"The world is changing and they say it's time to be free/But you live with the fear of just being me/Living in the shadow feels like the safe place to be/No harm for them, no harm for me/But life is short, and it's time to be free/Love who you love, because life isn't guaranteed."

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Those are the lyrics from Gloria Carter's verse in her son Jay-Z's track "Smile" from his GRAMMY-nominated 2017 album, 4:44, during which he revealed that his mother is a lesbian. The song received much attention and praise thanks to Carter's willingness to share her life with the world.

For her contribution to "Smile," Carter earned special recognition at the 2018 GLAAD Awards at the Hilton Midtown in New York on May 5. "Good Morning America" co-host Robin Roberts introduced Carter, thanking her for "start[ing] a global conversation [about lesbian women of color] that has helped countless women."

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"'Smile' became a reality because I shared with my son who I am," Carter said during her acceptance speech. "For me, this was the first time I spoke to anyone about who I really am. My son cried and said, 'It must have been horrible to live that way for so long.'"

The star-studded GLAAD Awards gala celebrated other media that made a positive difference for the LGBTQ community over the past year, including songs by songwriter Justin Tranter, Adam Lambert and Melissa Etheridge. Tranter auctioned off two songs, which raised $44,000 for GLAAD while Lambert and Etheridge delivered a duet of the latter's GRAMMY-nominated "I'm The Only One."

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Theron Thomas has won the GRAMMY for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical at the 66th GRAMMY Awards. 

He beat out Edgar Barrera, Jessie Jo Dillon, Shane McAnally, and Justin Tranter, who hosted the 2024 GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony, for the award. He was nominated for several hip-hop and R&B hits, including "Been Thinking" by Tyla and "All My Life" by Lil Durk featuring J. Cole. 

Thomas, a native of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was extremely excited to win the award, shouting into the mic "Let’s go!" 

"My father told me when I was nine years old, Theron, you're gonna win a GRAMMY," he said. 

The win marks Thomas’ first GRAMMY win. He was previously nominated for his work on Lizzo’s "About Damn Time" and "Best Friend" by Saweetie. 

Jimmy Jam gave Thomas the trophy during the GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony. Thomas is the second-ever winner in this category. Tobias Jesso, Jr. won the first-ever GRAMMY for Songwriter Of The Year last year. 

Keep checking this space for more updates from Music’s Biggest Night!

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Winners & Nominees List

It's GRAMMY nominations time! Among the all-genre categories for the 2024 GRAMMYs, songwriters Edgar Barrera, Jessie Jo Dillon, Shane McAnally, Theron Thomas and Justin Tranter round out the second-ever pack of nominees for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical.

After being introduced for the first time in 2023, the Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical category was moved to the General Field this year along with Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical. It's a monumental change for the Recording Academy's Awards process, and as Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said, an effort to "stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape."

Tobias Jesso Jr. won last year's inaugural gramophone for Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical, and this year's batch of nominees represent excellence in songcraft across all types of genres — from pop and hip-hop to country, K-pop, Broadway and multiple flavors of Latin music. They've worked hand in hand with global superstars like Miley Cyrus, Bad Bunny, Niall Horan, and Jungkook, and also written earworms to help up-and-coming artists like Reneé Rapp, Rels B, Tyla and Megan Moroney introduce themselves to new fans.

Before finding out who will join Tesso Jr. as the category's second-ever winner, get to know more about all five of this year's nominees below.

Edgar Barrera

Edgar Barrera, also known by his moniker Edge, has been a longtime force in Latin music, with a total of 20 Latin GRAMMYs to his name. (Last year, the Miami-based producer even led the pack with the most nominations of the night at 13.) His success has also crossed over to the GRAMMYs, where he's been nominated 17 times since breaking out in 2013; he took home the golden gramophone for Best Tropical Latin Album in 2015 for his work as a producer and recording engineer on Carlos Vives' Más Corazón Profundo.

In the years since, Barrera has become a wildly in-demand songwriter and producer and helped bring subgenres of Latin music into the spotlight, from Karol G's Tejano-leaning "Mi Ex Tenía Razón" to the Spanish hip-hop of Rels B's "yo pr1mero." Of course, the grandest feather in his cap for the year might just be serving as a co-writer on "un x100to," Bad Bunny's foray into regional Mexican music with Grupo Frontera, which shot up the Billboard Hot 100 by landing at No. 5.

In an interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Benito explained why the collab was so important to him. "It's very necessary because the world needed to know more about all culture, the Latin culture — another perspective [that] is not only reggaeton and perreo and urban music," he said. "There are also other very beautiful and very wild genres of Latin music."

Jessie Jo Dillon

One could say Jessie Jo Dillon's songwriting prowess might be hereditary. Her father Dean Dillon, after all, spent his career helping define the sound of '90s country by writing a plethora of songs for George Strait, Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney. The King of Country also gave Jessie Jo her first songwriting credit after she collaborated with her dad on 2009's "The Breath You Take," which was nominated for Best Country Song at the 2011 GRAMMYs.

Fast forward to more than a decade later and the younger Dillon has carried her family legacy into the 2020s, outlining the vast and varied sounds of today's country on songs like Jelly Roll's "Halfway to Hell," Old Dominion's "Memory Lane" and HARDY's "screen." A three-time nominee before the 2024 GRAMMYs (she also received Best Country Song nods for Cole Swindell's "Break Up in the End" in 2019 and Maren Morris' "Better Than We Found It" in 2022), Dillon's work with Brandy Clark helped her earn the Songwriter Of The Year nomination as well as her fourth Best Country Song nom, for Clark's "Buried."

