Will win: Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti
Should win: Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti
Launching multiple categories for Spanish-language music at the Grammys was long overdue, but it’s clear the Academy still has plenty of work to do. Case in point: Every single nominee in this year’s Música Urbana category is a white man, and all but one hails from Puerto Rico. That said, even if the pool of nominees accurately represented the wide diversity of Latin American music and perspectives that fall under the música urbana umbrella, few could compete with the year Bad Bunny had with Un Verano Sin Ti. The rare pop album that innovates rather than imitates, it draws from Dominican mambo and dembow, reggaetón, trap, and more with a fluency that appears effortless.
In the wake of its massive critical and commercial success, Daddy Yankee’s cynically marketed and decidedly average “farewell” album, Legendaddy, offers no competition. Rauw Alejandro’s Trap Cake, Vol. 2 is a solid but short exercise in trap aesthetics, but his best chance will come next year, with his more recent club music retrospective, Saturno. Farruko’s “Pepas” is a massive worldwide smash from two summers ago that has endured longer than the bloated album on which it eventually appeared. And Maluma remains the most saccharine reggaetonero in the game. Eventually someone will dethrone Bad Bunny. But not this year. –Matthew Ismael Ruiz
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical
- Boi-1da
- Dahi
- Dan Auerbach
- Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II
- Jack Antonoff
Will win: Jack Antonoff
Should win: Jack Antonoff
What is left to say about uber-producer Jack Antonoff? The man is working overtime, pinging from one session to the next, almost always alongside Major Female Artists. He’s collaborated with Florence Welch (Grammy nominee), Diana Ross (Grammy nominee), and Taylor Swift (Grammy winner), to name a few. Now he’s playing guitar in an apartment with Japanese Breakfast (Grammy nominee). Maybe he deserves the award more than the Black Keys guy, or Boi-1da, whose credits on one of the most milquetoast hip-hop albums of the year, Jack Harlow’s Come Home the Kids Miss You, should disqualify him. Antonoff certainly has the most name recognition. Whatever—just give the guy the damn trophy. –Cat Zhang
Best Music Video
- Adele – “Easy on Me”
- BTS – “Yet to Come”
- Doja Cat – “Woman”
- Harry Styles – “As It Was”
- Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart Part 5”
- Taylor Swift – “All Too Well: The Short Film”
Will win: Adele – “Easy on Me”
Should win: Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart Part 5”
Despite a nominee list of heavy-hitters in pop and rap, the music video category this year seems more up in the air than usual. Is Kendrick Lamar’s unnerving use of deep-fake technology the one to watch, or will Taylor Swift’s tear-jerking directorial debut for “All Too Well” win out instead? Is Harry Styles’ colorful clip for smash hit “As It Was” the dark horse, or will BTS’ nostalgia trip “Yet to Come” pull an upset? Lamar deserves the award most for finding a way to make dystopian technology another innovative tool in his constantly expanding creative box. Unfortunately, the best bet is probably Adele, whose black-and-white, elegantly dull return to form “Easy on Me” is just the right kind of inoffensive, crowd-pleasing fare that the Grammys likes to turn to in moments of doubt. –Eric Torres
