Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan Among Our Favorite 2025 Grammy Award Nominations

by Tyler Glover & Julian Spivey

The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift (Album of the Year)
My favorite nomination from the 2025 Grammy nominations is definitely Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department getting into Album of the Year. Swift won this category this past February to become the artist with the most AOTY wins in Grammy history. This is her seventh nomination in this category, making her the most nominated woman in the category in Grammy history. Before this nomination, she was tied with Barbra Streisand for the record. The Tortured Poets Department became the second best-selling album in its debut week ever (2.6 million copies), only bested by Adele’s 25 (3.38 million). Swift only has eleven albums, seven of which have gotten into Grammy’s biggest category. That is a pretty remarkable feat. She is the biggest pop star of our time, and I am so happy the Recording Academy didn’t let fatigue set in, which I was a little worried would happen. She has been everywhere over the past two years. The Tortured Poets Department is a slow-burner album you grow to love more over time. TG

Short n’ Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter (Album of the Year)  
Sabrina Carpenter has had a killer year. She released the Song of the Summer: “Espresso” and followed quickly with two other hits, “Please Please Please” and “Taste.” During one week of the Billboard Hot 100, Carpenter held three of the spots in the Top 10 for these hits. That isn’t where it stopped, though. Carpenter’s entire album, Short n’ Sweet, was released on August 23rd and became a massive hit on the Billboard charts, but it also proved Carpenter was a pop star arriving at her moment of true superstardom. This is one of my favorite nominations because I wanted people and the Recording Academy to acknowledge that Carpenter wasn’t just successful with singles but with an entire album. Her songs “Bed Chem” and “Juno” went TikTok viral. They are also two of my favorite songs from the album. The entire album is a no-skip album. I was so excited for Carpenter getting her due for a truly spectacular year. She is an artist I am really looking forward to seeing what she does next. TG
 
“Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan (Record & Song of the Year)
This has truly been a year where women have kicked some serious butt in the music industry. Taylor! Beyonce! Sabrina! Ariana! Billie! Charli XCX! Then, my next favorite Grammy nomination was for the insanely talented Chappell Roan. A few months ago, multiple Swiftie friends at work told me I had to listen to her. They said, “If you love Taylor, you will love Chappell.” I finally decided to give her a chance and fell almost instantaneously in love with her music. She is probably the favorite to win Best New Artist at the Grammys, and it would be a well-deserved win. This song should win Record and Song of the Year. I love the whole song production mixed with such rich and complex lyricism. My favorite lyric of the song is “You have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.” I feel people in our lives constantly want to tell us to get over things and ignore the fact that stopping ourselves from feeling certain things that we feel so strongly (especially love) is something that can take an entire lifetime to get over. Your death may be when you get over those feelings. I would not be upset if Chappell Roan’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess took Album of the Year either. TG

eternal sunshine by Ariana Grande (Pop Vocal Album of the Year)
The biggest snub of the 2025 Grammy nominations was Ariana Grande’s eternal sunshine  not getting into the Album of the Year category, along with her hit “We Can’t Be Friends” missing Record and Song of the Year. “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was one of the year's best songs. It missing in the Record and Song categories was such a missed opportunity by the Recording Academy. What makes this nomination one of my favorites is that Grande was at least able to get into Best Pop Vocal Album for this album. It would have been criminal for Grande to get zero recognition for this album. TG
 
F-1 Trillion by Post Malone (Country Album of the Year)
I have only listened casually to Post Malone’s over the years. I wasn't hearing any of his work if it didn’t get into America’s Top 40 or on a hit radio station. Because of his collaborations with artists like Beyonce and Taylor Swift, I became really intrigued when I heard Post Malone was doing a country album. I had enjoyed Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter country album and wanted to give him a chance. The entire album is a no-skip album. Post Malone sounds like he has been doing country music his whole life. Multiple songs are so memorable that you want to go back to listen on repeat. One of my biggest criticisms of modern-day country music is that it fails to grab you and make you want to return for more. Post Malone nailed that. He collaborated with many country giants like Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, Luke Combs, Brad Paisley and others. Some may be upset that an artist dipping his toes into the genre got into this category over people who have dedicated their lives to it. However, if it is the best that country music offers, it should be here and deserves to be here 100 percent.  TG

$10 Cowboy by Charley Crockett (Americana Album of the Year)
If you were to listen to Charley Crockett’s $10 Cowboy, Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion and Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter back-to-back-to-back and were asked which one of these albums is the most “country music,” you’d say Crockett’s. Maybe that’s why it’s nominated for Americana Album of the Year. The Grammy Awards are usually better at selecting country music awards than the mainstream country awards dedicated solely to the genre. But this year, the Grammys decided to go full-on pop with their selections. That might be why Crockett’s album was submitted for the Americana Album title. One of the year’s best albums in any genre, $10 Cowboy is filled with fantastically written country ditties like the title track, “Solitary Road,” “Spade,” “Hard Luck & Circumstances” and “Ain’t Done Losing Yet.”  JS

“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” by Luke Combs (Best Song Written for Visual Media)
Luke Comb’s “Twisters” song “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” was a shoo-in for this category for songs specifically written for movies and television, but I’m surprised it didn’t also crack some of the country genre-specific categories. Combs is one of the most popular country stars in the business, has a history with the Grammys and, frankly, I think this track – which was co-written with Songwriter of the Year nominee Jessi Alexander and Jonathan Singleton – is one of the best singles of his career. It’s also Combs at one of his most powerful, almost Southern Rock vocals. JS

“Break Mine” by Brothers Osborne (Best Country Duo/Group Performance)
I was genuinely disappointed by the Grammy country music genre nominations this year, but at least “Break Mine” by the brother duo Brothers Osborne, the best duo in mainstream country music over the last decade, was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. The song about needing someone to love, whether they’ll remain with you in the morning or not, to make it through the night is universal and T.J. Osborne’s vocals make you feel the longing in the lyrics. This is the 10th consecutive nomination in this category for Brothers Osborne, who won in 2022 for “Younger Me.” They’d have my vote this year, but they may not stand a chance in a category infiltrated by big pop names like Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Noah Kahan, and Post Malone.  JS

“Ahead of the Game” by Mark Knopfler (Best American Roots Song)
Mark Knopfler has won four Grammy Awards in his career as a rock band Dire Straits member and collaborator with legendary country picker Chet Atkins, but those awards came more than 30 years ago. Now he finds himself nominated in a category that didn’t exist back then – Best American Roots Song. It’s the perfect category for the type of genre-less music Knopfler makes these days that often finds a home between country, folk and rock. “Ahead of the Game,” from his 2024 release One Deep River, faces some steep competition in the category from Shemekia Copeland, Sierra Ferrell, Iron & Wine and Aoife O’Donovan, but I like the living legend’s chances.  JS

“The Ballad of Sally Anne” by Rhiannon Giddens (Best American Roots Performance)
Rhiannon Giddens is one of the most talented vocalists and musicians in the American Roots genres, and her performance of the Alice Randall-penned song “The Ballad of Sally Anne” is sublime. Recorded for an album of songs written by Randall, one of the few African-American female songwriters in country music history, Giddens truly makes the performance of a song about the lynching of a black man—one that was originally recorded by white artists—her own. JS