Shane McAnally

Shane McAnally is both a titan and a trailblazer in the world of country music, as an eight-time GRAMMY nominee who is also openly gay. After starting out his career as a solo artist, the Texan transitioned to songwriting and producing full-time after writing "Last Call" by Lee Ann Womack in the summer of 2008 and later collaborating closely with Kacey Musgraves on her 2013 debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park. (His longtime partnership with Musgraves has won McAnally all three of his GRAMMYs, including Best Country Album for Same Trailer Different Park and Best Country Song for both "Merry Go 'Round" and "Space Cowboy.")

McAnally's talents gained wider recognition throughout 2019 and 2020 as audiences watched him mentor aspiring songwriters alongside Ryan Tedder and Ester Dean for two seasons on NBC's "Songland." His 2024 Songwriter Of The Year recognition both come from his continued work in the country world (Sam Hunt's "Walmart," Walker Hayes' "Good With Me") and the ways he's expanded the scope of his writing in pop (Niall Horan's "Never Grow Up"), contemporary Christian (Lauren Daigle's "He's Never Gunna Change") and musical theater (the music and lyrics for Broadway's "Shucked," including Alex Newell's barn-storming standout "Independently Owned").

Theron Thomas

A native of St. Thomas, Theron Thomas got his start writing songs and producing as one-half of R. City with his brother Timothy Thomas. The duo initially signed a deal in 2007 under Akon's KonLive Distribution after meeting the rapper in Atlanta and writing album cut "The Rain" for his 2006 sophomore LP Konvicted. By 2015, they'd landed a top 10 hit of their own, thanks to their single "Locked Away" featuring Adam Levine, and released their debut album, What Dreams Are Made Of. The whole time, Thomas and his brother were also writing for other artists, churning out bangers for the Pussycat Dolls ("When I Grow Up"), Rihanna ("Man Down"), Miley Cyrus ("We Can't Stop") and more.

In the past year, Thomas has brought his own hit-making pen to high-profile hip-hop collabs by Chlöe and Future ("Cheatback"), Ciara and Chris Brown ("How We Roll") and Lil Durk's and J. Cole ("All My Life"). He's also worked with rising stars like Ayla and Sekou and even segued into the world of K-pop by contributing to "Seven," Jungkook's Latto-assisted debut solo single.

"I always say I'm the Chick-fil-A of the music business," Thomas said in an interview with HOT 97 in February. "I'm here to serve and I'm here to bring something to the table."

Justin Tranter

Justin Tranter has been at the forefront of pop circles since the mid-2010s, when he pivoted from fronting NYC rock band Semi Precious Weapons to life as a full-time songwriter. By 2015, he'd been named one of Rolling Stone's "20 Biggest Breakouts" of the year and penned hits for the likes of Justin Bieber ("Sorry"), Selena Gomez ("Hands to Myself"), DNCE ("Cake By the Ocean"), Fifth Harmony ("Like Mariah"), and more.

In 2023 alone, his songwriting chops have helped establish Reneé Rapp as a rising voice to watch on pop-driven tracks like "Pretty Girls" and "Gemini Moon"; given Miley Cyrus a follow-up hit to her global (and now GRAMMY-nominated) smash "Flowers" in the form of the secretly raunchy "River"; and kept Måneskin's raucous party rolling with "Honey! (Are U Coming?)," the lead single off the reissue of their third studio album Rush!, retitled Rush! (Are U Coming?). Like McAnally, Tranter also expanded his resume into musicals by overseeing the original music for Paramount+'s Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies.

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Winners & Nominees List

Twenty years ago, the Broadway-shaking musical 'Wicked' opened its doors in New York City — and the theatre world was never the same.

Based on Gregory Maguire's book Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West — itself influenced by L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz — the musical debuted on Broadway on Oct. 30, 2003, six months after it premiered in San Francisco, California on May 28.

Two years later, the musical was honored by the world's leading society of music people; it won the golden gramophone for Best Musical Theatre Album at the 2005 GRAMMYs.

Fifteen years and numberless inspired performances after its premiere, Ariana Grande, Ledisi and Adam Lambert as well as GRAMMY winners Pentatonix performed with original cast members Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth to celebrate 'Wicked,' in a performance dubbed the "Wicked 15 Anniversary Concert."

Also back in 2018, the play about the green witch named Elphaba also garnered a special called A Very Wicked Halloween, starring the aforementioned musical luminaries.

"The themes of the show, the love and friendship aspects," "Wicked" star Kristin Chenoweth told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. "We can look at these two characters looking forward to seeing everything."

For Mitch Grassi from Pentatonix, it was a full-circle moment for him to perform in the special. "It's a full circle moment, we grew up with this show and the [album] kind of shaped us as performers," Grassi told Playbill.

**
'Wicked' is still on Broadway — and is about to be on the silver screen! On Nov. 27, 2024, Cynthia Erivo and Grande will star in Wicked: Part One, a film adaptation of the play. (The sequel, Part Two, is scheduled to release on Nov. 26, 2025.)**

And on the stage proper, the team behind 'Wicked' is plotting a special anniversary show at the Gershwin Theatre — and on Oct. 30, the anniversary proper, the Empire State Building will light up green in commemoration of the show.

On Halloween, the New York Public Library will hold a free panel discussion about the musical, featuring panelists in book writer Winnie Holzman, producer David Stone and composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.

And after spooky season concludes, traveling iterations of the show will continue to roll on throughout the world — with a home base in London providing the (slightly altered) experience for Wicked fans in the United Kingdom.

Whether or not you're able to catch the film, these celebration shows, or just a good old performance, keep a little wickedness in your heart in tribute this Halloween!

Ariana Grande's Road To Wicked: How The Pop Star Manifested Her Theater Kid Dreams In The Most Full-Circle Way Possible

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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