World

Taylor Swift has never won best song – and other Grammy moments to look out for

Published

1 year ago

February 4, 2024

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In 2023, the names of two women were on everyone’s lips: Barbie, and Taylor Swift.

Both are represented at the Grammy Awards tonight.

Swift‘s music needs no introduction of course, while Barbie makes the cut thanks to the contributions to the film’s soundtrack by Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa (Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken sadly didn’t make it a hat-trick, despite the Oscar nod).

After cementing herself firmly as the biggest pop star on the planet with the start of her Eras tour last year, this year’s Grammys ceremony could be a record-breaker for Swift.

If the star takes home the award for best album for Midnights she will become the first artist to win the prize for a fourth time, having previously won for Fearless (2010), 1989 (2016) and Folklore (2021).

Those three awards currently tie her with Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, so a win this year would make Grammys history.

However, despite being the most-nominated songwriter ever, shortlisted for song of the year seven times over the years, Swift has never won in that category before.

Surprising, you might think, for a woman hailed as arguably the most influential songwriter of her generation. But then again, despite a record 32 Grammy wins – the most decorated artist ever – Beyonce has never won album of the year.

Could Anti-Hero win Swift the prize for the first time?

The lead single from Midnights was released in October 2022 and spent six weeks at the top of the charts in the UK, remaining in the top 100 songs for a year. In the US, it topped the Billboard chart on eight weeks, leading a top 10 entirely made up of Swift songs – making her the first artist to achieve the feat – when it initially charted.

At the Grammys, Anti-Hero faces competition in the category from the likes of Eilish’s What Was I Made For? and British star Lipa’s Dance The Night, their songs from the Barbie soundtrack, as well as Flowers by Miley Cyrus. Vampire, by Olivia Rodrigo, Kill Bill by SZA, Butterfly by Jon Batiste, and A&W by Lana Del Rey.

Swift is up for six awards in total, also including best pop vocal album, best pop solo performance, best duo or group performance for Karma featuring Ice Spice, and record of the year for Anti-Hero once again.

(If you’re wondering what the difference is: record of the year deals with a specific recording of a song and recognises the artists, producers and engineers who contribute, while song of the year celebrates the composition and recognises the songwriters.)

But Swift is not the top nominee

The honour of most-nominated artists goes to alternative pop and RnB singer SZA, who is up for nine awards.

As well as the big prizes already mentioned, these include (deep breath): best melodic rap performance; best traditional RnB performance; best progressive RnB album; best RnB performance; best RnB song; and best pop duo/ group performance.

The star, whose real name is Solana Rowe, garnered critical acclaim for her second album SOS, released at the end of 2022, and will likely win in a few of the genre categories at least.

However, with competition from the likes of pop force phenomenon Swift and Grammys favourite Eilish in the main groups, a clean sweep of nine could be unlikely.

Following closely behind SZA is Victoria Monet, with seven nods, and Eilish, Rodrigo and Cyrus all have six alongside Swift.

Who’s performing?

Alongside SZA, Burna Boy, Billie Eilish, Billy Joel, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and Travis Scott are set to take to the stage.

Plus, Joni Mitchell will make her Grammys performing debut and U2 will deliver the first-ever broadcast performance from the multibillion-dollar Sphere venue in Las Vegas, where they began a residency in September.

Who won’t be performing? Swift, apparently. While she will attend, the fact the next leg of her Eras tour kicks off in Japan on Wednesday means she’s saving her energy, according to reports.

And don’t expect to see NFL star boyfriend Travis Kelce there either – he’s busy preparing for something called the Super Bowl, apparently, but will no doubt be tuning in to “watch her win every single award that she’s nominated for”, as he said in a recent podcast interview.

The ceremony will be hosted by Trevor Noah, and stars presenting awards include Christina Aguilera, Samara Joy, Lenny Kravitz, Maluma, Lionel Richie, Mark Ronson, Meryl Streep, Taylor Tomlinson and Oprah Winfrey.

