Thank U, Next: Grammy snubs and other interesting facts

The Canadian Press

Published

6 years ago

12 minute read

NEW YORK — Fourteen things worth noting about Friday’s nominations for the 2019 Grammy Awards, from snubs to first-time nominees:

_______

THANK U, NEXT

It’s another year at the Grammys, and another snub for Ed Sheeran.

Though this singer won two pop honours at this year’s show, he was cut out of the top three categories. This time, he’s nowhere to be found.

Sheeran had one of the year’s biggest hits with “Perfect” — both the solo version and duet version with Beyonce. But the song didn’t earn any Grammy nods.

Carrie Underwood is in a similar position: She launched the first album where she co-wrote and co-produced each song this year, but the seven-time Grammy winner didn’t pick up a single nomination for the project. Kane Brown, one of the most successful new artists of the year and a dominator on the country charts, was also snubbed.

Young rappers who heavily dominated on streaming services this year were also left out, including the late XXXTentacion, Juice WRLD, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Lil Pump, Lil Baby, Gunna and others.

Seasoned acts who have won Grammys or scored multiple nominations in the past were also dissed, including Lil Wayne, Sam Smith, Nicki Minaj, Migos and Chris Brown.

_______

NOMINATED BUT STILL SNUBBED

Billboard reported this week that Taylor Swift’s “reputation” was the year’s biggest album, but the Grammys don’t agree.

The album surprisingly only earned Swift one single nomination — for best pop vocal album — and was snubbed in the album of the year category. Her hit song, “Delicate,” was shut out of record and song of the year, and even best pop solo performance. At the Grammys earlier this year, her song “Look What You Made Me Do” qualified for awards but didn’t garner any nominations.

Could it be Taylor fatigue?

Kanye West, whose years focused more on politics than music, has a similar problem: He only received one nomination, too. He’s up for producer of the year, despite releasing an album and producing a number of projects.

Ariana Grande received nominations for best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album, but many felt she should have earn nods for album, song or record of the year.

Maroon 5 had one of the year’s biggest hits with “Girls Like You,” featuring Cardi B, but only earned a nod for best pop duo/group performance.

Luke Combs had the year’s most streamed country album, but he didn’t get any country nods. He’s up for best new artist though.

And Eminem released two albums but only earned one nomination — for best rap song.

_______

J. COLD

With hip-hop dominating the pop charts and streaming services this year, many wondered who would earn Grammy nominations in the rap categories because of all the competition.

J. Cole seemed like a shoo-in.

He earned two nominations for his collaborations with others, but his impressive and acclaimed “KOD” album was left out of best rap album and album of the year. The album’s songs also didn’t earn nods like best rap song or best rap performance.

_______

TOTAL REQUEST LIVE

The best pop/duo group performance is looking like MTV’s “TRL” in the late 90’s and early 2000s.

Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys and Justin Timberlake are nominated in the category, which has seven nominees.

Aguilera is up for “Fall In Line,” her duet with Demi Lovato; Timberlake and Chris Stapleton are nominated for “Say Something”; and Backstreets Boys’ latest single, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” earned them nomination, their first since the 2002 Grammys.

_______

LONG LIVE THE DEAD

Mac Miller died in September, a month after releasing the album “Swimming.” Now, it’s competing for best rap album, where he will compete with Cardi B, Travis Scott, Pusha T and Nipsey Hussle.

Chris Cornell died last year and was a posthumous at the 2018 Grammys in best rock performance. He’s nominated in the category again with “When Bad Does Good.”

_______

BEYONCE VS. HER MENTEES

Has the student become the master? The soulful duo Chloe x Halle, mentored by Beyonce, will compete with Queen Bey at the Grammys.

Chloe x Halle’s full-length debut, “The Kids are Alright,” is nominated for best urban contemporary album, where Beyonce and Jay-Z’s “Everything Is Love” is also a nominee.

The sister duo, co-stars of the “black-ish” spinoff series “grown-ish,” also picked up a nomination for best new artist.

