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Lil Nas X at Glastonbury

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Lil Nas X Comes Out On World Pride Day

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The "Old Town Road" singer urges fans to listen closer to a track on his new EP to confirm what "some of ya'll already know"
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jul 1, 2019 - 12:52 pm

Breakout artist Lil Nas X's smash crossover hit "Old Town Road" featuring Billy Ray Cyrus has been everywhere so far this summer. On June 30, which is both World Pride Day and the final day of Pride Month, Lil Nas X took to Twitter to encourage fans to take a closer listen to one of his tracks off his newly released EP, 7 , as a way of, effectively, coming out. 

“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone [f*** with me] no more,” he tweeted. “But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to ‘C7osure.'” 

The song's lyrics don't explicitly address sexuality, "C7osure," according to Rolling Stone, "touches on themes such as coming clean, growing up and embracing one’s self." Lil Nas X sings, “Embracing this news I behold unfolding/I know, I know, I know it don’t feel like it’s time/But I look back at this moment, I’ll see that I’m fine... True say, I want and I need/To let go, use my time to be free.”

In another social media clue, Lil Nas X tweeted the cover art for 7 with the caption. “Deadass I thought I made it obvious.”

7 dropped on June 21, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, whicle “Old Town Road” has reigned at the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks. Over the weekend, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray joined Miley Cyrus on stage at Glastobury to perform the song. Lil Nas X's latest hit, "Panini," has Nirvana's Kurt Cobain listed as a co-writer for it's similarities to the band's 1991 hit "In Bloom." 

"Press Play" Celebrates Pride Month 2019 With New Episode Premiering Throughout June

 

 

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Who Ruled Music Streaming In 2019?

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With Spotify Wrapped, Pandora's Top Thumb Hundred, the new Apple Music Awards, as well as Shazam and YouTube's most popular songs of 2019, there's a lot of new streaming data to explore
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 9, 2019 - 10:24 am

December is not only the perfect time for slowing down, sipping hot chocolate and spending time with loved ones, it's also a great opportunity to look back on which artists broke new records in streaming numbers. From Spotify to Pandora, Apple Music—and Shazam, which Apple owns—and YouTube, let's see who dominated the streaming game in 2019.

If you're active on Twitter or Instagram, you may have noticed various versions of Spotify Wrapped being shared over the past few days, after the streaming giant launched their annual microsite, which allows Spotify users to dive into their personal top artists and songs of the year. They also released the data for the platform as a whole, which named current 2020 GRAMMY nominee Post Malone as their most streamed artist globally, with over 6.5 billion streams this year.

The rest of Spotify's top artist list is made up of current GRAMMY nominees, with Billie Eilish taking the No. 2 spot with over six billion streams, followed by Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Bad Bunny, respectively. Eilish's GRAMMY-nominated debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, is the platform's top-streamed album of 2019, making the 17-year-old the first female artist to have a No. 1 spot in that category. The highly anticipated project was also the top-streamed album on Apple Music this year.

Read: "WE ARE ALL WINNERS": 2020 GRAMMY Award Nominees React On Social Media

And that's not all for the L.A. pop giant: Eilish's GRAMMY-nominated hit "bad guy" ranks as the second-most-streamed song of the year on Spotify, surpassed only by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello's hit "Señorita," which saw more than one billion streams and is also up for a 2020 GRAMMY. Spotify's other top three global tracks of 2019 are also currently in the running for a GRAMMY: Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower," Grande's "7 rings" and Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Old Town Road – Remix."  

Meanwhile, Apple Music broke out their top-streamed artists by genre instead of listing top overall, but with their new Apple Music Awards, they named Eilish their Artist of the Year. The other two awards were given to Lizzo, as the Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Lil Nas X, for Apple Music's Song of the Year with "Old Town Road." The ubiquitous Cyrus-assisted remix of the song took the No. 1 spot on Apple's global most-streamed song list, followed by "Sunflower," Grande's "thank u, next," "7 rings" and Eilish's "bad guy." Spotify named Lizzo, Lil Nas X and Puerto Rican reggaetonero Lunay as their Top Breakout Artists.

Poll: Who Will Win Best Pop Vocal Album At The 2020 GRAMMYs?

As for the top tracks on Pandora—which is measured by the numbers of "thumbs up" it gets from listeners—"Old Town Road" and "7 rings" also won over Pandora listeners, earning the No. 1 and No. 3 spots, respectively. J. Cole's Best Rap Performance GRAMMY-nominated "Middle Child" took the No. 2 spot, Malone's "WOW" snagged No. 4 and Cardi B's and Bruno Mars' "Please Me" earned the fifth highest number of likes. Pandora named Malone and Cardi as the most popular artist on their platform this year, as both artists had five songs each on this top 100 list.

