The Grammy Awards are sipping all of Beyonce's lemonade.
The pop star leads the 2017 Grammys with nine nominations, including bids for album of the year with Lemonade, and song and record of the year with Formation.
The singer, who already has 20 Grammys and is the most nominated woman in Grammy history with 62 nods over the course of her career, is also the first artist to earn nominations in the pop, rock, R&B and rap categories in the same year.
Behind Beyonce are Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West, who scored eight nominations each.
Like Beyonce, Adele is also nominated for album, record and song of the year. For album of the year, Lemonade and 25 - which has sold 10 million copies in a year - will compete against Drake's multi-hit Views, Justin Bieber's redemption album Purpose and surprise nominee A Sailor's Guide to Earth, the third album from respected and rebellious country singer Sturgill Simpson.
Beyonce's Formation and Adele's Hello are up against Rihanna and Drake's Work, twenty one pilots' Stressed Out and Lukas Graham's 7 Years for record of the year. 7 Years is also up for song of the year - a songwriter's award - battling Bieber's Love Yourself, co-written with Ed Sheeran, Mike Posner's I Took a Pill In Ibiza, as well as Beyonce and Adele's songs.
Beyonce's nine nominations include best rock performance (Don't Hurt Yourself with Jack White), pop solo performance (Hold Up), rap/sung performance (Freedom with Kendrick Lamar) and urban contemporary album (Lemonade).
"Artists are feeling emboldened and courageous and just wanting to step out of the predictable boundaries of what they have done. Of course, (Beyonce) is the poster child for that," Recording Academy CEO and President Neil Portnow said.
Adele, who has five nominations, is up for best pop vocal album (25) and pop solo performance (Hello.) The Grammys will be presented in Los Angeles on Feb. 12, 2017.
David Bowie, who died from cancer in January, earned four nominations for his final album Blackstar, including best rock performance, rock song, alternative music album and engineered album, non-classical.
"I think this is beyond sort of the sympathy vote, because sometimes you'll see those kinds of things happen just 'cause people feel sorry about it. But listen to (his) album - it's quite extraordinary," Portnow said of Bowie.
This year the Recording Academy allowed streaming-only recordings - released on paid-subscription platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal but not for sale on iTunes - to be eligible for nominations, giving Chance the Rapper a fair chance. The breakout performer scored seven nominations including best new artist, pitting him against country singers Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini; singer-rapper Anderson Paak; and pop-EDM duo the Chainsmokers, whose recent hits include Closer and Don't Let Me Down.
Chance the Rapper earned three nominations for best rap song: His hit, No Problem, is nominated, and he has writing credit on the Kanye West songs Famous and Ultralight Beam. West will compete with himself in three categories: best rap song, rap performance and rap/sung performance.
Chance's Coloring Book and West's The Life of Pablo are nominated for best rap album along with Drake's Views, De La Soul's And the Anonymous Nobody, DJ Khaled's Major Key and Schoolboy Q's Blank Face LP.
Simpson, who had been nominated for best Americana album at the 2015 Grammys, also sees his nine-track album nominated for best country album. Simpson was in a bit of controversy this year when he posted on Facebook that the Academy of Country Music Awards should not have created an award named after Merle Haggard when he felt they never showed true love to the country outlaw, who died this year. He closed his long post saying: "(Expletive) this town. I'm moving."
Simpson's album is up against Loretta Lynn's Full Circle, Keith Urban's Ripcord, Morris' Hero and Brandy Clark's Big Day In a Small Town.
Lori McKenna, who won a Grammy this year for co-writing Little Big Town's Girl Crush, is nominated for best country song for penning Tim McGraw's Humble and Kind. She also scored nominations for best Americana album, American Roots performance and American Roots song for her own work.
Acts tying McKenna and Bowie for four nominations include Bieber, Morris, Kirk Franklin, engineer Tom Coyne, and producer-songwriters Max Martin, Greg Kurstin, Benny Blanco and Mike Dean. Tyler Joseph, the lead vocalist of twenty one pilots and the duo's main songwriter, scored five nominations for Stressed Out (record of the year, pop duo/group performance) and Heathens (best rock song, rock performance and song written for visual media); twenty one pilots, which includes drummer Josh Dun, earned three nods.