The striking thing about the big categories…

You might have realised that with the exception of Batiste, all the artists nominated for song of the year are women. The category recognises songwriters so all collaborators, male and female, are also in the running – Eilish’s brother Finneas O’Connell, for example, and Mark Ronson as a co-writer of Dance The Night, while Jack Antonoff is nominated twice.as a co-writer for both Anti-Hero and A&W.

But the artists fronting the songs are predominantly female. The same is true in the record of the year group, which sees female indie trio boygenius and Victoria Monet up against Swift, Cyrus, Rodrigo, Eilish and SZA. And Batiste once again representing the men.

For album of the year, the nominees are: Guts by Rodrigo; the record by boygenius; Midnights by Swift; SOS by SZA, The Age Of Pleasure by Janelle Monae; Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, by Lana Del Rey and Endless Summer Vacation by Cyrus. And – you’ve guessed it – World Music Radio by Batiste.

So unless there’s a major upset, the ceremony looks set to be a celebration of a year in which female artists have dominated the charts and our playlists – reflected to a lesser extent in the Brits nominations here in the UK, where more than half the nominees are women.

Best new artist

This award is one of the big ones, previously won by Eilish, Rodrigo, Sam Smith, Adele, John Legend, Amy Winehouse and plenty of other performers who went on to become huge stars.

In the running this year are:

• Jelly Roll
• The War And Treaty
• Victoria Monet
• Noah Kahan
• Coco Jones
• Ice Spice
• Fred Again
• Gracie Abrams

Noah Kahan’s Stick Season has been a huge hit, and rapper Ice Spice is also a favourite.

Grammys fact: should The War And Treaty win, they would become the first husband and wife duo to take home the prize.

And another one: if US rapper Jelly Roll, who is 39, takes the prize, he’ll be the oldest solo artist to do so – taking the title from Sheryl Crow, who was 33 when she won in 1995.

What other records could be broken?

Well, one that definitely won’t is Beyonce’s. With 12 wins under her belt heading into the ceremony, even if Swift wins all six she’s up for her tally will stand at 18 – still a fair way to go to match Queen Bey’s 32. And SZA has won one before, so a clean sweep for her would take her to 10.

If Eilish wins record of the year for What Was I Made For? she will become the only female artist to have won the prize three times – having won previously for Bad Guy and Everything I Wanted – and only the third artist in total, matching Paul Simon and Bruno Mars.

Then there’s eight-time winner Antonoff, who this year is up for five prizes in total – including record of the year as a producer on Anti-Hero (as almost all paths lead back to Swift, it seems). Should he win that one, he becomes part of the elite Grammys club for those who have won all of what are considered the four major awards – record, song, album and best new artist. Current members are Adele, Eilish and Christopher Cross, so it’s pretty exclusive.

The Grammys ceremony takes place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, with the red carpet starting at about 11pm UK time and the ceremony at 1am on Monday

World

Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food

Published

7 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire - including people trying to access food

Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.

The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.

It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.

“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”

Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.

“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.

“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”

Hamas releases hostage video

It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.

Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.

His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.

More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire

Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.

Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.

In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.

The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.

According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.

Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.

It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.

The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.

World

North Korea’s opened its doors to Russian tourists. So… how was their holiday?

Published

7 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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North Korea's opened its doors to Russian tourists. So... how was their holiday?

The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.

She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.

“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.

“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”

She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.

Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.

There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.

That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.

“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.

“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”

But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?

I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.

“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.

“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”

Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.

North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.

And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.

But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?

The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.

“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.

“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”

She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.

Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.

“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.

“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”

Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.

“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.

For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.

“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.

It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.

At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.

World

US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

Published

7 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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US manhunt for 'dangerous' murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.

Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.

Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.

However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.

No details have been given on how they were murdered.

Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.

The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.

“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.

“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”

Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.

A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.

The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.

Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.

He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.

Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.