Finally, YouTube also shared its platform numbers last week, with Daddy Yankee and Snow's reggaetón hit "Con Calma" earning the title of most-streamed music video globally in 2019. Rosalía, J Balvin and El Guincho's Latin GRAMMY-winning bop "Con Altura" earning the second spot on the global list, with all top five spots going to Latin urban songs.

"Con Calma" also made the U.S. version of the list at No. 10., the only Spanish song on it. Lil Nas X made this U.S. list twice; in the No. 1 spot for the audio version of the Cyrus remix and the No. 5 spot for the cameo-filled visual.

According to Apple, Spanish-language bops were also popular with Shazam users across the globe this year. "Con Calma" was the sixth-most-Shazamed song, not to be confused with Pedro Capó's Latin GRAMMY-winning "Calma," whose Farruko-supported remix earned the No. 4 spot. Not surprisingly, Eilish's "bad guy" was the most-Shazamed track globally this year.

We hope you have fun revisiting your favorite songs, music videos and albums of 2019. Find out which ones will take home a golden gramophone at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, airing live on Jan. 26, 2020 on CBS.

Find Out Who Just Made History With Their GRAMMY Nominations: 2020 GRAMMYs By The Numbers

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Find Out Who Just Made History With Their GRAMMY Nominations: 2020 GRAMMYs By The Numbers

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Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Ariana Grande, H.E.R. and FINNEAS are the top-nominated artists this year, and the first three are all first-timers
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Nov 22, 2019 - 3:20 pm

Let's be real—the 2020 GRAMMYs have been on our mind lately, especially with all the excitement that came with artists finding out about their nominations on Wednesday. Let's take a look at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards by the numbers to find out who made history and other big takeaways from the expansive nominee list.

This year's top-nominated artists, in order of most nods, are Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Ariana Grande, H.E.R. and FINNEAS. As a first-time nominee, Lizzo leads the pack with eight total nominations—her fellow top-three artists, who both earned six nods, are also first-timers and all Best New Artist nominees.

Related: Record Of The Year Nominees Revealed | 2020 GRAMMY Awards

Eilish and Lizzo make history as the first time two artists have been nominated in all four General Field categories (Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist). At just 17, the "bad guy" singer is the youngest nominee to ever receive nominations in these four all-genre categories. Last year, these four categories were expanded to include eight nominees.

Another Best New Artist contender, Barcelonan nu-flamenco queen Rosalía, also makes history as the first nominee in the category that performs completely in Spanish. The "Malamente" singer also has a nomination in Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album, for her Latin GRAMMY-Album-Of-The-Year-winning LP, El Mal Querer.

One of her fellow category contenders, Puerto Rican Latin trap king Bad Bunny, is competing against himself; his Latin GRAMMY-winning debut album, X 100PRE, and his 2019 J Balvin-collab project, Oasis, are both nominated.

Read More: Find Out Who's Nominated For Best New Artist | 2020 GRAMMY Awards

FINNEAS, Eilish's older brother and producer, is also being nominated for the first time, and earned five nods. He shares three with her (Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year) and also is in the running for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical.

Grande and H.E.R. snagged five more nods each this year, following both of their first-ever GRAMMY wins at the 61st GRAMMY Awards. This past show was H.E.R.'s debut year—she was a Best New Artist contender and took home wins for Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance, the latter of which she is nominated for again.

Watch: H.E.R. Wins Best R&B Album

As for Ari, she won Best Pop Vocal Album for Sweetener last year and is in the running for this award again for her follow up, thank u, next. Her prior two albums, 2014's My Everything and 2016's Dangerous Woman, were also nominated for the same pop award. The 62nd GRAMMY Awards is the first time the "7 rings" singer is contending for Record Of The Year and Album Of The Year.

To decide who is nominated and, in the second round, take home the golden gramophones, approximately 11,000 Recording Academy voting members—music professionals across genres and disciplines, including recording artists, songwriters, producers and engineers—participate in the voting process.

2020 GRAMMY Awards: Complete Nominees List

This year, over 20,000 submissions were entered for GRAMMY consideration this year. Eligible music was released between Oct. 1, 2018 and Aug. 31, 2019.

In just 64 days, ton Jan. 26, 2020, the nominees will walk the red carpet into Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles! Stay tuned to GRAMMY.com, our YouTube page, our newsletter (sign up below) and our social channels (follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) for all things 2020 GRAMMYs, and make sure to catch the show live on CBS.

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Poll: Who Will Win Best Pop Vocal Album At The 2020 GRAMMYs?

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"WE ARE ALL WINNERS": 2020 GRAMMY Award Nominees React On Social Media

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From first-time nominees Lizzo, Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X to GRAMMY winners James Blake, H.E.R., Ariana Grande and The Chemical Brothers, current nominees are filling their social media with messages of gratitude and joy
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Nov 20, 2019 - 1:06 pm

With the full 62nd GRAMMY Award nominations dropping bright and early this morning, the music industry is now wide awake and celebrating on social media.

