{"id":924521,"date":"2026-10-07T22:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/924521\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:08:09","slug":"olivia-vs-olivia-predicting-grammys-album-of-the-year-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/924521\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia vs. Olivia: Predicting Grammys’ Album of the Year Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHope you like the sound of the name \u201cOlivia,\u201d because you\u2019re going to hear it again and again \u2014 and probably again \u2014 at the 2027 Grammys<\/a> ceremony. But which Olivia? Ah, now, there\u2019s the rub\u2026 and a bet we\u2019re going to hedge, at least until the forecast comes into clearer focus, if indeed it does, when the nominations are announced Nov. 16. But even with the Feb. 7 ceremony still being exactly four months away, some bettors are already laying odds on either Olivia Rodrigo<\/a> or Olivia Dean<\/a> to take a lead in the race toward the noms or final wins.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot that we are ruling out divas who happen to have a different first name, like Taylor Swift<\/a> and Ella Langley<\/a>, or a couple of contenders who only carry a single name professionally, Raye and Rosal\u00eda. But unless Noah Kahan turns out to be as big of an awards sleeper as he has been a commercial blockbuster, the one thing we can almost conclusively about the top four categories this far out from the \u201927 Grammys is that a man will not be winning any of them. The slogan \u201cthe future is female\u201d may seem a little overly optimistic when it comes to making a projection about society in general, but when it comes to music, and especially the quality of music rising to the level of Grammy consideration\u2026 Welcome to the matriarchy, and may the best woman walk away with an armful.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor this particular column, we\u2019re looking at Album of the Year and who stands the best chance at landing one of the eight slots, from a vast field of hundreds of aspirants. We\u2019ll move on to the other big three \u2014 Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist \u2014 in the days to come. Voting opens to Recording Academy members on Oct. 12 and closes 10 days later, with the nominations then coming Nov. 16, allowing just enough time for everyone\u2019s nervous stomachs to settle by Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough the Grammys have pared the list of nominees in the top categories down to eight, from 10, we\u2019re just tentative enough about our predictions to name an alphabetical field of 10 we think most of those eight finalists will be pulled from. Then we\u2019ve named 10 more we consider close calls that also stand a decent chance of slipping in\u2026 followed, in passing, by 20 wild cards, any of which might not come as a complete shock, given how impossible the Grammys are to truly nail down.<\/p>\n

\n\tTEN LEADING CONTENDERS, ALPHABETICALLY<\/p>\n

Brandi Carlile Returning to Myself<\/p>\n

Olivia Dean The Art of Loving<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan The Great Divide<\/p>\n

Ella Langley Dandelion<\/p>\n

Bruno Mars The Romantic<\/p>\n

Raye This Music May Contain Hope<\/p>\n

Olivia Rodrigo You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love<\/p>\n

Rosal\u00eda Lux<\/p>\n

Sienna Spiro Visitor<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift The Life of a Showgirl<\/p>\n

\n\tTEN MORE THAT COULD GET IN<\/p>\n

Lily Allen West End Girl<\/p>\n

Phoebe Bridgers Lost Weekend<\/p>\n

Ariana Grande Petal<\/p>\n

Zara Larsson Midnight Sun<\/p>\n

Madonna Confessions II<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney The Boys of Dungeon Lane<\/p>\n

Kacey Musgraves Middle of Nowhere<\/p>\n

Harry Styles Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally<\/p>\n

Tame Impala Deadbeat<\/p>\n

Don Toliver Octane<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd 20 more that are also coming up for mention as possibilities, in no particular order: the 2025-26 albums by Geese, Justin Bieber (\u201cSwag II\u201d fell into this eligibility period), Kehlani, Charli xcx (with \u201cMusic, Fashion, Film\u201d being her submission, not the also eligible \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d), Gracie Abrams, Jill Scott, Steve Lacey, A$AP Rocky, Jacob Collier, J. Cole, Cardi B, Pink Pantheress, the Rolling Stones, Ari Lennox, Mitski, Luke Combs, Mumford and Sons, Foo Fighters and Mavis Staples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hope you like the sound of the name \u201cOlivia,\u201d because you\u2019re going to hear it again and again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,132032,75,51892,341,87875,42651,7223],"class_list":["post-924521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ella-langley","tag-entertainment","tag-grammys","tag-music","tag-olivia-dean","tag-olivia-rodrigo","tag-taylor-swift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}