Beyoncé, Lizzo and several other musicians with ties to the Houston area have the chance to bring home gold-plated hardware on Sunday night at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
Beyoncé, who recently announced two September concerts in her hometown as part of an upcoming world tour, is nominated for nine Grammys this year and has a chance to make even more event history. Already tied with husband Jay-Z for the most all-time nominations with 88, and the all-time winningest woman with a total of 28 Grammy Awards, Queen Bey needs four more to become the most decorated musician in the history of the annual international competition.
Another pop star from Houston, Lizzo, is nominated for five Grammys. She and Beyoncé both are in the running for Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and their songs also are involved in the competitions for Best Remixed Recording, Producer of the Year and non-classical Songwriter of the Year.
At least four other musicians with ties to the Houston area – pianist Robert Glasper, country singer Cody Johnson, singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett and rapper Tobe Nwigwe – also are up for Grammys. So is Rice University professor Douglas Brinkley as a co-producer of Latin jazz and poetry albums.
Additionally, songs by Houston-area natives Megan Thee Stallion and Travis Scott are included in the competitions for Producer of the Year and non-classical Songwriter of the Year.
The Grammys start at 7 p.m. Sunday and will be televised on CBS and livestreamed on Paramount+.
Here is a rundown of all the Houston-area nominees and the awards they can win:
Beyoncé – nine nominations
Tied with Quincy Jones for the second-most Grammy awards all-time, Beyoncé needs three more to tie and four more to surpass the record of 31 held by conductor Georg Solti. She already is the winningest woman in Grammy history.
"Break My Soul" is up for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Dance/Electronic Recording and Best Remixed Recording, although Beyoncé herself is not nominated for the latter award. The album on which the song is featured, Renaissance, is nominated for Album of the Year and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album.
Beyoncé’s "Virgo's Groove" is nominated for Best R&B Performance, "Plastic Off the Sofa" is in the running for Best Traditional R&B Performance and "Cuff It" is nominated for Best R&B Song. Also up for an award is "Be Alive," from the film "King Richard," in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category.
Lizzo – five nominations
The "Special" album and its hit track, "About Damn Time," have Lizzo in position for a big night in Los Angeles. The song is nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Remixed Recording – Lizzo is not personally up for the latter award – while the album is the running for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.
Douglas Brinkley – two nominations
The humanities professor at Rice University was a Grammy-winning producer in 2017, in the Large Jazz Ensemble category, and had a hand in two albums that are nominated this year. Brinkley co-produced "Black Men Are Precious" by Ethelbert Miller, which is nominated for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, and "Fandango at the Wall in New York" in the Best Latin Jazz Album category.
Robert Glasper – one nomination
The four-time Grammy-winning pianist can collect another gold-plated gramophone on Sunday as "Black Radio III" is nominated for Best R&B Album. It also is up for Best Engineered Album, although that category awards engineers and not artists like Glasper.
Cody Johnson – one nomination
Johnson hails from a small community near Lake Livingston called Sebastopol and has performed multiple times at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. His chart-topping track "'Til You Can't" is nominated for Best Country Song after having been recognized by the Country Music Association as the Single of the Year and Music Video of the Year for 2022.
Lyle Lovett – one nomination
A native of the Klein area, Lovett also can win a fifth Grammy on Sunday. His collaboration with Austin-based band Asleep at the Wheel, on "There You Go Again," is nominated for Best Americana Performance.
Lovett's previous Grammy awards were in country and pop categories.
Tobe Nwigwe – one nomination
The rapper and actor from the Alief area, who co-stars on the Netflix series "Mo," is nominated for Best New Artist. The 35-year-old Nwigwe has been releasing musical recordings since 2017 and came out with two albums in 2022 – moMINTs and The Monumental Live Recording.
Visit the Grammy website for a complete list of this year’s nominees.
