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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Image: The influence of Charli XCX helped make brat a big deal in 2024. Pic: Reuters
Image: Billie Eilish. Pic: AP
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.
Image: Sabrina Carpenter. Pic: PA
Image: Chappell Roan. Pic: Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP
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.
Image: Kendrick Lamar. Pic: AP
Image: Post Malone. Pic: AP
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
Tom Cruise has paid tribute to Val Kilmer, wishing his Top Gun co-star “well on the next journey”.
Cruise, speaking at the CinemaCon film event in Las Vegas on Thursday, asked for a moment’s silence to reflect on the “wonderful” times shared with the star, whom he called a “dear friend”.
Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on Tuesday aged 65, rocketed to fame starring alongside Cruise in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, playing Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, a rival fighter pilot to Cruise’s character Maverick.
Image: Tom Cruise said ‘I wish you well on the next journey’. Pic: AP
Image: Val Kilmer in 2017. Pic: AP
His last part was a cameo role in the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise, on stage at Caesars Palace on Thursday, said: “I’d like to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer. I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick.
“I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.
“I wish you well on the next journey.”
The moment of silence followed a string of tributes from Hollywood figures including Cher, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas and Michelle Monaghan.
Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes told the New York Times on Wednesday that the actor had died from pneumonia.
Image: Tom Cruise at Caesars Palace on Thursday. Pic: AP
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, Kilmer discussed his illness and recovery in his 2020 memoir Your Huckleberry and Amazon Prime documentary Val.
He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for the disease and also had a tracheostomy which damaged his vocal cords and permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice.
Kilmer played Batman in the 1995 film Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of rock singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie The Doors.
He also starred in True Romance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as playing criminal Chris Shiherlis in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie Heat and Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone.
In 1988 he married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while working on fantasy adventure Willow.
The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.
Bruce Springsteen is to release seven albums of mostly unheard material this summer.
The US singer said the songs, written and re-recorded between 1983 and 2018, were being made public after he began completing “everything I had in my vault” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a short video posted on Instagram, Springsteen said the albums were “records that were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released”.
The 83-song collection is being released in a box set called Tracks II: The Lost Albums and goes on sale on 27 June.
Some 74 of the tracks have never been heard before.
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Springsteen first teased the release on Wednesday morning with a short social media video accompanied by text which said: “What was lost has been found”.
Tracks II is the follow-up to the star’s first Tracks volume, a four-CD collection of 66 unreleased songs, released in 1998.
Image: Bruce Springsteen at New York’s Carnegie Hall at a tribute to Patti Smith last month. Pic: PA
The New Jersey-born rocker, nicknamed The Boss, last released a studio album in 2022.
Only the Strong Survive was a collection of covers, including songs by Motown and soul artists, such as the Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Frankie Wilson and Jimmy Ruffin.
The late soul legend Sam Moore, who died in January and was a frequent Springsteen collaborator, sang on two of the tracks.
A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.
Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.
“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.
The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.
Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.
He also set up social media accounts in his name.
Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.
Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.
The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”
Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.
Image: Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”
Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”
Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”
The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.
‘I know where you live’
On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.
The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.
Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”
Image: Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA
Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.
The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.
“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.
“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”
Image: Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA
Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.
He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”
Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.