The Beatles, “BRAT” summer, country and more: All the snubs and surprises from the 2025 Grammy nominations

NEW YORK – It looks like the 2025 Grammy Awards could be a very different kind of awards show. Beyoncé leads the way with 11 nominations, bringing her career total to a record-breaking 99. There is an incredible variety of genres represented across the major categories, and women continue to thrive. So… who didn’t make it? What were the best surprises ever? Let’s take a look.

Country music has integrated itself into other major genres and the Recording Academy has taken notice. Country hybrids — like Beyoncé, Post Malone and first-time nominee Shaboozey — lead many nominations, in country and beyond.

But that means the traditionalists may not see any rewards: CMA Awards favorites “Leather” by Cody Johnson and “Fathers” by Luke Combs & Sons” saw no nominations. The latter shouldn’t be a huge surprise: Combs’ blockbuster cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” also wasn’t nominated for record of the year at the 2024 Grammys — although it did win an award for best country solo performance.

This year, Malone and Beyoncé are also nominated in the country categories for the first time.

Who saw this coming? The Beatles’ last new song, the AI-powered “Now and Then,” is the record of the year. Released in 2023, the song used artificial intelligence to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo. It’s the same technology that was used to separate The Beatles’ voices from background noise during the filming of director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series “The Beatles: Get Back.”

Last summer, the Recording Academy announced a series of changes to the Grammy Awards, including new protocols that incorporate technological advances in machine learning. It made headlines: “Only human creators” could win the music industry’s top honor in a decision about the use of artificial intelligence in pop music. These changes are obviously in effect at the 2025 Grammys.

Last year’s Album of the Year category was dominated by women in pop – and that continues to be the case: Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX received nominations for their rave-ready approach to the genre. The latter is a nice surprise (more on that below), but the two men nominated are creative outliers. OutKast frontman André 3000’s experimental jazz flute album New Blue Sun is a contender, as is Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 4, although this may fill a spot left vacant by Jon Batiste.

Charli XCX, who has never received a solo artist nomination at the Grammys, is up for seven awards at the 2025 ceremony. These include Record and Album of the Year, as well as pop solo and pop duo/group performances, pop dance recordings, dance/electronic albums and music videos. Clearly, her culture-changing BRAT album — and the summer of memes it inspired — continues to have a huge impact.

There is no shortage of first-time nominees this year. Some were expected – like Roan, Carpenter and Shaboozey – others less so. Willow Smith has received her first nomination in the arrangement, instruments and vocals category for the arrangement of her song “bigfeeling s.” Linda Martell, the country’s first commercially successful black female musician, appears alongside Shaboozey on Beyoncé’s “SPAGHETTII,” which is competing in the Melodic Rap Performance category. This means that the progenitor receives her first Grammy nomination at the age of 83.

And finally, Morgan Wallen – undoubtedly one of the most popular musicians in the country and one rife with controversy – has received his first two Grammy nominations for his feature on Malone’s “I Had Some Help.” Last year, his song “Last Night” was nominated for best country song, but that’s a songwriter award and Wallen didn’t get a nod.

The country singer has been absent from nominations in the past. After a video surfaced in 2021 of him using a racial slur, he was disqualified or restricted from multiple awards shows and received no Grammy nominations for his best-selling “Dangerous: The Double Album.”

Like last year, Latin music is missing from the top categories of the 2025 Grammys, although there is a surplus of suitable talent: Peso Pluma’s “Éxodo,” Shakira’s “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” Residente, “Las Letras Ya No Importan” Carín León’s “Boca Chueca, Vol. 1” and Bad Bunny’s “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana” among them.

Same as above: K-Pop doesn’t seem to be there either. There are no nominations for the BTS members who released solo material this year: RM’s “Right Place, Wrong Person,” J-Hope’s “Hope on the Street, Vol. 1,” and Jimin’s “Muse.” As a boy band, BTS has received five nominations throughout their career.

Despite being one of today’s great global superstars and regularly hailed as one of the most streamed artists in the world, Bad Bunny only received one nomination for the album Música Urbana.

And Usher, who had a blockbuster year – including a star-studded Super Bowl halftime show – also received just one nomination, for R&B album.

Dua Lipa’s “Eternal Optimism” is nowhere to be seen in pop. In country, best new artist Megan Moroney received no nominations. In R&B, Normani’s long-awaited debut album “Dopamine” failed to make waves with voters, and rap is missing Nicki Minaj’s “Pink Friday 2” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Megan.”

Last year, Jack Antonoff won Non-Classical Producer of the Year for the third year in a row, making him the only other producer to do so consecutively. This year, he received no nod in the category, where he has held a spot since 2019. Who will take the title?

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The 2025 Grammy Awards will air live on February 2 on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.