The 57th Annual Grammy Awards hosted by LL Cool J will air live from the Los Angeles Staples Center this Sunday, Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. EST on CBS. We've examined the biggest categories and have put in our two cents on who we think should win and who we think will win each award. Vote for your pick in the poll at the bottom of the page.
Category: Album of the Year
Nominees:
Morning Phase by Beck
Beyoncé by Beyoncé
X by Ed Sheeran
In The Lonely Hour by Sam Smith
G I R L by Pharrell Williams
What Album Should Win: Beyoncé
Beyoncé's surprise self-titled album will be hard to beat. It was, in the truest sense, the most influential album of the year. The effort was unprecedented as far as marketing, promotion and the massive visual component that tied everything together. With no prior promotion, it sold more than 828,773 copies in the first three days, which is impressive in an era where streaming and piracy are killing sales of actual downloads.
Her most experimental album to date, the content of the album was also notable as it tackled themes of feminism, monogomous sex, eating disorders, postpartum depression, and the fears that go along with being a mother and wife. This was no superficial effort.
This album ultimately solidified Beyoncé as the queen modern mainstream music, and she has ruled the headlines as a revered icon ever since. With the help of her superstar producers and contributors, she made the industry reimagine what an album release could be and has inspired more creativity in the industry since. No other album nominated for the award comes close as far as historical importance.
The Grammys also simply seem to love Beyoncé. She is the most nominated and third most awarded woman in Grammy history with 17 wins and 53 nominations. However, this is also only the second time Beyoncé has been nominated for Album of the Year, her first being in 2010 for I Am ... Sasha Fierce, so it would be the first time she went home with the honor.
What Album Will Win: Beyoncé
Since we have place Beyoncé in both the "will" and "should" win categories, we'll use this space to explain why the other nominees are not likely to upset Queen Bey. The only things going against Beyoncé are the fact that the voting committee has historically been conservative, and some of the content on her self-titled album has been criticized as racy. There is also the chance that her having won 17 Grammys might urge voters to give another artist a chance at the spotlight. However, even her competitor Sam Smith is confident that Bey will go home the winner in this category (and if he happens to win, he says he's handing the award over to her).
Although Smith's debut In The Lonley Hour catapulted him into the spotlight, it is not as sonically and thematically varied or as impressive of a feat as Beyoncé's. His voice is lovely and the fact that he is representing the LGBTQ community in this category is a plus, but the recent news of "Stay With Me" owing songwriting credit to Tom Petty just goes to show that he hasn't exactly reinvented the wheel. He is more likely to win in one of the other five categories for which he is nominated.
Then we have Beck, who would actually be the most likely to upset Queen Bey, if that were to happen. He is arguable the most musically "sophisticated" of the group, and if the Grammys decide to be throw on their music snob hats as they did it before with Arcade Fire in 2011, he might have a chance. However, Morning Phase didn't impact the industry in nearly the same way that Beyoncé did, so despite being an incredibly gorgeous album, it probably won't take home the prize.
Meanwhile, Sheeran's X has a better chance of winning in the Best Pop Vocal Album category, leaving Pharrell's G I R L, which really only had a few stand-out two tracks. Even if Pharrell's album loses to Beyoncé's, he will still come out a winner as he is credited for his contributions to her self-tited album.
