{"id":185222,"date":"2025-12-15T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185222\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:59:11","slug":"who-will-win-record-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185222\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will Win Record of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThere were so many incredible records,\u201d J.J. Italiano, Spotify\u2019s head of global music curation and discovery, says of this year\u2019s crop of nominees. That makes predicting the Rec\u00adord of the Year category<\/a> \u2014 which honors a song\u2019s recorded version, and which is given to all of the people involved in its crafting \u2014 a wide-open game, and one that close listeners can have a lot of fun prognosticating. Italiano says the split between Song of the Year and Record of the Year<\/a> remains important to the way pop music is thought about. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool that there is a tradition where we think about song structure and we think about recording on an annual basis,\u201d he says. \u201cThese days, pop music moves so fast that the little details can get missed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Nominees\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\u200b\u200bBad Bunny<\/a> \u2013 \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos\u201d
Sabrina Carpenter<\/a> \u2013 \u201cManchild\u201d
Doechii<\/a> \u2013 \u201cAnxiety\u201d
Billie Eilish<\/a> \u2013 \u201cWildflower\u201d
Lady Gaga<\/a> \u2013 \u201cAbracadabra\u201d
Kendrick Lamar<\/a> With SZA \u2013 \u201cLuther\u201d
Chappell Roan<\/a> \u2013 \u201cThe Subway\u201d
Ros\u00e9<\/a> and Bruno Mars<\/a> \u2013 \u201cAPT.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Lowdown\t<\/p>\n

\n\tLady Gaga\u2019s return to the dance floor, \u201cAbracadabra,\u201d <\/a>was a huge streaming smash with a massive name-checking chorus. Italiano says the song, the third single off Mayhem, dropped at exactly the right moment: \u201cIt was such a definitive Gaga song at a time when it just felt like the world needed precisely that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also raves about Chappell Roan\u2019s \u201cThe Subway,\u201d a track that fans of the pop star were clamoring for ever since she began singing it during her live sets last summer. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible song, and as a recording, extremely strong,\u201d Italiano says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSabrina Carpenter\u2019s twang-tinged \u201cManchild,\u201d meanwhile, commemorated what Italiano calls \u201cyear two of Sabrina songs being ubiquitous.\u201d He\u2019s right: The song was all over the radio, playlists, and TikTok.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd there was also no escaping \u201cAPT.,\u201d <\/a>the Ros\u00e9 and Bruno Mars collaboration that was impossible to forget. Based on a Korean drinking game, in which players stack their hands atop one another, the song was a winner for pop fans and the artists alike. Says Italiano, \u201cI personally feel it\u2019s one of the best-engineered and -arranged records I\u2019ve heard in an extremely long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tDoechii\u2019s \u201cAnxiety,\u201d balanced on an extended sample of Gotye\u2019s 2011 cut \u201cSomebody That I Used to Know,\u201d was big on streaming, although its claustrophobic production \u2014 by Doechii herself \u2014 turned off some listeners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cLu\u00adther\u201d <\/a>is arguably the standout single of GNX. Ink, <\/a>one of the song\u2019s co-writers, told Rolling Stone that writing the track with the team was inspiring, and said Lamar was \u201cone of the most genuine creatives I ever had the pleasure of working with.\u201d That combination of goodwill and a good song could make it a winner.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\t\tWho Should Win\t<\/p>\n

\n\tKendrick Lamar With SZA \u2013 \u201cLuther\u201d
Kendrick Lamar\u2019s \u201cLuther\u201d has a timeless feeling that isn\u2019t just chalked up to the dreamily deployed Luther Vandross sample of its titular soul legend\u2019s 1982 duet with Cheryl Lynn, \u201cIf This World Were Mine.\u201d Lamar and SZA\u2019s duet would mean back-to-back wins for the Compton MC, who took home Record of the Year for \u201cNot Like Us\u201d last year. \u201cThat was such an important moment,\u201d Italiano says about Lamar\u2019s 2025 Grammy win, and notes that the Mustard-produced banger\u2019s dominance segued almost directly into the ascent of the chilled-out GNX cut. That streak might sway voters toward \u201cLuther,\u201d according to Italiano: \u201cWhen the moment is undeniable, or when [a song\u2019s success] isn\u2019t necessarily about the writing but about how it becomes this time capsule for the year \u2014 those are the records that, more often than not, win in this category.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tWho Will Win\t<\/p>\n

\n\tRos\u00e9 and Bruno Mars \u2013 \u201cAPT.\u201d
Ros\u00e9 and Bruno Mars\u2019 \u201cAPT.\u201d isn\u2019t just an infectious culture clash; it\u2019s an expertly crafted cut that fits the spirit of the category very well, says Italiano, who calls the song\u2019s arrangement and the way the pre-chorus was recorded \u201ca masterstroke.\u201d It\u2019s also co-produced and co-written by Mars, a Grammy Awards darling, which should help raise the \u201cAPT.\u201d rent among voters. Mars is a collaboration king at the ceremonies, too: Last year, he and Lady Gaga scored a Song of the Year nod for \u201cDie With a Smile,\u201d and won for Best Pop Duo\/Group Performance, and his duo with Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic, swept the Grammys in 2022, including in this category, for \u201cLeave the Door Open.\u201d In other words, prognosticators should bet against Mars at their own peril.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere were so many incredible records,\u201d J.J. Italiano, Spotify\u2019s head of global music curation and discovery, says of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[27813,10289,115246,26422,43178,156,46109,472,11314,157,111,139,69,83766,116904,3569],"class_list":{"0":"post-185222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bad-bunny","9":"tag-billie-eilish","10":"tag-bruno-mars","11":"tag-chappell-roan","12":"tag-doechii","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-grammys-2026","15":"tag-kendrick-lamar","16":"tag-lady-gaga","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-record-of-the-year","22":"tag-rosu00e9","23":"tag-sabrina-carpenter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}