With Grammy nominations recently announced, I decided to write about my personal picks for each category because I feel that I am pretty well versed in most albums, never sticking to a single genre. Of course, I will not be able to share full insight on specific categories like “Best Pop Album,” or “Best Gospel Album,” but I will keep it to the categories that I feel are most contested and anticipated.

The three heavyweights for Album of The Year are “Views”, “25”, and “Lemonade”. Although Sturgill Simpson gave a beautiful folk performance in “A Sailor’s Guide to the Earth,” I believe Simpson has little chance of winning with his incredibly limited listener base. The same thing could also be said of Drake’s “Views,” despite the albums rise in popular culture. “Lemonade” and “25” are the only two albums that have a chance of winning and due to the academy’s obsession with Beyoncé (and for good reason), I predict that “Lemonade” will end up winning the title. This is not to discredit “25,” but realistically the Grammys have their own agenda and Beyoncé will always be trending over Adele. Justin Bieber’s, “Purpose”, is a generic pop album that does not deserve to be listed as a nominee. Most likely, “Purpose” was mentioned in order to drive more traffic to the awards for music lovers of the younger generations.

Record of The Year, however, is a clean cut winner of Adele’s “Hello.” The only other competent song on that list is “Formation,” but despite the songs beautiful and masterfully executed vocals, “Hello” is bound to win. Adele’s vocal range is stunning to watch and will most likely be more memorable than “Formation.” “Work” is boring to listen to (Work, work, work, work, work, work
You see me, I be work, work, work, work, work, work,) “7 Years” has been overplayed to oblivion and “Stressed Out” is the same case as Bieber’s “Purpose”, horrid pop single used to drive more traffic.

Although similar, Song of The Year is different in the fact that the song does not have to be from an album, while record does. This makes two different criteria for each one, as an album must tell a story while a single must do it quickly. This is why I think neither “Formation” or “Hello” will have a chance of winning Song of The Year, but instead “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” is probably the best choice. While “Hello” and “Formation” both had great structure and Adele and Beyoncé are talented, Posner created a soulful and catchy song with “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”, which should be the goal for a single. As a record, the song would have been horrid, but like I said, record and song consist of two different qualifications.

On the topic of Best New Artist, the only nominee that is worthy of the award is Chance The Rapper. Chance has a unique voice and perspective on things reminiscent of J. Cole, and that quality is something that people love. The academy is not too keen on giving country singers recognition, which pulls both Ballerini and Morris out of the race, despite both being promising artists (although in my opinion, rather generic) and Paak fits music for a rather niche audience. The Chainsmokers are an embarrassment to the genre of electronica and the only thing propelling them to this spot is their series of (overrated) singles, which are what my father thinks of when he hears the word “teenager.” Their music is cliche and their production is lazy. Chance will win unopposed, despite the promising nature (sans Chainsmokers) of the candidate pool due to their potential audience.

At the end of the day, my predictions do not mean anything. I am just a student who enjoys discussing music with my peers. For example, although I think “7 Years” was overplayed and a horrible track, there are redeeming qualities to each one nominee or else they would not have been nominated for a Grammy. I realize that I do not have any actual credentials to judge music. I listen to music in my free-time, it is not a job for me so my list maybe slightly biased if anything. However, please feel free to comment about your thoughts and predictions regarding the 2017 Grammy winners.