_______

HOLLLYWOOD’S HOTTEST

While Bradley Cooper earned Golden Globe nominations and is a likely Oscar contender, the Grammys are also part of his awards season.

The actor scored two nominations for his duet with Lady Gaga, “Shallow,” including record of the year and best pop duo/group performance.

Tiffany Haddish, a recent Emmy winner, has a reason to wear the famous white dress she’s sported everywhere one more time: She’s nominated for best spoken word album.

Famous faces also make up the nominees for best comedy album, including Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Fred Armisen, Jim Gaffigan and Patton Oswalt.

_______

WHAT THE…?

The Grammys just gave Pusha T major bragging rights.

His rival, Drake, may be up for album of the year, but he’s not nominated for best rap album, where Pusha T is nominated.

Janelle Monae also earned an album of the year nomination, but she’s not competing in any R&B categories.

Even the “Black Panther” soundtrack, an album of the year contender, does not appear in the best compilation soundtrack for visual media category, where nominees include “The Greatest Showman” and “Deadpool 2.”

______

FINALLY!!!

Florida Georgia Line have launched multiple hits since they released their debut album in 2012, but they never received Grammy love.

Until now.

The country duo earned their first nomination ever this year, for best country duo/group performance for “Meant to Be,” which features Bebe Rexha and is the longest-running No. 1 song on Billboard’s country songs chart.

Shawn Mendes has been a star since he emerged on the music scene, but he’s finally competing for Grammy gold with his third album. He’s nominated for song of the year with “In My Blood” and best pop vocal album for his self-titled third album.

Camila Cabello didn’t earn any nominations when she was in the group Fifth Harmony, but her solo debut earned her two nominations this year.

The country duo Dan + Shay and DJ Mustard, who co-wrote Ella Mai’s hit “Boo’d Up,” are also first-time nominees.

______

CHARLIE PUTH, THE ENGINEER, SHINES

Charlie Puth didn’t earn nods like song of the year or best pop vocal album, but his work as an engineer has given him a chance at winning a Grammy.

Puth is nominated for best engineered album (non-classical) for “Voicenotes,” his sophomore album. He’s listed as an engineer on the project and shares the nomination with Manny Marroquin and Dave Kutch.

Puth was previously nominated for three Grammys at the 2016 show for his hit, “See You Again.”

______

LADIES’ NIGHT

Almost a year after Neil Portnow told women to “step up” — which he later corrected — female performers are dominating in the major categories at the Grammys.

Five of the eight album of the year nominees are women, including Janelle Monae, Kacey Musgraves, H.E.R., Brandi Carlile and Cardi B.

Six of the eight best new artist nominees are women, including H.E.R., Jorja Smith, Margo Price, Chloe x Halle, Bebe Rexha and Dua Lipa.

Women are also strongly represented in song and record of the year, too, where nominees include Lady Gaga, SZA, Cardi B, Maren Morris, Ella Mai and Carlile.

______

WOMEN IN COUNTRY MUSIC

For years women have struggled on the country music charts and country radio, but at the Grammys, they shine brightly.

The country categories, like usual, includes more women nominees than men. Three of the five best country album nominees are women, including Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini and Ashley McBryde.

Three of the five best country solo performance nominees are also women, including Musgraves, Loretta Lynn and Maren Morris.

______

A SOLDIER’S SONG

Folk singer Mary Gauthier released an album this year exclusively featuring songs co-written with veterans and their family members from sessions with the non-profit organization, SongwritingWith:Soldiers.

Now the album, “Rifles & Rosary Beads,” is nominated for best folk album at the Grammys.

The critically acclaimed 11-song project earned a nomination earlier this year for album of the year at the Americana Music Honors & Awards, but lost to Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s “The Nashville Sound.”

______

MOVING GENRES

Tori Kelly, who burst on the music scene as a pop singer, released a gospel album this year and picked up two nods in the gospel category.

Sting, who released a collaborative album with Shaggy this year, earned a best reggae album nomination for the project.

