Amid a field of relative newcomers like Olivia Dean, Rosalía, and Raye, two music legends have emerged as somewhat unexpected entrants into the Grammys conversation.
Both Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen are polling well in Gold Derby’s early predictions for Grammy nominations — the former Beatle with his upcoming 19th solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, and the Boss with his protest song “Streets of Minneapolis.”
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Just a day after after kicking off his Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, backed by the E Street Band, Springsteen currently sits in the top 10 of potential nominees for Song of the Year. His “Streets of Minneapolis,” dropped in January, in the days after the killings of VA nurse Alex Pretti and mother of three Renée Good at the hands of ICE and CPB in the titular Minnesota city and quickly became a hit, climbing to No. 1 on Billboard’s U.S. digital song sales chart.
Springsteen, writing the song and releasing it so quickly, was able to speak to the moment in a way that no other musical artist had, especially one of his stature. And his activism didn’t stop there. Since the release of “Streets,” the Boss has commenced a tour that he says is a response to the authoritarian Trump regime and allowed the ACLU usage of “Born in the USA” in an ad supporting birthright citizenship.
The artist’s palpable outrage has helped him connect with the public in a way that he hasn’t in quite some time, and he’s already seeing the fruits of that in these early Grammy predictions. It’s been 13 years since an individual song of Springsteen’s was nominated, so a nod for “Streets” would be a major comeback for the icon.
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While Springsteen is gaining momentum by writing about the moment, McCartney is making waves by taking a look back. Announced last week, the former Beatle’s first solo album in more than five years, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a look back at his formative years and was pitched in its release announcement as “his most introspective album to date and takes the listener back to where it all began.”
The album is due out at the end of May, but it’s already ranked in the top 20 for Album of the Year — and for good reason. An artist of McCartney’s stature is almost impossible for the Recording Academy to ignore. His most recent win came for the reconstructed Beatles song “Now and Then,” which won Best Rock Performance and was nominated for Record of the Year.
McCartney’s previous solo album, McCartney III, scored nominations in Best Rock Album and Best Rock Song, and considering the general weakness of the Rock fields as of late, he’s a shoo-in for at least a showing within the genre-specific categories, if not in the top.