David Guetta, Afrojack, Black Coffee, more nominated for GRAMMY awards

This year’s Grammy Awards nominations have been announced, with a wealth of electronic talent featured. 

David Guetta, who finished first in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs poll 2021, is up for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for his collaboration with Afrojack, ‘Hero’. Ólafur Arnalds and Bonobo (‘Loom’), Bonobo and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (‘Heartbreak’), James Blake, Caribou, Rüfüs Du Sol, and Tiësto are also running in the same category. 

Best Dance/Electronic album nominations include DJ Mag Alternative Top 100 DJs top 20 finalist Black Coffee, for ‘Subconsciously’, alongside LPs from Illenium, Major Lazer, Marshmello, Sylvan Esso, and Ten City. Elsewhere, Arooj Aftab, H.E.R., Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, ABBA, Arlo Parks, Kanye West, Caribou, and St. Vincent also appear on the shortlists. 

Jay Z, who features in this year’s contenders thanks to guest appearances for Kanye West and the late-DMX, now has a total of 83 Grammy nods to his name, making him the most nominated artist of all time. 

The 64th Grammy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on Monday 31st January 2022, and there are some notable changes since the last edition. Firstly, this is the first time nominations for the so-called Big Four categories have not come from a secret committee. Two new trophies have also been established, including Música Urbana Album — celebrating the best Latin urban albums, with J. Balvin in the running — and Global Music Performance. 

The Recording Academy, which hosts the awards, also updated its rules and guidelines during summer, banning the use of sales figures and chart numbers from ‘For Your Consideration’ advertisements. An inclusion rider has also been introduced, which is hoped will result in a visible effort to “recruit, audition, interview, and hire on-stage and off-stage people who have been historically and systematically excluded from the industry”.