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It’s the biggest night in music, with stars from all over the world vying for a prestigious Grammy award to boost their reputation and musical credentials.

Hosted by former host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, for the third time on the trot, Sunday’s ceremony will take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

So, who will be the big winner of the night? How will our British stars fare? And what kind of buzz can we expect around the show? Here’s what to look out for at the 65th annual Grammy Awards.

Beyonce and Jay-Z in concert, 'On The Run II Tour', Cologne, Germany - 03 Jul 2018
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Beyoncé

Beyonce making history

Leading the nominations, Beyonce is on the cusp of becoming the most decorated artist in Grammy history.

Already the show’s most awarded woman with 28 wins, if she bags just four of the nine categories she’s nominated in, she’ll break the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti’s record of 31 Grammys.

Beyonce’s is already tied with husband Jay-Z for the title of most nominated artist of all time.

More on Adele

Queen Bey‘s game has been strong leading up to the awards, performing her first live gig in four years in Dubai and a two-night event in Los Angeles last month, all promoting her seventh album – Renaissance – which is up for album of the year.

Beyonce will also come up against Adele in the category again this year, with the British star using her acceptance speech for her 2017 album of the year win, to heap praise on Beyonce.

Many – including Adele herself – said the US artist should have taken the prize for her surprise album Lemonade – loved by fans and critics alike. This year’s rematch is likely to make good viewing, as well as fostering plenty of headlines.

As well as album of the year for Renaissance, Beyoncé’s also up for record of the year, song of the year, and best dance/electronic recording for Break My Soul, best dance/electronic music album, best R&B performance for Virgo’s Groove, best traditional R&B performance for Plastic Off The Sofa, best R&B song for Cuff It, and best song written for visual media for Be Alive (from King Richard).

Harry Styles
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Harry Styles

British stars winning big

British stars Harry Styles and Adele are among the frontrunners for the awards and shortlisted against Beyonce in three of the ceremony’s biggest prizes – album of the year (see above), song of the year, and record of the year.

After a spell away from the spotlight, Adele burst back onto the scene in 2021 with her fourth album 30, topping both the UK and US charts.

The 41-year-old powerhouse is also nominated for best pop solo performance for break-up ballad Easy On Me, best pop vocal album, best music video, and best music film, for Adele: One Night Only – which marked the singer’s comeback with an interview by Oprah Winfrey and a concert performance at the Griffith Observatory.

Styles has six Grammy nominations, following a standout year which saw him topping the charts with his third album Harry’s House and shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize award.

Aside from his musical prowess, he also appeared in two movies, Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman.

In addition to the three big prizes of the night, Styles is also up for best pop solo performance, best pop vocal album and best music video. His pop rock fan pleaser As It Was is tipped to nab at least one prize.

Upcoming British indie rock duo Wet Leg – who count Iggy Pop and Barack Obama among their fans – also scored three nominations, including prestigious, best new artist.

Veteran rock band Coldplay are up for three awards, album of the year, best pop vocal album and best pop duo / group performance.

FILE - Kendrick Lamar performs at the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, on June 26, 2022. Lamar was nominated for eight Grammy Awards on Tuesday. The 2023 Grammy Awards will air live Sunday, Feb. 5. (AP Photo/Scott Garfitt, File)
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Kendrick Lamar performing at Glastonbury

Kendrick Lamar taking centre stage

Rapper Kendrick Lamar is the second front-runner in the nominations stakes after Beyonce, up for eight awards.

The 35-year-old will come up against heavyweights Beyonce, Styles, Adele and Lizzo in the album of the year, song of the year, and record of the year categories.

Headlining at Glastonbury last year, he earned rave reviews and was labelled one of the most gifted rappers of his generation.

But while he has 14 Grammy wins to his name, he’s been snubbed for album of the year three times. He’ll be hoping his fifth album could break the pattern, but he’s clearly got stiff competition – particularly in the form of Grammy Queen Beyoncé.

