SANTA MONICA — The videos of submissive women being trained as sex slavesRecording Academy welcomed the class of nominees for the 59th annual Grammy Awards on Dec. 6.
Top nominees are Beyoncé (9), Drake (8), Rihanna (8), Kanye West (8), and Chance The Rapper (7). Selected from nearly 22,000 submissions across 84 categories, the nominations reflect the range of artistic innovation that defined the year in music. As the only peer-selected music award, the Grammy is voted on by The Recording Academy’s membership body of music makers, who represent all genres and creative disciplines, including recording artists, songwriters, producers, mixers, and engineers.
Nominees include:
Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media— Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto for “The Revenant,” along with Thomas Newman for “Bridge of Spies,” Ennio Morricone for “Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight,” John Williams for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein for “Stranger Things Volume 1.”
“The Last Emperor” composers Sakamoto, Cong Su and David Byrne won in 1988 for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television.
Best Music Film— “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” a documentary about Steve Aoki (Justin Krook, video director; Brent Almond, Matt Colon, David Gelb, Ryan Kavanaugh, Happy Walters and Matthew Weaver, video producers), and “The Music of Strangers,” a documentary about Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble (Morgan Neville, video director; Caitrin Rogers, video producer), along with Ron Howard’s “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week,” Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” and “American Saturday Night: Live from the Grand Ole Opry” (various artists).
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album— Dorothea R?schmann and Mitsuko Uchida, accompanist, for “Schumann & Berg,” along with Magdalena Ko?ená and Andrea Marcon, conductor, for “Monteverdi,” Sabine Devieilhe and Rapha?l Pichon, conductor, for “Mozart: The Weber Sisters,” Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano, accompanist, for “Shakespeare Songs,” and Anna Netrebko and Antonio Pappano, conductor, for “Verismo.”
Uchida won in 2010 for “Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24” in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) category.
Best Regional Roots Music Album—?Kalani Pe’a was nominated for “E Walea” along with Barry Jean Ancelet and Sam Broussard for “Broken Promised Land,” Northern Cree for “It’s a Cree Thing,” Roddie Romero and The Hub City All-Stars for “Gulfstream,” and various artists for “I Wanna Sing Right: Rediscovering Lomax in the Evangeline Country.”
Pe’a, from the Maui town of Wailuku, was diagnosed with a speech impediment at the age of four. He entered a Hawaiian-language immersion program in the third grade, and as a teacher, has illustrated and published five Hawaiian-language children’s stories.
“I’m elated. I’m totally excited,” he told The Maui Newsafter his nomination. “I’m jus overwhelmed with joy. Hard work pays off.”
Best World Music Album— Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble were nominated for “Sing Me Home” and Anoushka Shankar for “Land of Gold,” along with Destiny for “Celtic Woman,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo for “Walking in the Footsteps of Our Fathers,” and Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil for “Dos Amigos, Um Século De Música: Multishow Live.”
Ma is an 18-time Grammy winner, most recently in 2014 for “New York Tendaberry” (Billy Childs, featuring Renee Fleming and Ma), Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals; in 2012 for “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” (Stuart Duncan, Ma, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile), Best Folk Album; and in 2009 for “Yo-Yo Ma and Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace,” Best Classical Crossover Album.
Best Comedy Album—?Margaret Cho for “American Myth” along with David Cross for “…America…Great…,” Tig Notaro for “Boyish Girl Interrupted,” Amy Schumer for “Live at the Apollo,” and Patton Oswalt for “Talking for Clapping.”
The awards will be presented on Feb. 12 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and broadcast on CBS from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
For a complete list of nominations, visit www.grammy.com.