Beyonce and Taylor Swift have made Grammy history, with the nominations for this year’s awards revealed.
Beyonce leads this year’s female-dominated nominations, receiving 11 nods and making her the most nominated artist in the show’s history, with 99 in total.
Her success as the most-nominated artist comes after her country album, Cowboy Carter, was roundly snubbed at this year’s County Music Association Awards.
The43-year-old star’s chart-topping album secured nods for album of the year and best country album, while track Texas Hold ‘Em is up for record of the year and song of the year.
Beyonce picked up her 32nd gong at last year’s ceremony, but despite winning the most awards in a lifetime, she’s yet to win the coveted album of the year award.
With nods across a host of genres, including pop, country, Americana and melodic rap, many will be predicting she’ll surely take the prize next year. If she does, it will make her the first black woman to do so this century.
Meanwhile, Swift’s seventh nod in the album category for her surprise double album The Tortured Poets Department means she overtakes Barbra Streisand, who had formerly tied with the Shake It Off star with six nominations.
Swift won the best album category last year with Midnights.
Following Beyonce in the lead for nominations, Charli XCX – whose trend setting album Brat saw the moniker become word of the year – has seven nods (her first as a solo artist), as does Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Post Malone.
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American singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter continues her stellar year with six nods, as do Chappell Roan and Swift, who finishes her record-breaking Eras tour in North America next month.
As well as Charlie XCX getting some Grammy nomination love, British star Raye also received her first nominations for best new artist and songwriter of the year non-classical.
Carpenter and Roan also made it into the prestigious best new artist category.
While The Beatles – who formed in Liverpool and went on to become the biggest musical act in the world – are up for record of the year with Now And Then.
Nominations were announced by past Grammy winners including Kylie Minogue, Mark Ronson and last year’s best new artist recipient, Victoria Monet.
The annual ceremony – which gives out a whopping 94 gongs in total – has four big categories – album, record and song of the year and best new artist.
The Recording Academy have adjusted to those categories this year, reducing the number of potential nominees from 10 to eight.
It’s also updated some of its rules to keep up with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in music and introduced three new categories – best African music performance, best pop dance recording, and best alternative jazz album.
The eligibility period for work ran from 16 September 2023 to 30 August 2024.
Women dominated last year’s awards too, with Swift taking album of the year, Eilish winning song of the year and Miley Cyrus taking home record of the year.
The 67th Grammy Awards take place on Sunday 2 February 2025, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Main category nominees
Album Of The Year New Blue Sun – Andre 3000 Cowboy Carter- Beyonce Short N’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter Brat – Charli XCX Djesse Vol. 4 – Jacob Collier Hit Me Hard And Soft – Billie Eilish Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan The Tortured Poets Department – Taylor Swift
Record Of The Year Now And Then – The Beatles Texas Hold ‘Em – Beyonce Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter 360 – Charli XCX Birds Of A Feather – Billie Eilish Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar Good Luck, Babe! – Chappell Roan Fortnight – Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone
Song Of The Year A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry & Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey) Birds Of A Feather – Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish) Die With A Smile – Dernst ‘D’Mile’ Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars) Fortnight – Jack Antonoff, Austin Post & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone) Good Luck, Babe! – Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Daniel Nigro & Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan) Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar) Please Please Please – Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter) Texas Hold ‘Em – Brian Bates, Beyonce, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyonce)
Best New Artist Benson Boone Sabrina Carpenter Doechii Khruangbin Raye Chappell Roan Shaboozey Teddy Swims
The voice actor behind Milhouse Van Houten – Bart Simpson’s very uncool friend – is stepping away after 35 years on the show.
Pamela Hayden, who also voiced Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey and Malibu Stacy, will sign off from The Simpsons on 24 November in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
“It’s been an honour and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show,” the 70-year-old said in a statement.
Show creator Matt Groening said: “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield.
“She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”
Tulisa Contostavlos has opened up about the moment she says her life “fell apart” after being “set up by a British newspaper” and charged with supplying drugs.
The charges against the singer were later dismissed after prosecution witness “fake sheikh” journalist Mazher Mahmood was found to have tampered with evidence during her 2014 trial.
“2013 was the year I was set up by a British newspaper, for concern in the selling of class A drugs,” she told fellow campmate Oti Mabuse.