Likely to win best rap performance for The Heart Part 5 (he’s racked up five wins in this category over the last eight years), Lamar’s also up for best melodic rap performance for Die Hard, best rap song, best rap album for Mr Morale & The Big Steppers and best music video.

Davis was the first black actor to achieve the triple crown of acting
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Viola Davis

Big name presenters and live performances

As well as some of the biggest stars of the music world, there’s also a diverse line-up of famous faces dishing out the awards.

James Corden, Cardi B and US first lady Jill Biden are among the presenters, with comedian Trevor Noah on hosting duties for the star-studded night.

Hollywood stars Viola Davis, Dwayne Johnson and Billy Crystal will also present awards as well as five-time Grammy winner Shania Twain and three-time winner Olivia Rodrigo.

Davis is also nominated in the best audiobook, narration, and storytelling recording category for her recent memoir Finding Me, while Crystal is among the best musical theatre album nominees alongside the cast of the stage musical Mr Saturday Night.

Confirmed live performances on the night include Harry Styles, Lizzo, Sam Smith and Kim Petras, Bad Bunny, Mary J Blige, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs and Steve Lacy.

There will also be a special celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop’s beginnings featuring some of the genres biggest names and co-curated by Roots musician Questlove.

The 2022 Grammy Awards have been postponed due to rising numbers of COVID cases in the US. Pic: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

New categories

This year, in a bid to branch out, the Grammys have introduced five new categories – taking prizes given out on the night to a whopping 91.

Songwriters will get their own standalone category – songwriter of the year – and alternative and Americana music will also be celebrated with two new awards.

Post-pandemic, with the video game market booming and forecast to be worth $219bn (£180bn) by 2024, a brand-new category has been introduced to reflect the success of gaming and gaming-related music – best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media.

And songs that do good will get a nod in the new special merit award – best song for social change – based on lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue.

Meanwhile best new age album has been expanded to best new age, ambient or chant, and the classical and musical theatre fields have also been opened up to make more musical creatives eligible to win a Grammy.

Main category nominees:

Album Of The Year

Voyage – ABBA

30 – Adele

Un Verano Sin Ti – Bad Bunny

Renaissance – Beyonce

Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe) – Mary J Blige

In These Silent Days – Brandi Carlile

Music of the Spheres – Coldplay

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar

Special – Lizzo

Harry’s House – Harry Styles

Record Of The Year

Don’t Shut Me Down – ABBA

Easy on Me – Adele

Break My Soul – Beyoncé

Good Morning Gorgeous – Mary J. Blige

You and Me On The Rock – Brandi Carlile featuring Lucius

Woman – Doja Cat

Bad Habit – Steve Lacy

The Heart Part 5 – Kendrick Lamar

About Damn Time – Lizzo

As It Was – Harry Styles

Song Of The Year (songwriter’s award)

abcdefu – Sara Davis, GAYLE and Dave Pittenger

About Damn Time – Lizzo, Eric Frederic, Blake Slatkin and Theron Makiel Thomas

All Too Well (10 Minute Version – The Short Film) – Liz Rose and Taylor Swift

As It Was – Tyler Johnson, Kid Harpoon and Harry Styles

Bad Habit – Matthew Castellanos, Brittany Foushee, Diana Gordon, John Carroll Kirby and Steve Lacy

Break My Soul – Beyonce, S Carter, Terius The Dream Gesteelde-Diamant and Christopher A Stewart

Easy On Me – Adele Adkins and Greg Kurstin

God Did – Tarik Azzouz, E Blackmon, Khaled Khaled, F LeBlanc, Jay-Z, John Stephens, Dwayne Carter, William Roberts and Nicholas Warwar

The Heart Part 5 – Jake Kosich, Johnny Kosich, Kendrick Lamar and Matt Schaeffer

Just Like That – Bonnie Raitt

Best New Artist

Anitta

Omar Apollo

DOMi & JD Beck

Muni Long

Samara Joy

Latto

Måneskin

Tobe Nwigwe

Molly Tuttle

Wet Leg

Songwriter Of The Year

Amy Allen

Nija Charles

Tobia Jesso Jr

The-Dream

Laura Veltz

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Warfare’s Alex Garland: ‘Being anti-war is not the same as saying it should never happen’

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Warfare's Alex Garland: 'Being anti-war is not the same as saying it should never happen'

Alex Garland says while it’s “the most obvious statement about life on this planet” that the world would be a better place without war, it “doesn’t mean it should never happen”, and there are “circumstances in which war is required”.

