Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY In handing out nominations for the 2015 Grammy Awards on Friday, the Recording Academy anointed a new star and recognized some established ones — the latter not as prominently as some had expected.
As widely predicted, Sam Smith — a 22-year-old British singer with a keening tenor and an earnest, R&B-inspired style — collected a number of nods for his debut solo album, including record and song of the year for his pleading pop hit, Stay With Me.
Smith is also a contender in the high-profile best new artist category, in which his rivals are the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, the U.K. rock band Bastille and country singer Brandy Clark.
Stay With Me is one of four singles nominated in both the record and song of the year categories, suggesting that nominators found consensus in the quality of songcraft and how the tunes worked as hits. Other dual contenders include the elusive, acclaimed singer/songwriter Sia, recognized for Chandelier; Meghan Trainor, for All About That Bass, and the inescapable Taylor Swift, for her winking Shake It Off .
Notably, Shake It Off also earned Swift a nomination for pop solo performance — seeming affirmation that the Academy approves of her evolution from country upstart to pop megastar as much as critics and audiences do.
Azalea's sassy confection Fancy is up for best record, but, not shockingly, was overlooked for best song. The fifth nomination for best song went to Irish singer/songwriter Hozier — of whom Swift was a key supporter — for the more forthright Take Me To Church.
Conspicuously absent from the record and song fields were Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams, though both stars earned multiple nods. Before the key nominations for album of the year were announced, at least, hip-hop and R&B acts did not seem especially prominent in key fields. (The album of the year nominees will be revealed Friday night in a concert event televised on CBS.)
But Williams as well as John Legend were nominated for solo pop performance, a field in which they'll compete with Swift, Smith and Sia. In recognizing pop vocal album — for which Swift isn't considered, as 1989 was released after the eligibility period — the Academy showed a little love for Miley Cyrus, who's up against Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran.
If Perry's relatively wholesome brand of girl power didn't earn her nods in the top categories, she can take some comfort in knowing that the Frozen anthem Let It Go, which seemed inescapable just several months ago, was relegated to a nod in the category of best song written for visual media.
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