Read on to share in the excitement with some of the 2020 GRAMMY nominees: Lizzo, James Blake, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Yola, Lil Nas X, Ariana Grande and more!

First-time nominee Lizzo is "feelin' good as hell" about her momentous eight nods, which include Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Best New Artist. She took to her Twitter bright and early, not long after the news went live to share the big mood. "THIS HAS BEEN AN INCREDIBLE YEAR FOR MUSIC AND IM JUST SO THANKFUL TO EVEN BE PART OF IT," she beamed in her second tweet, followed by "WE ARE ALL WINNERS." Congrats, queen!

Billie Eilish is another first-time nominee who's also up for Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year Best New Artist and more. The young anti-pop star, whose older brother FINNEAS produces her music, wrote "BETWEEN ME & MY BROTHER ITS 11 NOMINATIONS thank u grammyyys this is an honor." Talk about a sibling power duo!

Another first-time nominee and Best New Artist contender, Yola, is reveling in this big day. "I'm trying to find the right words for the @RecordingAcad nominations this morning, this is an absolute dream!!" the rising Queen of Country Soul first wrote on Twitter this morning.

Two hours later, the British songstress came up with a few more words to summarize her joy: "To be be nominated for four @RecordingAcad #GRAMMYs in the 10th month of my debut year is beyond a dream come true. Thank you to my incredible team and everyone who has supported and believed in me along the way. I'm truly honoured to be in the category with every artist nominated."

Country/trap king Lil Nas X also joined the first-time nominee rodeo with six nods, including for Best New Artist, Album Of The Year—for his debut EP, 7—and Record Of The Year for "Old Town Road."

"NO F***ING WAY" he wrote on Twitter. Yee-haw indeed, cowboy.

GRAMMY-winning alt-electro crooner James Blake, who was a Best New Artist nominee back at the 56th GRAMMY Awards, also took to social media to share the weight of this prestigious peer recognition. "Assume Form nominated for best alternative album! This one meant a huge amount to me. ahhhhhhhhh! LOVE YOU ALL," he wrote on Instagram.

Rising R&B powerhouse H.E.R., won her first two GRAMMYs at the 61st GRAMMY Awards, where she was a Best New Artist nominee. She is understandably thrilled about her five nominations this year, and gave her tweet the all-caps, multiple-exclamation-point treatment: "5 NOMINATIONS!!!! WHAAAAAT. THATS CRAZY!!!! AGAAAAAINNNNNN. AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. GOD IS GREAT."

Pop queen Ariana Grande may have won her first GRAMMY earlier this year, for Sweetener, but she was still blown away by today's news. She is up for five awards this year, including for Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album (the gramophone she snagged in 2019) for her 2019 follow-up, thank u, next.

In one of her excited tweets this morning she wrote, "thank u for acknowledging this music my beautiful best friends and i created in just a few weeks together. the acknowledgement is truly enough on its own for me and my heart."

GRAMMY-winning alt-rock stalwarts Cage The Elephant were stoked to earn another Best Rock Album nod, the category they won at the 59th GRAMMY Awards. The band wrote, "Such a blessing and honor to wake up this morning and see we're nominated for a GRAMMY!!! BIG LOVE!!!! @RecordingAcad #GRAMMYs2020 #GrammyNominations #GRAMMYs."

First-time nominees and Brit-rock experimenters The 1975 are celebrating their Best Rock Song nomination, sharing, "// B E S T R O C K S O N G - N O M I N A T I O N // @RecordingAcad L O V E #GRAMMYs," along with a picture featuring lyrics from the nominated song, "Give Yourself A Try."

Nigerian Afro-fusion artist Burna Boy also received his first GRAMMY nomination this year, as his major 2019 album, African Giant, is up for Best World Music Album. He joined in the conversation, retweeting a plethora of fan congrats, as well as his own post, which simply read, "African Giant #GRAMMYs @RecordingAcad!!"

Young rapper YBN Cordae officially joins the ranks of GRAMMY-nominated artists with his two first-ever nods (Best Rap Song and Best New Rap Album) for his 2019 debut LP, The Lost Boy. He shared his excitement with a tearful video of gratitude on his IG stories, as well as several tweets, one of which read, "Bro my DEBUT album got nominated for BEST RAP ALBUM..... this sh*t crazy."

He also tweeted a video of himself from just two years ago, prophesizing more was on the horizon ("This is just the beginning…give me two years"). "Don't let nobody tell you can't do whatever the f**k you put your mind too," this tweet read. Dayum, word.