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director told Sky News: “I don’t think it is possible to make a statement about what war is really like without it being implicitly anti-war, inasmuch as it would be better if this thing did not happen.

“But that’s not the same as saying it should never happen. There are circumstances in which war is required.”

Pic: A24
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(L-R) Co-writers and co-directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza. Pic: A24

His latest film, Warfare, embeds the audience within a platoon of American Navy SEALs on an Iraqi surveillance mission gone wrong, telling the story solely through the memories of war veterans from a real 2006 mission in Ramadi, Iraq.

Garland says the film is “anti-war in as much as it is better if war does not happen,” adding, “and that is about the most obvious statement about life on this planet that one could make.”

Comparing it to ongoing geopolitical conflict across the world, Garland goes on: “It would be better if Gaza had not been flattened. It would be better if Ukraine was not invaded. It would it better if all people’s problems could be solved via dialogue and not threat or violence…

“To be anti-war to me is a rational position, and most veterans I’ve met are anti-war.”

The screenwriter behind hits including Ex Machina, 28 Days Later and The Beach says this film is “an attempt to recreate something as faithfully and accurately as we could”.

Pic: A24
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The film opens to Swedish dance hit Call On Me. Pic: A24

‘War veterans feel invisible and forgotten’

Almost entirely based on first-person accounts, the 15-rated film opens with soldiers singing along to the video of Swedish dance hit Call On Me – complete with gyrating women in thong leotards.

It’s the only music in the film. The remaining score is made up of explosions, sniper fire and screams of pain.

Garland co-wrote and co-directed the film alongside Hollywood stuntman and gunfight coordinator Ray Mendoza, whom Garland met on his last film, Civil War.

Mendoza, a communications officer on the fateful mission portrayed in the film, says despite the traumatic content, the experience of making the film was “therapeutic”.

Mendoza told Sky News: “It actually mended a lot of relationships… There were some guys I hadn’t spoken to in a very long time. And this allowed us to bury the hatchet, so to speak, on some issues from that day.”

Turning to Hollywood after serving in the Navy for 16 years, Mendoza says past war film he’d seen – even the good ones – were “a little off” because they “don’t get the culture right”.

Mendoza admits: “You feel like no one cares because they didn’t get it right. You feel invisible. You feel forgotten.”

With screenings of Warfare shown to around 1,000 veterans ahead of general release, Mendoza says: “They finally feel heard. They finally feel like somebody got it right.”

As to whether it could be triggering for some veterans, Mendoza says decisively not: “It’s not triggering. I would say it’s the opposite, for a veteran at least.”

Read more from Sky News:
How attack on aid workers unfolded
The gang war engulfing Scottish cities

Pic: A24
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D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai plays communications officer Ray. Pic: A24

‘I’m an actor – I love my hair’

A tense and raw 90-minute story told in real time, the film’s ensemble cast is made up of young buzzy actors, dubbed “all of the internet’s boyfriends” when the casting was first announced.

Mirroring the Navy SEALs they were portraying, the cast initially bonded through a three-week bootcamp ahead of filming, before living together for the 25-day shoot.

Black Mirror’s Will Poulter, who plays Eric, the officer in charge of the operation, says the film’s extended takes and 360-degree sets demanded a special kind of focus.

Poulter said: “It required everyone to practise something that is fundamental to Navy SEAL mentality – you’re a teammate before you’re an individual.