“The guy’s name was Mahmood and basically, I was approached by a big movie company and they sent me a tweet or a DM from their official account to audition me for a movie role… I’d dabbled in acting, so this opportunity for me was huge.”
Contostavlos, 36, said the role was offering £3.5m and she was flown out for meetings with producers in Las Vegas but told former Strictly Come Dancing star Mabuse “it was a lie”.
She claimed the team behind the movie encouraged her to take on a real-life role of a “bad girl from London who was constantly up to naughtiness, rolling with gangs, up to all kinds of naughty stuff”.
Contostavlos said “they had me dangling on the end of a string”, claiming every time she met with the team they would tell her “we need some drugs”.
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“After months and months, eventually they got a number and it was of someone that wasn’t even a drug dealer, it was an aspiring movie producer and I wanted to make a hook up as well for that person, but I didn’t know anyone that could do that,” she said.
“The long story short is they ended up ordering £800 worth of cocaine from the number that I had given them.
“Then before I knew it, I was being arrested in the concern of the selling of Class A drugs and I was facing four years in prison.”
Contostavlos revealed she lost “all my endorsements” over the incident and “my life fell apart”, she said.
“When it came to the trial, I’d had a conversation with one of their drivers, I was being recorded but I didn’t know, I was saying how anti-drugs I am, so they were very aware of my feelings towards drugs.”
Contostavlos said the driver initially gave a statement confirming she was anti-drugs, however she claimed that as the trial loomed the journalist forced him to change his statement.
In 2016, Mahmood was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice relating to his actions in Tulisa Contostavlos’s court case.
Friends and family of Liam Payne, including his One Direction bandmates, have gathered to say goodbye at his funeral.
Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among the family and friends attending the private ceremony.
Simon Cowell, who put the band together on The X Factor, Payne‘s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, and former partner Cheryl were also there.
The 31-year-old died after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 October.
Fans from around the world have held their own vigils over the past few weeks, and tributes have been left today in his hometown, Wolverhampton.
Payne’s dark blue coffin, topped with white roses, arrived for the service on a horse-drawn carriage, bearing flowers reading “son” and “daddy” – for his son, Bear, with Cheryl.
Her Girls Aloud bandmates Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh were also among those at the service, along with TV and radio presenters including James Corden, Marvin and Rochelle Humes, Scott Mills, and Adrian Chiles, and former professional footballer Robbie Keane.
US influencer Cassidy, who returned home from Argentina two days before his death, arrived with Damian Hurley, son of Elizabeth Hurley.
As Payne’s mother and father, Geoff and Karen, arrived at the church in the Home Counties, standing next to the carriage, silence fell among mourners outside.
A few locals and fans also gathered nearby, but in the main largely stayed away from the private ceremony.
Payne rose to worldwide fame alongside Styles, Tomlinson, Malik and Horan on The X Factor in 2010, when they were put together to form One Direction. They went on to become one of the most successful UK pop groups of all time.
After the band announced their hiatus, the singer launched his solo career, releasing his debut album LP1 in December 2019.
Prosecutors in Argentina have launched an investigation into Payne’s death and announced earlier this month that three people had been charged in connection with the incident.
One Direction tributes
Payne’s One Direction bandmates all publicly paid tribute following his death.
“His greatest joy was making other people happy and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it,” said Styles in his statement. “Liam lived wide open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious.
“He was warm, supportive and incredibly loving. The years we spent together will forever remain among the most cherished years of my life. I will miss him always, my lovely friend.”
Tomlinson said he had “lost a brother” and offered to be an uncle to Payne’s son, Bear, if he “ever needs me”.
Horan, who had been touring in South America and saw Payne at his show in the weeks before his death, said: “I feel so fortunate that I got to see him recently. I sadly didn’t know that after saying goodbye and hugging him that evening, I would be saying goodbye forever. It’s heartbreaking.”
Malik said Payne had supported him “through some of the most difficult times” of his life, and said he always had a “positive outlook and reassuring smile”.
Cowell also paid tribute, saying he was “devastated” and “heartbroken”.
He continued: “I wanted to let you know what I would always say to the thousands of people who would always ask me. What is Liam like? And I would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented, humble, focused. And how much you loved music. And how much love you genuinely had for the fans.”