______

Online: https://www.grammy.com

Mesfin Fekadu, The Associated Press

The Canadian Press

syndication.thecanadianpress.com/rss/69467d8c-ad4b-48a4-895e-9e19d79c6c8e

Storytelling is in our DNA. We provide credible, compelling multimedia storytelling and services in English and French to help captivate your digital, broadcast and print audiences. As Canada’s national news agency for 100 years, we give Canadians an unbiased news source, driven by truth, accuracy and timeliness.

Follow Author

Peckford: Hallelujah! Supreme Court of Canada to hear Newfoundland and Labrador charter case

COVID-19 / 8 months ago

Supreme Court will not hear case about government’s violation of rights and freedoms

Alberta / 9 months ago

Alberta looking to ban electronic vote tabulators ahead of next provincial election

Business

Ottawa’s avalanche of spending hasn’t helped First Nations

Published on November 19, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Tom Flanagan

When Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015, he memorably said that the welfare of Indigenous Canadians was his highest priority. He certainly has delivered on his promise, at least in terms of shovelling out money.

During his 10 years in office, budgeted Indigenous spending has approximately tripled, from about $11 billion to almost $33 billion. Prime Minister Trudeau’s instruction to the Department of Justice to negotiate rather than litigate class actions has resulted in paying tens of billions of dollars to Indigenous claimants over alleged wrongs in education and other social services. And his government has settled specific claims—alleged violations of treaty terms or of the Indian Act—at four times the previous rate, resulting in the award of at least an additional $10 billion to First Nations government.

But has this avalanche of money really helped First Nations people living on reserves, who are the poorest segment of Canadian society?

One indicator suggests the answer is yes. The gap between reserves and other communities—as measured by the Community Well-Being Index (CWB), a composite of income, employment, housing and education—fell from 19 to 16 points from 2016 to 2021. But closer analysis shows that the reduction in the gap, although real, cannot be due to the additional spending described above.

The gain in First Nations CWB is due mainly to an increase in the income component of the CWB. But almost all of the federal spending on First Nations, class-action settlements and specific claims do not provide taxable income to First Nations people. Rather, the increase in income documented by the CWB comes from the greatly increased payments legislated by the Liberals in the form of the Canada Child Benefit (CCB). First Nations people have a higher birth rate than other Canadians, so they have more children and receive more (on average) from the Canada Child Benefit. Also, they have lower income on average than other Canadians, so the value of the CCB is higher than comparable non-Indigenous families. The result? A gain in income relative to other Canadians, and thus a narrowing of the CWB gap between First Nations and other communities.

There’s an important lesson here. Tens of billions in additional budgetary spending and legal settlements did not move the needle. What did lead to a measurable improvement was legislation creating financial benefits for all eligible Canadian families with children regardless of race. Racially inspired policies are terrible for many reasons, especially because they rarely achieve their goals in practise. If we want to improve life for First Nations people, we should increase opportunities for Canadians of all racial backgrounds and not enact racially targeted policies.

Moreover, racial policies are also fraught with unintended consequences. In this case, the flood of federal money has made First Nations more dependent rather than less dependent on government. In fact, from 2018 to 2022, “Own Source Revenue” (business earnings plus property taxes and fees) among First Nations bands increased—but not as much as transfers from government. The result? Greater dependency on government transfers.

This finding is not just a statistical oddity. Previous research has shown that First Nations who are relatively less dependent on government transfers tend to achieve higher living standards (again, as measured by the CWB index). Thus, the increase in dependency presided over by the Trudeau government does not augur well for the future.

One qualification: this finding is not as robust as I would like because the number of band governments filing reports on their finances has drastically declined. Of 630 First Nation governments, only 260 filed audited statements for fiscal 2022. All First Nations are theoretically obliged by the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, 2013, to publish such statements, but the Trudeau government announced there would be no penalties for non-compliance, leading to a precipitous decline in reporting.

This is a shame, because First Nations, as they often insist, are governments, not private organizations. And like other governments, they should make their affairs visible to the public. Also, most of their income comes from Canadian taxpayers. Both band members and other Canadians have a right to know how much money they receive, how it’s being spent and whether it’s achieving its intended goals.

