Grammy Awards announce new categories including Songwriter of the Year and Best Song for Social Change
The new categories will be reflected at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023
Aux News Grammy Awards
The Recording Academy announced several new Grammy Awards categories and rule changes today.
The new categories coming to the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023 include Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical), which will specifically honor “non-performing and non-producing songwriters,” as well as Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Americana Performance, Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, and Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.
The Grammys will also introduce a new “Special Merit” award: Best Song for Social Change. The Recording Academy shared that this award will honor songs with “lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peacebuilding and empathy.”
Some of the rules regarding entry eligibility have also been amended. Going forward, artists will receive five courtesy entries to the Grammys each year, and any after that will be charged a submission fee. Albums eligible for an award must now consist of 75% original material released in the past five years, an increase from the former 50% benchmark.
Finally, the Recording Academy amended or expanded on certain existing categories, including renaming the Best Spoken Word Album category Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording (spoken word poetry will be excluded now that the medium has its own unique category.) The category for Best New Age album has also been renamed Best New Age, Ambient Or Chant Album.
“We’re so excited to honor these diverse communities of music creators through the newly established awards and amendments, and to continue cultivating an environment that inspires change, progress and collaboration,” The Recording Academy’s CEO Harvey Mason Jr. shared in a statement. “The Academy’s top priority is to effectively represent the music people that we serve, and each year, that entails listening to our members and ensuring our rules and guidelines reflect our ever-evolving industry.”
5 Comments
“Best Song” already goes to the best songwriter.Song of the Year is awarded for a single or for one track from an album. This award goes to the songwriter who actually wrote the lyrics and/or melodies to the song. “Song” in this context means the song as composed, not its recording.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Song_of_the_YearIt looks like you can’t be the “Best Songwriter” if you sing the song too, which seems messed up.And if you win for “Best Song”, and you didn’t sing it, don’t you automatically “Best Songwriter”? Or is “Best Song” now “Best Singer/Songwriter”?EDIT: It looks like “Best Songwriter goes for “body of new work released during an eligibility year” [Emph. mine], but it does disqualify Singer/Songwriters/Producers, which still seems messed up. Best songwriting is best songwriting, no matter who sings/produces it.
Yeah, that “Best Song for Social Change” sounds like a trainwreck.Like, sure, they could give the award to a song like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” but you just know it’s going to go to some tone-deaf thing like this (except, you know, not meant as a joke):
I suspect they will pick the blandest, non-controversial songs they can find about being nice to one another.
It’s hilarious that they basically have a “Wokest Song” category.
Maybe I’m just a philistine, but were people clamoring for a best spoken poetry album?