Some well-known acts scored their first Grammy nominations, including Solange, Blink-182 and Demi Lovato, who will compete against Adele, Bieber, Sia and Ariana Grande for best pop vocal album.
Amy Schumer earned two nominations, including best spoken word album and comedy album. Deceased nominees include Joey Feek of the duo Joey + Rory (best gospel roots album for Hymns).
About 13,000 Recording Academy members voted in the 84 Grammy categories from 22,000 submissions. Songs and albums released from October 1, 2015 through September 30 were eligible for nomination.
11 Grammy facts
Beyonce is a rock star: Beyonce set a record for earning nominations in the rock, pop, R&B and rap categories in the same year with her diverse album, Lemonade. Only two other acts have earned nominations in those same four categories - Paul McCartney and Janet Jackson - but never in the same year.
Beyonce vs Adele: The Grammys are basically the battle of Beyonce and Adele: In four of her five nominations, Adele will go toe-to-toe with Queen Bey. Hello!
You've been snubbed: Though Beyonce earned a whopping nine nominations, it's a surprise her name didn't pop up in the best R&B song and R&B performance categories, which she has dominated in the past. Speaking of R&B, Solange's epic A Seat at the Table was surprisingly snubbed in the best urban contemporary album category, as was Chris Brown's Royalty, which didn't earn the singer a single nod. And while Drake has eight nominations, how could his No. 1 hit One Dance not earn one nomination? Other snubs include Shawn Mendes, who was a shoo-in for best new artist, and Coldplay, who only earned one nomination for best music video and was shut out of the rock honors.
Bruno Mars, the producer, shines: Bruno Mars just released a new album - too late for the 2017 nominations - so he'll likely dominate the 2018 Grammys. But thanks to co-producing All I Ask for Adele, he's nominated for album of the year (it appears on her best-seller 25). OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder also produced a track on 25, earning him a nomination. Beyonce's album of the year nomination also gives nominations to producers and featured guests like the Weeknd, Jack White, Kendrick Lamar, Mike Will Made-It and James Blake. Skrillex, Scooter Braun, Kanye West and Rihanna earned album of the year nods thanks to Bieber's and Drake's albums.
Diplo vs Diplo: Diplo, who produced on Bieber and Beyonce's albums, will battle himself for album of the year.
Live With Kelly: More and more, performers submit live performances of older songs and earn Grammy nominations. Kelly Clarkson, who sang her emotional Piece by Piece on American Idol and burst into tears during the performance, is nominated for that version of the song for best pop solo performance. The song became a Top 10 hit after Clarkson's Idol performance. Alabama Shakes, who won three Grammys earlier this year, is nominated for a live version of Joe from Austin City Limits in the best rock performance category, where Disturbed's performance on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien show of The Sound of Silence is also nominated. Adele and Pharrell are a few of the acts who have won Grammys for live versions of their hit songs.
Long Live the Dead: David Bowie died in January but near the one-year anniversary of his death, he could win Grammy gold. Blackstar, his final album, earned four nominations. Joey Feek, of the duo Joey + Rory, also died of cancer this year. The group is nominated for best gospel roots album for Hymns.
Amy Schumer gets Grammy love: Wait, Amy Schumer and not Amy Winehouse? Right. The comedian-actress is nominated for best spoken word album and comedy album. Her competition in those categories includes Carol Burnett, Patton Oswalt, Margaret Cho, Tig Notaro, David Cross, Elvis Costello and Patti Smith.
First time around the block: A number of acts who have released multiple albums are finally earning their first Grammy nomination, including Demi Lovato, Solange, Blink-182, twenty one pilots, Chance the Rapper, Baroness, Mike Posner, Gojira and Periphery.
Popping into the country category: Best country duo/group performance is being invaded by pop singers. Pink is nominated for her song with Kenny Chesney; Elle King is competing with her collaboration with Dierks Bentley; and a cappella group Pentatonix share a nomination for a song with Dolly Parton.
Being your own worst enemy: Chance the Rapper has seven nominations, but he will compete with himself for best rap song, where he is nominated three times. And Kanye West is nominated twice in three different rap categories.
- AP
