Another Year of Music: Spectrum's 2025 Grammy Award Predictions
By: Aaron Scibelli
It’s that time of year again—the time to celebrate the best of the best in the music industry: the Grammy Awards! After a 2024 filled with rising stars and a myriad of new releases, the awards are going to be tough competition for all the nominees. Let’s delve into our predictions for the winners.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: the album of the year honors “artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the recording industry”, and with so many spectacular releases in the release window, the award will be highly contested. Taylor Swift, a four-time winner of the award (most recently 2024 for Midnights) is nominated once again for THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, though in such a busy year it may be tough for the star to earn a fifth just yet. Sabrina Carpenter, who experienced a breakout this past year, is nominated for Short n’ Sweet, but it would be a tall ask for her to walk away with such a major award without an established Grammy reputation. Stronger contenders include COWBOY CARTER, Beyoncé’s genre-bending country venture, Grammy darling Billie Eilish and Jacob Collier’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT and Djesse Vol. 4, respectively, and the culturally relevant and critically acclaimed brat from Charli Xcx. Yet, our pick for album of the year is Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. After gaining popularity early last year, the entire country could not escape Roan’s tiny but mighty catalogue. Her debut, spanning both bubbly beats and heartfelt ballads, won over the hearts of Americans with Roan’s vulnerable yet relatable topics and energetic arrangement. For that reason, we are confident it will win over the hearts of the Grammy voters.
SONG OF THE YEAR: the song of the year is a songwriting award; those credited with writing the song are credited with the award. Cultural relevance is not necessarily a factor, though in such a stacked year for the industry, it is hard to not call all of the nominated songs iconic. In the same vein, it is also nearly impossible to count out any of the possible options as winners. Beyoncé’s TEXAS HOLD ‘EM and Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) were inescapable country-esque bops in the year of a country-pop revolution. Island Records starlets Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan both had enormous years as well, with bittersweet pop tracks Please Please Please and Good Luck, Babe! dominating the Gen-Z scene. In addition, while R&B/hip hop is a notoriously underserved category of the Grammys, Kendrick Lamar’s legendary Drake diss Not Like Us may stand a chance as a result of its creative lyrics and flow. There can only be one winner though, and we ultimately expect Billie Eilish to take home the award for BIRDS OF A FEATHER. Eilish, who has won the award twice previously (most recently last year for “Barbie” ballad What Was I Made For?), shows a new, softer side of her in this spirited track. The lyrics are heartwarmingly sincere and backed by a fresh, spunky instrumental, and while repeating the award would be a feat, if anyone can do it, it’s Eilish.
RECORD OF THE YEAR: while song of the year awards a songwriter, the record of the year is an all-encompassing award, rewarding everyone involved in the process of a song. This means that production quality is typically more of a factor than in the latter award. Many songs share nominations in both categories, so for that reason, another Eilish win may not be unlikely. Other options include Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s melodramatic duet Fortnight and Charli Xcx’s fiercely confident 360. There is one song that stands out to us as record of the year material though, and that is Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso. Carpenter’s largest hit to date, Espresso is a musical version of its namesake; it’s perky, feel-good, and Carpenter’s luscious vocals performing hilariously nonsensical lyrics backed by a snappy guitar melody make this song of the summer a shoo-in for record of the year.
BEST NEW ARTIST: best new artist is awarded to “a new artist who, during the Eligibility Year, releases the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist”. This essentially means that an artist does not need to be “new” to be eligible for the award—a more apt name would be “best breakthrough artist”. This explains how artists such as the aforementioned Carpenter are able to be nominated despite having been in the industry for several years. For this reason, a Carpenter win would be surprising, and similarly, odds are not great for Raye, who’s been releasing music since 2016. It would be more likely to witness wins from Benson Boone, who’s hit single Beautiful Things skyrocketed him into the mainstream scene this year, Shaboozey, who secured a Beyonc​​é collaboration before following it up with radio favorite A Bar Song (Tipsy), or Doechii, who’s creative alternative hip hop and aggressive award campaign may give her an edge. Our ultimate prediction is also our album of the year winner: Chappell Roan. Roan simply has it all. Firstly, she’s actually new; her debut album was released in September of 2023. More importantly, though, her music is lively, her lyrics are authentic, and her production (coming from non-classical producer of the year frontrunner Dan Nigro) is dynamic. Living in a pop market as oversaturated as it is, Roan’s balance of familiarity with originality allow her to stand out, and for that reason we expect her to pick up the nod for best new artist.