The 2024 Grammys: A Night of Female Dominance

The 66th annual Grammy Awards will take place on Monday (AEDT), where we will see the year’s hottest artists muscle it out for a coveted golden gramophone. This year’s female-dominated line-up has drawn attention, with artists like Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Miley Cyrus, and, of course, the pop-cultural force that is Taylor Swift leading the charge in multiple major categories.

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It’s a welcome change for an event that has been criticised in the past for its lack of female representation, made even sweeter by a combination of young and veteran performers, including Billie Eilish and Joni Mitchell.

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The Grammy Awards will be held at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on Monday, February 5 (AEDT). Celebrities will begin strutting down the red carpet at 10am, while the official 3.5-hour ceremony will start at midday.

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The Grammys Premiere Ceremony, or the “pre-Grammys”, will occur at 7.30am, before the official broadcast. This will take place at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre, which is where the majority of the categories will be announced.

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The ceremony will air live on Channel 7 and 7Plus in Australia, kicking off at midday. It will also be available to stream for any subscribers on Paramount+.

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The pre-Grammys will be live-streamed on the Recording Academy’s official website. You’ll also be able to watch highlights – performances, acceptance speeches, behind-the-scenes content – throughout the main event. You can keep up with the action by following The Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s live blog, which will also include rolling coverage from the red carpet.

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Comedian and actor Trevor Noah will host the Grammys for the fourth year in a row. A two-time Grammy nominee himself, Noah has been hosting the award show since the experimental COVID-19 days, when the ceremony was massively scaled down and held outdoors. He’s been around the track a few times now, but the former Daily Show host has said he is still excited about the 66th Grammys, hoping to store more memories like being pranked by Rihanna or rapping backstage with Busta Rhymes.

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This year’s performers include Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Luke Combs, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Travis Scott, Burna Boy, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and U2. It will mark nine-time Grammy Award winner Joni Mitchell’s first time performing at the Grammys. A range of famous faces will present the awards, including Christina Aguilera, Lenny Kravitz, Lionel Richie, Meryl Streep, and Oprah Winfrey.

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Kylie Minogue and Troye Sivan, two Aussie pop icons from different generations, will be competing against each other for the best pop dance recording award – a new category this year. Both stars became breakout sensations for their tracks last year, making them worthy contenders for the prize.

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Beyond Minogue and Sivan, it’s a bumper year for Australian nominations. DJ Dom Dolla, who performed at Coachella in 2022, has received a nod for best remixed recording with his remix of Gorillaz’s ‘New Gold.’ And hip-hop producers FnZ are nominated for best rap song, for their work on Drake and 21 Savage’s ‘Rich Flex’.

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Female artists are dominating the 66th Grammy Awards, with the ceremony’s three most coveted categories – best album, record, and song – likely to go to women. In fact, only one man, Jon Batiste, has been nominated for the biggest prize of the night (record of the year).

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It’s all women nominated for best pop solo performance this year, pitting Doja Cat, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Taylor Swift against each other.

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Speaking of Swift, if she wins album of the year for ‘Midnights’, she will become the only artist to win the award four times, overtaking Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon. To achieve this, she will need to beat the likes of SZA (‘SOS’), Rodrigo (‘GUTS’), and boygenius (‘the record’). Swift’s producer, Jack Antonoff, could also become the third person ever to win producer of the year (non-classical) three times, joining Babyface.

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Already safely in record-breaking territory, Kendrick Lamar could win a seventh gramophone for best rap performance with ‘The Hillbillies’ (with Baby Keem), and a third for best music video category with ‘Count Me Out’.

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Last year was a breakout year for Australian country singer Luke Combs, seeing artists like Burna Boy and Olivia Rodrigo propel into the global mainstream. He’ll be gunning for the best country solo performance with ‘Fast Cars’, competing against Tyler Childers (‘In Your Love’), Brandy Clark (‘Buried’), Chris Stapleton (‘White Horse’), and the legendary Dolly Parton (‘The Last Thing On My Mind’).

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This year’s Grammys will include three new categories, including best African music performance, best alternative jazz album, and best pop dance recording. According to the Recording Academy’s chief executive, Harvey Mason Jr., these prizes were added to make the Grammys ‘more fair, transparent, and accurate’.