Grammys 2018: Will Top Awards Go to Jay-Z or Kendrick Lamar?

A night of questions new and old.

By 11:00 or so Sunday night, when the 60th annual Grammy Awards reach their finale, the music world will have some answers: Will Jay-Z or Kendrick Lamar score a big victory for rap? Will “Despacito” break new ground for Spanish-language pop? Is Bruno Mars the next Adele?

The Grammys, to be broadcast from Madison Square Garden by CBS starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, are being held in New York for the first time in 15 years. To mark its return, Patti LuPone and Ben Platt (“Dear Evan Hansen”) will perform a Broadway-style tribute to Leonard Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber. But regardless of where the show is held, many of the big questions remain.
The Grammys, like most awards shows, have been wrestling for years with issues of diversity: ethnic, gender and, in the Grammys’ case, musical. Not so long ago, the show drew eye rolls for over-rewarding elder heroes at the expense of pop’s younger, more vital mainstream. (Think Ray Charles beating Green Day and Kanye West in 2005, or Herbie Hancock defeating Amy Winehouse and, ahem, Mr. West in 2008.)

The Grammys have generally gotten much better at recognizing the pulse of contemporary music. A diverse crop of nominees this year means it is very likely that the winners of the four most prestigious categories — album, record and song of the year, and best new artist — will not be white men.

At the same time, gender is very much still an issue. Lorde is the only woman up for album of the year, facing Jay-Z, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino. Julia Michaels and Alessia Cara have credits in the song of the year category (which recognizes songwriters). Ms. Michaels, Ms. Cara and the R&B singer SZA are nominated for best new artist. Otherwise, the top nominees are predominantly male. As a new report indicated, gender diversity at the Grammys — and in the music industry at large — has been abysmal.