The nominees for the 2025 Grammy Awards have been announced, and like always, there’s a number of chart-topping hits and acclaimed artists who have been snubbed, from Dua Lipa to Ariana Grande, Vampire Weekend, Jack Antonoff, Megan Thee Stallion, and more.
Set to take place on February 2nd, 2025, the 67th Grammy Awards will honor music released from September 16th, 2023 to August 30th, 2024. Beyoncé leads the charge with nominations (having earned 11 for Cowboy Carter), followed by the likes of Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Charli XCX, and more, but many deserving artists have been skipped over by the Recording Academy. Read on to see all the most surprising snubs from this year’s nominations.
Heavyweight Pop Omissions
Notably absent from the roster of heavy-hitting pop nominees is the 2019 winner of Best New Artist: Dua Lipa. She released her third album, Radical Optimism, this past May, preceded by singles like “Houdini” and “Illusion,” but was shut out completely from nominations this year, not receiving a single one.
Considering that Dua Lipa has been nominated for 10 Grammys since 2019 alone, her omission comes as a bit of a surprise, but not a huge one. Radical Optimism arrived at a time when pop music was experiencing a new wave of energy, led by the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, and others. Thus, there is now a bit less room for Lipa and other traditional pop acts, like Ariana Grande, who received a Best Pop Vocal Album for her latest record, eternal sunshine, but was omitted from any major categories.
Producer Snubs
Perhaps the most surprising snub of all is that of Jack Antonoff, who has won Producer of the Year the past three years in a row. This time around, he still has producer credits on some of the biggest albums of the year — like Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet — but was omitted from the Producer of the Year category entirely. Now, his only shot at taking home an award in 2025 is if Swift or Carpenter win in any categories where his production contributions are recognized (like Song of the Year, Record of the Year, or Album of the Year).
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Likewise, A. G. Cook — the inventive producer who executive produced Charli XCX’s landmark album, BRAT — is in a similar boat. He might take home awards if Charli wins in any of the aforementioned categories, but was snubbed from a well-deserved Producer of the Year nomination.
Unrecognized Hip-Hop, Rock, Country, International, and More
In the genre-specific categories of the 2025 Grammys, many deserving artists were shut out, like Megan Thee Stallion. Despite her new album, Megan, and its singles “Cobra,” “Hiss,” and “Boa,” Meg failed to be nominated, even in hip-hop specific categories.
Also omitted from the hip-hop categories were artists like Vince Staples and ScHoolboy Q, who both put out albums this year. Staples’ Dark Times was named by Consequence as one of the best new albums of this past May — ScHoolboy’s BLUE LIPS received the same recognition when it debuted in March.
On the rock front, One More Time…, the major comeback effort by blink-182 that has anchored their recent tour, wasn’t nominated. Neither was Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us, which could’ve appropriately been nominated for Album of the Year, but was instead ignored entirely.
As for country music, the Recording Academy has embraced the genre’s changing demographics, nominating Beyoncé in every country category, and recognizing other relative newcomers to the scene, like Post Malone. As applaudable as that step away from the good ol’ boys of Nashville is, there were still snubs of worthy acts, like Sturgill Simpson, who’s album Passage du Desir failed to earn any nominations.
There have also been some major snubs in the “country” music of other countries. Like last year, K-Pop is underrepresented on the list of nominees — though it’s worth mentioning that fewer compelling K-Pop releases arrived this past year, especially in the absence of major acts like Blackpink and BTS.
Meanwhile, the Best African Music Performance category — which was only introduced last year — seems to be experiencing some growing pains. Though the South African amapiano star, Tyla, won the inaugural award in the category last year, this year’s nominees solely hail from Nigeria. While it’s true that Lagos has been a major hub for the Afrobeats sound, there are many deserving acts and subgenres from throughout Africa that also deserve recognition, and instead, were snubbed. Perhaps this is a sign that only a single category for an entire continent of exciting music is insufficient.
Overlooked Hits
Beyond genres and major categories, there are also a number of flat-out popular songs that you’ve probably heard all over the radio, but won’t be recognized on the Grammy stage.
For example, Hozier’s “Too Sweet” has marked his biggest song since 2014’s “Take Me to Church,” but wasn’t nominated in any category. Neither were hits like “One of Your Girls” by Troye Sivan, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, and “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone, though Swims and Boone each earned nods for Best New Artist.
If you’d like to see all the songs, albums, and artists who did receive nominations, though, be sure to read the full list of nominees for the 2025 Grammys.
For more, stay up to date with Consequence’s Grammy coverage, or revisit our break-down of the five kinds of albums that the Grammys have consistently snubbed over the past 20 years.
