the nod.
Joining the star on the stage will be a revolving range of presenters including Christina Aguilera, Lenny Kravitz and Lionel Richie. Mark Ronson, Meryl Streep, Taylor Tomlinson and Oprah Winfrey have also been named as presenters.
Who will perform at the 2024 Grammy Awards?
While we all look forward to finding out who will win this year’s awards, there is no denying the performances are a highlight of the show and there is a pretty impressive line up today.
Popstar Dua Lipa will take the stage as well as Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish while Joni Mitchell will make her Grammy debut.
Burna Boy, Luke Combs, Billy Joel, Travis Scott, SZA, and U2 have also been announced as performers, with speculation even Taylor Swift could make an appearance, with CBS having promoted the fact that she will be “in the building” to accept any possible award wins.
Catch @DUALIPA take the #GRAMMYs stage in 3 days or she'll go Houdini. 🫣
🎶 Tune in on Feb. 4th to watch the 66th GRAMMY Awards on @CBS and @paramountplus!
SZA is this year’s leading nominee with a total of nine nods, including Album of the Year for SOS and Song of the Year for Kill Bill — a revenge anthem with an R&B ballad. The song was SZA’s first number one on the Billboard Global 200 and US Hot 100 charts. It went on to spend eight weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 before her April 2023 remix with Doja Cat pushed it to number one.
Other nominees to watch include Swift, whose Midnights album is also nominated for Album of the Year and if she wins it would be her fourth time winning the award setting a new record. Swift’s Anti-Hero is also up for Record and/or Song of the Year — a first in her career.
Olivia Rodrigo, Boygenius, Miley Cyrus, Jon Batiste, Victoria Monét and Billie Eilish will be competing against the popular female artists for Record of the Year.
Elsewhere, Batiste is a favourite to win being the only male performer to get six nominations or more in this year’s awards. As well as Record of the Year for Worship, his hit song Butterfly is up for Song of the Year and World Music Radio is up forAlbum of the Year.
SZA is nominated for nine Grammy Awards. Photo / Getty Images
How can I watch the Grammy Awards in NZ?
The show starts at 2pm NZT on Monday, February 5.
TVNZ and Three will not stream the event so unfortunately Kiwis cannot tune in. Thankfully, the Herald will be offering up-to-date red carpet and award show coverage throughout the day.
“Attention” — Rogét Chahayed, Amala Zandile Dlamini, and Ari Starace, songwriters (Doja Cat)
”Barbie World” [from Barbie The Album] — Isis Naija Gaston, Ephrem Louis Lopez Jr., and Onika Maraj, songwriters (Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice featuring Aqua)
”Just Wanna Rock” — Mohamad Camara, Symere Woods, and Javier Mercado, songwriters (Lil Uzi Vert)
”Rich Flex” — Brytavious Chambers, Isaac “Zac” De Boni, Aubrey Graham, J. Gwin, Anderson Hernandez, Michael “Finatik” Mule, and Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, songwriters (Drake and 21 Savage)
”Scientists & Engineers” — Andre Benjamin, Paul Beauregard, James Blake, Michael Render, Tim Moore, and Dion Wilson, songwriters (Killer Mike featuring André 3000, Future, and Eryn Allen Kane)
Best Alternative Jazz Album
Love in Exile — Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily
Quality Over Opinion — Louis Cole
SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree — Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, and SuperBlue
Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, Kiwi celebs we can’t help but love and TV shows you simply cannot miss out on.