“When a camera’s roaming around like that and could capture anyone at kind of any moment, it requires that everyone to be ‘on’ at all times and for the sake of each other.

“It becomes less about making sure that you’re performing when the camera lands on you, but as much about this idea that you are performing for the sake of the actor opposite you when the camera’s on them.”

Another of the film’s stars, Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, plays Mendoza and is the heart of the film.

Woon-A-Tai says the cast drew on tactics used by real soldiers to help with the intense filming schedule: “Laughter is medicine… A lot of times these are long takes, long hours, back-to-back days, so uplifting our spirit was definitely a big part of it.”

He also joked that shaving each other’s heads in a bonding ritual the night before the first day of filming was a daunting task.

“As actors, we love our hair. I mean, I speak personally, I love my hair. You know, I had really long hair. So yeah, it definitely takes a lot of trust. And you know, it wasn’t even at all, but you know it was still fun to do.”

Warfare is in cinemas now.

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UB40 say striking Birmingham bin workers ‘shouldn’t give up’

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UB40 say striking Birmingham bin workers 'shouldn't give up'

Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.

It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.

“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.

“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.

“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”

Members of Unite on the picket line in Tyseley, Birmingham, amid an ongoing refuse workers' strike in the city. Birmingham City Council says it is declaring a major incident over the impact of the ongoing bin strike, as it estimates 17,000 tonnes of waste remains uncollected around the city. Picture date: Tuesday April 1, 2025.
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Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA

Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.

“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.

“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”

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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”

About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.

Rubbish bags in Poplar Road in Birmingham.  
Pic: PA
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Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA

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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss

On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.

He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.

Read more:
Bin workers urged to accept ‘fair’ offer
Military planners help with bin crisis

“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.

Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.

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Drummer Zak Starkey speaks out after leaving The Who

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Drummer Zak Starkey speaks out after leaving The Who

Drummer Zak Starkey has said he is “surprised and saddened” after parting ways with The Who following recent charity shows at the Royal Albert Hall.

The musician, who is the son of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen Starkey, had been with the band since 1996, when he joined for their Quadrophenia tour.

He was introduced to drumming as a child by “Uncle Keith” – The Who drummer and family friend Keith Moon, who died in 1978.

20 June 2023, Berlin: Zak Starkey, drummer, of the band The Who plays at the concert of The Who with Orchestra - "Hits Back!" at the Waldb'hne in Berlin. Photo by: Carsten Koall/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
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Pic: Carsten Koall/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Earlier this week, the band issued a statement saying a “collective decision” had been made about his departure. It came after their Teenage Cancer Trust shows in March.

A review of one gig, published in the Metro, suggested frontman Roger Daltrey – who launched the annual gig series for the charity in 2000 – was “frustrated” with the drumming during some tracks.

Now, Starkey has issued a statement to Rolling Stone, saying he is “very proud” of his near 30 years with The Who.

“Filling the shoes of my Godfather, ‘Uncle Keith’ has been the biggest honour and I remain their biggest fan,” he said. “They’ve been like family to me.”

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In January, Starkey suffered a blood clot in his right leg and a performance with his other band Mantra Of The Cosmos – which also features Shaun Ryder and Bez from Happy Mondays, and Andy Bell of Ride and Oasis – was cancelled.

Referencing this in his statement to Rolling Stone, Starkey said: “I suffered a serious medical emergency with blood clots in my right bass drum calf. This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running.”

He continued: “After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night, but what can you do?”

Starkey said he planned to “take some much needed time off with my family” and focus on the release of Mantra Of The Cosmos single Domino Bones, which features Noel Gallagher, as well as his autobiography.

“Twenty-nine years at any job is a good old run, and I wish them the best,” he added.

Starkey has also previously played with Oasis, Lightning Seeds and Johnny Marr.

While Daltrey starts a solo tour at the weekend, The Who have two shows planned for Italy in July but no full tour. Details of a replacement for Starkey have not been announced.

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