While there are far too many nominees to share in this article, let's go out with pivotal U.K. electronic duo The Chemical Brothers, who are up for three GRAMMYs this year, including Best Dance/Electronic Album. They were first nominated (and won) back at the 40th GRAMMY Awards, for their classic 1997 track "Block Rockin' Beats."

"Joyful about today's 3 Grammy @RecordingAcad nominations for Best Dance/Electronic Album (No Geography), Best Dance Recording (Got To Keep On) & Best Music Video (We've Got To Try)! Love & gratitude to all that made it possible! #NoGeography #GRAMMYNoms #GRAMMYs #ChemicalBrothers," they shared.

Stay tuned to GRAMMY.com, our YouTube page, our social channels (follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and our newsletter (sign up below) for the latest on all things 62nd GRAMMY Awards. And don't forget to tune in on Jan. 26, 2020 to catch the Biggest Night In Music to find out who takes home the golden gramophones!

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2020 GRAMMY Awards: Complete Nominees List

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What Music Goes Viral On TikTok?

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Got bass? Here's how songs go viral on the wildly popular new app and how musicians can take full advantage of the craze
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Nov 6, 2019 - 9:31 am

By now, you've probably heard Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road Remix" a few times over. The song's viral moment—culminating on its record-breaking run on the Billboard Hot 100—was inescapable for the better part of 2019.

Yet before the young rapper rode his way into the spotlight, he uploaded a clip of the original song, along with a "challenge," to the popular social media video app, TikTok. Users, the bulk of whom are Gen Zers, can upload and view 15-second videos set to music, with the song title/artist displayed.

Consequentially, an ever-growing handful of catchy songs have gained fame within the app and, in the case of Lil Nas X, Lizzo (her #DNATest Challenge recently helped catapult her 2017 bop "Truth Hurts" to the charts) and a few others, in the greater popular culture and pop music landscapes. A recent story on Haulix's blog looks at last month's biggest hit songs on TikTok to unpack the trends behind the trends, to help more artists take a shot at getting their viral moment.

Haulix points to several key elements of songs that have gained traction on the app recently, highlighting the importance of "memorable lyrics," especially ones TikTokers can act out in their videos, as well as a danceable beat and a bass drop.

Watch: AJR On Their Dream Lil Nas X Collab, Their Favorite Thing About Festivals & More

Since the video clips can only be 15 seconds long, the app only plays a short segment of the featured song. The audio content of TikTok videos is the song itself and not the user singing, rapping or talking over it, meaning songs with clever or quotable lyrics tend to be the most popular.

While some tracks that make waves on the platform may be fun and catchy and continue to gain traction in its whole form on streaming platforms and the like, what is most important in successful TikTok hits are the catchy bars that hook people in and allow them to use their bodies and facial expressions—from dance moves, costume changes, creative makeup and more—to put themselves in the song.

Read: Lil Nas X's No. 1 Run Began With TikTok, Now The Music Industry Is Taking Notice

As Haulix pointed, "The greatest songwriters from previous generations made an impact on culture with songs and albums that told elaborate, sprawling stories of the human condition. Some of those tracks may find an audience on TikTok as well, but most users are seeking out 4-16 bars that make an immediate impression on listeners. Lyrics that may seem silly or outright ridiculous to average music consumers often take TikTok by storm."

They point to user @schmidtyqueen's video to Yung Gravy's song "Magic" about as an example of how she used his outlandish lyrics ("Heard my voice now she trying to have whoa. / Flexing ain't too complex, baby./ Ala-ka-f***ing-zam") to create a cute, engaging and simple clip.

The article also points to the popularity of rap, EDM and anything with heavy bass on the platform—anything with a catchy trap beat or a big bass drop is likely to get users attention, and find them inspired to try out their dance moves in hopes of gaining other users attention, likes and shares.

Haulix includes a 7-minute compilation video of some pretty fun TikTok clips set to bbno$ & y2k's viral hit "lalala," which features a simple trunk-rattling bassline and nonsensical lyrics with a humorous opening line ("Did I really just forget that melody?"). The video currently has over 39 million views on YouTube alone and found its way to the top of Spotify's Viral 50 chart in June.

Similar to bass drops, drastic beat changes or chord shifts (not unlike the journey of Travis Scott and Drake's GRAMMY-nominated 2018 No. 1 hit "SICKO MODE") can also inspire creative videos and viral moments on the platform. Haulix points to Kesh Kesh's "Vibin" as a popular example of this, where the beat itself (the only words in the clip are "One, two, three / let's switch this up.") leads, switching from banjo-led chords to a spacey G-funk beat.

In summary, if you're trying to give your music an extra push, make sure it's a trunk-slapper, one that could get the club going up or at least has funny, catchy lyrics, you can try your luck and viral fame and upload it to TikTok. It's always time for new challenges!

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