
(l-r) Kelly Clarkson, Alessia Cara, Luis Fonsi, Sarah McLachlan, Kesha, and Daddy Yankee
2018 GRAMMYs: 7 Things To Know About The Pop Field Nominees
As one of the most watched fields each year, the Pop Field for the 60th GRAMMY Awards is surely overflowing with talent.
Spanning four categories — Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, and Best Pop Vocal Album — this year's class is a tasty mix of first-time nominees and decorated veterans to artists garnering their first recognition in the Pop Field.
Take a deeper dive into the Pop Field nominees with this list of seven facts about this year's esteemed class of GRAMMY pop nominees.
1. First-Time Nominee Trio
While many of the Pop Field nominees are GRAMMY veterans, this year's pool includes a trio of newcomers — Kesha, Alessia Cara and Portugal. The Man.
Kesha earned her first career nods for her heartfelt comeback album, Rainbow, including Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance for the soulful ballad "Praying."
Cara joins the field with a nomination for "Stay" for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Zedd. She's also nabbed nods for Best New Artist and Song Of The Year and Best Music Video for her contribution to Logic's track "1-800-273-8255," also featuring fellow first-time nominee Khalid.
Portugal. The Man have earned their first GRAMMY recognition for the catchy "Feel It Still" in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category.
2. Pop Field First-Timers
While these artists have GRAMMY nods in their past, for Imagine Dragons and Zedd, this year marks the first time they earned nominations in the Pop Field.
GRAMMY winners Imagine Dragons are nominated at the 60th GRAMMYs for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance ("Thunder") and Best Pop Vocal Album (Evolve). These are their first nominations outside the Rock and General Fields. The Las Vegas-based quartet previously earned a GRAMMY win at the 56th GRAMMY Awards for Best Rock Performance for "Radioactive," which also earned a nod for Record Of The Year.
Zedd joins the Pop Field from the Dance/Electronic Music Field where he previously won a GRAMMY at the 56th GRAMMYs for Best Dance Recording for his Foxes collaboration "Clarity." This year he is up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Stay" with Cara.
3. Most Decorated Pop Field Nominees
The Pop Field nominees also include a few decorated GRAMMY veterans.
In terms of GRAMMY history, the nominee with the most is Bob Dylan with 38 prior nominations and 10 GRAMMY wins. His most recent GRAMMY win came for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album for Modern Times at the 49th GRAMMY Awards. This year Dylan is nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Triplicate, his three-disc set covering classic American songs.
Behind Dylan, Coldplay have 29 prior GRAMMY nods and seven wins, most recently taking the prize for Best Rock Album at the 51st GRAMMY Awards for Viva La Viva Or Death And All His Friends. They are up for two awards in the Pop Field this year, including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their collaboration with the Chainsmokers "Something Just Like This" and for Best Pop Vocal Album for Kaleidoscope EP.
4. Kelly Clarkson Evens "American Idol" Score
What do Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have in common? Quite a bit actually, if you count that they're each GRAMMY winners and past winners of "American Idol."
While Underwood has managed to edge out Clarkson with her GRAMMY tally — 14 nominations and seven wins — this year Clarkson looks to start closing the gap. With Clarkson's nod for Best Pop Solo Performance for the soulful "Love So Soft" at the 60th GRAMMYs, Clarkson is now also a 14-time GRAMMY nominee, evening the nomination total with her fellow "Idol" alum.
5. "Despacito" Makes GRAMMY History
The ubiquitous Latin hit not only took over the charts this summer, but it had a great showing at the 18th Latin GRAMMY Awards, earning Latin GRAMMYs for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best Short Form Music Video, and Best Urban Fusion/Performance for the remix with Justin Bieber.
Now Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's smash hit has come to the 60th GRAMMY Awards Pop Field with a nod for the remixed version featuring Bieber for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, along with nods for Record and Song Of The Year. And they've made history.
Following Los Lobos' nod for "La Bamba" for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 30th GRAMMY Awards, "Despacito" is the second Spanish-language song to ever be nominated in the history of the Pop Field.
6. Sarah McLachlan's Wintery Return
Known for '90s hits such as "Angel" and "I Will Remember You," smooth-voiced singer Sarah McLachlan has made her return to the GRAMMY nominations fold with a nod for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her 2016 Christmas-themed LP, Wonderland.
Already a three-time GRAMMY winner, this marks McLachlan's first GRAMMY nomination in 11 years. She earned her last GRAMMY nomination in the same category for another Christmas-themed album, Wintersong, for 2006.
7. Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Vets
Each member of the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category has one thing in common — they've all been here before. From Michal Bublé and Dylan to Seth MacFarlane, McLachlan and producer Dae Bennett, each nominee has earned a nod in this category at least once before.
And the true veterans of traditional pop?
Dae Bennett, Tony Bennett's son, is this Field's most decorated nominee with six prior wins for Best Traditional Pop Vocal album as a producer/engineer. He earned a nod this year as the producer on his father's three-disc collection, Tony Bennett Celebrates 90, which features artists such as GRAMMY winners Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Diana Krall, Billy Joel, and Elton John, among others.
Bublé is also quite accomplished, having earned four wins for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, most recently at the 56th GRAMMY Awards for To Be Loved. He's in the running this year for Nobody But Me (Deluxe Version).
The 60th GRAMMY Awards will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Jan. 28, 2018, airing live on CBS from 7:30–11 p.m. ET/4:30–8 p.m. PT.