Nominations for the 59th annual Grammy Awards are out, and Adele, Beyonce, Drake, and Rihanna are leading the way.
Queen Bey is up for all of the major categories, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Formation,” and Lemonade snagged a nod for Album of the year. She’ll have stiff competition from Adele who also received noms in each of those categories.
Rihanna is also up for several awards this year, including Record of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Performance, Best R&B Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Drake clocked in with multiple nominations of his own, including Album of the Year, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album.
While most artists claim not to care about awards, just the work, Chicago emcee Chance the Rapper undertook an aggressive campaign to lobby for a Grammy. He took out a full page ad, asking, “Why not me?”
Like everything he does, @chancetherapper's Grammy consideration ad in the new @billboard is not like the others pic.twitter.com/mRrqnbP3gw
— Frank DiGiacomo (@frankdigiacomo) October 6, 2016
And it appears to have paid off.
Though Chance’s Coloring Book was one of the most talked about albums of the year, his Grammy campaign didn’t hurt, and voters awarded him with nominations for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album.
Underground favorite, We Are King, picked up a surprising nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album alongside Beyonce, Rihanna, Anderson .Paak, and Gallant.
just wow.
— We Are KING (@weareKING) December 6, 2016
'We Are KING' is nominated for the 2017 GRAMMY for Best R&B Urban Contemporary Album! We are just blown away. Thx to everyone who listened!💕
— We Are KING (@weareKING) December 6, 2016
The Grammy Awards will air Sunday, February 12 on CBS. Check out the complete list of nominees here.
