The 2020 Grammy Award nominations were announced on Wednesday morning, November 20, and the list of nominees, as always, included major surprises. Scroll down to see the 14 general field nominees we goofed by not predicting. And check out the list of nominees here.
There are eight nominees in each general field category for a grand total of 32 nominations. Final decisions were made by mercurial nomination review committees that often throw us curve balls, so the fact that our odds correctly predicted 18 of those (56% accuracy) isn’t too shabby. But that still means we failed to anticipate more than a dozen contenders.
By now we probably should have seen H.E.R. coming. She won two Grammys in 2019 and was a surprise nominee for Album of the Year for her self-titled compilation. But she snuck up on us for the second year in a row, doing even better in the top four categories. She earned another Album of the Year bid for “I Used to Know Her,” as well as Record of the Year and Song of the Year noms for “Hard Place.”
Bon Iver also exceeded our expectations — again. The alternative band won Best New Artist in 2012 and was nominated for Record of the Year for “Holocene.” This year they’re back in the Record of the Year lineup with “Hey, Ma,” but they also grabbed their first ever bid for Album of the Year for “I, I.”
Best New Artist included even more stunning upsets. Chart-topping singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi missed the cut, but English Americana singer Yola earned a nomination, as did psychedelic soul duo Black Pumas and the funk/soul/hip-hop group Tank and the Bangas.
We get partial credit for a couple of other contenders. For instance, we expected Lil Nas X to be nominated for Record of the Year (“Old Town Road”) and Best New Artist, but his Album of the Year nom for his 18-minute-long EP “7” threw us for a loop. Similarly, we correctly bet that Lana Del Rey would be nominated for Album of the Year for “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” but we didn’t anticipate her Song of the Year bid for the title track.
See the list of surprises below. Did you see any of these nominations coming?
OUT OF NOWHERE
These nominees were so surprising they weren’t even in our predictions center.
BEST NEW ARTIST
Black Pumas
Tank and the Bangas
BIG SURPRISES
These nominees made the cut despite distant 100/1 odds in our predictions center
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
“I, I” — Bon Iver
“I Used to Know Her” — H.E.R.
“7” — Lil Nas X
RECORD OF THE YEAR
“Hard Place” — H.E.R.
“Hey, Ma” — Bon Iver
SONG OF THE YEAR
“Always Remember Us This Way” — Lady Gaga
“Bring My Flowers Now” — Tanya Tucker
“Hard Place” — H.E.R.
“Norman Fucking Rockwell” — Lana Del Rey
BEST NEW ARTIST
Yola
CLOSE CALLS
We knew these nominees were strong contenders, but they didn’t crack the top eight in our predictions
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
“Father of the Bride” — Vampire Weekend
RECORD OF THE YEAR
“7 Rings” — Ariana Grande
Be sure to make your Grammy predictions so that record executives and top name stars can see how their music is faring in our Grammy odds. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until winners are announced. And join in the fierce debate over the 2020 Grammys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our music forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