Author:

Tom Flanagan

Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Distinguished Fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary

Uncategorized

Musk, Ramaswamy to lead Trump efforts to cut waste, fraud in federal government

Published on November 13, 2024

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Brett Rowland

During his campaign, Ramaswamy proposed cutting 75% of the federal workforce. Musk recently suggested that he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, or about one-third of total U.S. spending.

President-elect Donald Trump picked Tesla CEO Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

The department’s acronym, DOGE, is a nod to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said the new group will pave the way for his administration to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulation, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies.”

Trump laid out lofty goals for the group in his announcement this week.

“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhatten Project,’ of our time,” Trump’s announcement said. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.”

It won’t be an official government agency, which will likely allow Musk and Ramaswamy to avoid public financial disclosures.

Trump said the change he’s looking for won’t come from within the existing federal government.

“To drive this kind of change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside the government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform and create and entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before,” the announcement noted.

Trump said he looks forward to what Musk and Ramaswamy can accomplish.

“Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 trillion of government spending,” he said.

Trump also gave them a deadline: July 4, 2026.

“A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy will be the perfect gift to America” on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, according to the announcement.

Ramaswamy, who dropped out the race for the GOP nomination to endorse Trump in January, has previously proposed significant cuts. During his campaign, Ramaswamy proposed cutting 75% of the federal workforce.

Musk recently suggested that he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, or about one-third of total U.S. spending. He’s been tossing out ideas on X, previously Twitter before Musk bought the company and changed the name.

“The world is suffering slow strangulation by overregulation. Every year, the noose tightens a little more,” Musk wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “We finally have a mandate to delete the mountain of choking regulations that do not serve the greater good.”

Musk also said he isn’t a threat to democracy, but a threat to bureaucracy.

DOGE already has an X account. It’s first post: “Working overtime to ensure your tax dollars will be spent wisely!”

Some budget experts have called Musk’s pledge to cut $2 trillion a pipe dream, noting that many of the problems DOGE wants to address have proven intractable.

Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank, called Musk’s proposal “a random number unattached to reality.”

Marc Goldwein, the senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said it could be done with 10 aggressive policies, mostly focused on Medicare and Medicaid.

“The government can legitimately save trillions over a decade by reducing waste and improving efficiency – and I hope we do,” Goldwein wrote on X. “Achieving these savings requires major changes to how and how much we pay for health care.”

Medicare (annual cost of about $1 trillion) is a federal health insurance program for people 65 or older, and some people younger than 65 with certain disabilities or conditions. Medicaid (annual cost of about $558 billion) is a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for some people with limited income and resources.

The Government Accountability Office, which serves as the research arm of Congress, estimated annual fraud losses cost taxpayers between $233 billion and $521 billion annually, in a report in April. The fraud estimate’s range represents 3% to 7% of average federal obligations. The Office of Management and Budget publicly questioned that estimate, calling it “not plausible.”

“OMB has significant concerns that this report will not further efforts to prevent and reduce fraud, but rather will create confusion and promote misleading generalizations that have no factual connection to specific federal programs,” Jason Miller, the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, wrote of OMB concerns in a three-page letter to officials with the Government Accountability Office.

On the campaign trail, Ramaswamy detailed his plan to reduce the federal workforce by 75% during an event at the America First Policy Institute in Washington in 2023.

Ramaswamy said he would shutter the FBI (about 35,000 employees); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms a nd Explosives (5,099 employees); the U.S. Department of Education (about 4,200 employees); the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (about 3,000 employees); and the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services (about 1,500 employees).

Under Ramaswamy’s campaign plan, some 15,000 FBI employees would be moved to other agencies such as the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Secret Service, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Drug Enforcement Administration, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

Some groups called the Department of Government Efficiency goals a stretch. Others had more pointed things to say.

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a progressive consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader, said the government agencies and regulations Ramaswamy proposed cutting are in place to protect people.

“The purpose of government regulations is to protect the American people,” she said in a statement. “We all depend on these regulations to protect our air, water, workers, children’s safety, and so much more. ‘Cutting red tape’ is shorthand for getting rid of the safeguards that protect us in order to benefit corporate interests.”