{"id":939040,"date":"2026-10-19T17:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939040\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:10:09","slug":"2027-grammy-race-for-best-traditional-pop-vocal-album-likely-nominees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939040\/","title":{"rendered":"2027 Grammy Race for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Likely Nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPaul McCartney<\/a> may be headed for his 20th career win at the 2027 Grammy Awards<\/a>, thanks to his well-received album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, but the category may surprise you \u2014 best traditional pop vocal album. The pop legend first won in that category in 2013 with Kisses on the Bottom, which consisted primarily of covers of vintage traditional pop and jazz songs, such as \u201cIt\u2019s Only a Paper Moon\u201d and \u201cThe Glory of Love.\u201d By contrast, McCartney wrote or co-wrote (with Andrew Watt) all of the songs on his current album.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore pop\/rock artists have been nominated in this category in recent years as the Recording Academy has expanded its definition of traditional pop. Elvis Costello & the Imposters\u2019 Look Now won in 2020, followed by James Taylor\u2019s American Standard the following year. Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Only the Strong Survive was nominated in 2024, followed by Elton John & Brandi Carlile\u2019s Who Believes in Angels? last year. (See below for the official description of the category drawn from the 69th Grammy Rules & Guidelines handbook.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAlbums by current pop\/rock artists that were entered in this category include Charlie Puth<\/a>\u2019s Whatever\u2019s Clever! and Role Model<\/a>\u2019s Chuck Timely & the Hourglass.<\/p>\n

\n\tA total of 111 albums were entered in this category this year, vying for just five or six slots on the final ballot. By way of comparison, there are 122 entries for best pop vocal album and 213 entries for best rock album.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarry Manilow<\/a>, who has received five nominations in the category, is likely to return with What a Time. Manilow has been in the news frequently in the past year due to his serious health challenges. Josh Groban<\/a>, a three-time nominee in the category, is also likely to return thanks to Cinematic, a collection of film songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tFour albums by artists who have been nominated twice in the category are on the entry list: Sarah McLachlan<\/a>\u2019s Better Broken, Pentatonix<\/a>\u2019s Christmas in the City, Carly Simon<\/a>\u2019s Comes in Waves and Rufus Wainwright<\/a>\u2019s I\u2019m a Stranger Here Myself \u2013 Wainwright Does Weill, a live album recorded with Pacific Jazz Orchestra. The latter album includes such Kurt Weill classics as \u201cSeptember Song\u201d and \u201cMack the Knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChristina Aguilera<\/a> is entered with Christmas in Paris (Live From the Eiffel Tower). The versatile Aguilera has been nominated twice for best pop vocal album and twice for best Latin pop album.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo sons of past nominees in the category are on the entry list. Jason Gould, son of 14-time category nominee Barbra Streisand, is entered with Where We Fall. Matteo Bocelli<\/a>, son of two-time category nominee Andrea Bocelli, is entered with Falling in Love. <\/p>\n

\n\tVeteran artists in the running include Paul Anka<\/a> (Inspirations of Life and Love) and Engelbert Humperdinck<\/a> (Faithfully). Anka landed his first hit, \u201cDiana,\u201d in 1957. Humperdinck broke through in 1967 with \u201cRelease Me.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTribute albums on the entry list include Liz Callaway\u2019s The Wizard and I: Liz Callaway Sings Stephen Schwartz and John Pizzarelli<\/a>\u2019s Dear Mr. Bennett, a salute to Tony Bennett, who won a record 14 times in this category.<\/p>\n

\n\tCountry albums in contention include Keith Urban<\/a>\u2019s Flow State, a collection of yacht rock classics, and Trisha Yearwood<\/a>\u2019s Christmastime.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther albums of note, not already mentioned, include Sara Bareilles\u2019s Good Grief; Betty Buckley\u2019s Enough (Live at Joe\u2019s Pub); Alessia Cara\u2019s Love or Lack Thereof; Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra\u2019s Night Blooms; Richard Marx\u2019s After Hours; Leslie Odom Jr.\u2019s An Offering: Live at Speakeasy Studios; Steve Porcaro\u2019s The Very Day; Boz Scaggs\u2019s Detour and St. Vincent & Jules Buckley\u2019s Live in London! (BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall).<\/p>\n

\n\tHere is the full, unedited, description of the traditional pop vocal album category, from the 69th Grammy Rules & Guidelines<\/a> handbook.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis category recognizes excellence in albums consisting of a type and style of song and\/or performance that cannot properly be intermingled with present forms of pop music. This includes new performances of songs from sources such as the Great American Songbook and classic forms of popular music of any era. Additionally, this Category includes albums of musical theatre songs that, unlike cast albums, are independent of a unifying narrative or underlying dramatic theme.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRecordings eligible for this Category include: Contemporary pop songs performed in a traditional pop style \u2013 the term \u2018traditional\u2019 being a reference, equally, to the style of the composition, vocal styling and the instrumental arrangement, without regard to the age of the material.<\/p>\n

Songs defined by one or more of the following qualities inherent in musical theater: a theatrical style of composition, vocal\/instrumental performance, and\/or arrangement.<\/p>\n

Benefit, tribute, concert, and cabaret albums featuring performances of repertoire as defined above.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNominees are Artist(s) of greater than 50% playing time on the album.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGrammy statuettes awarded to Artist(s), Producer(s), Engineer\/Mixer(s), Songwriter(s) of new songs, if other than Artist(s), of greater than 50% playing time on the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, what albums are likely to be nominated? If there are six nominees, as there have been in three of the last five years, we\u2019ll go with these as our predictions, listed in alphabetical order:<\/p>\n

Josh Groban, Cinematic<\/p>\n

Barry Manilow, What a Time<\/p>\n

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

Sarah McLachlan, Better Broken<\/p>\n

Pentatonix, Christmas in the City<\/p>\n

Keith Urban, Flow State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney may be headed for his 20th career win at the 2027 Grammy Awards, thanks to his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3042,49,48,75,23827,51892,341],"class_list":["post-939040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-awards","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-pop","tag-grammys","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939040","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=939040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}