The late rapper Mac Miller secured a posthumous nod for "Best Rap Album;" Janelle Monáe's groundbreaking "Dirty Computer" is up for "Album of the Year;" " A Star is Born " and Lady Gaga fans alike will be thrilled to see "Shallow" nominated for two of the biggest awards offered.
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The 10 biggest snubs of the 2019 Grammy nominations
The Grammy Awards have often been criticized for being out of touch — but there's plenty to celebrate about the 2019 nominations.
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But as many fans know, for every success from a major award show, there is usually a source of rage or confusion.
Here are INSIDER's picks for the 10 biggest snubs, in no particular order.
Mitskis singular nomination for "Best Recording Package" is just plain rude.
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"Best Recording Package" is an award that honors the visual look of an album, not its sonic achievements.
It is also the only category that recognized "Be the Cowboy," the fifth album from Japanese-American indie rock musician Mitski, and easily her most masterful to date — despite landing within the top five in every major roundup of this year's best albums.
Ariana Grandes "Sweetener" didnt get much love.
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"Sweetener" is arguably Ariana Grande's best album to date — and while it did secure a nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Album," it was shut out of most major categories, including "Album of the Year."
Grande's hit single "God Is a Woman" was thankfully recognized for "Best Pop Solo Performance," but the most glittering, nuanced, and impeccably crafted tracks on the album (most notably "No Tears Left to Cry," "R.E.M." and "Get Well Soon,") were completely ignored.
Travis Scott was one of the most successful artists this year, but his No. 1 album "Astroworld" was nearly ignored.
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Travis Scott has never been a Grammys darling, but "Astroworld" demonstrated a growth in skill and musical maturity that many thought would change his fate; after all, he somehow managed to get Drake , John Mayer , and Stevie Wonder on the same album.
"A real driver on this album too was when we got snubbed for the Grammys in 2016," Scott's A&R told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "We were like, man, are they not respecting us? That's when it was like, 'No, y'all got it f---ed up.' We went back and wanted to make an album that was undeniable."
And yet: Scott secured a nomination for "Best Rap Album," but was still denied entry to the coveted "Album of the Year" category.
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The seventh album from Beach House, one of indie rocks most consistently impressive bands, was completely shut out.
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While divisive and questionably successful efforts — like Arctic Monkeys' "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino" and Beck's "Colors" — were nominated for "Best Alternative Music Album," Beach House's gorgeous seventh album received no such love. They were also shut out of rock-specific categories, which have long bent the rules for established bands with indie leanings.
This is all putting aside the fact that "7" really should have been nominated for "Album of the Year."
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"Beach House remain masters of the indefinable and their seventh album is their heaviest and most immersive-sounding of their career," Pitchfork wrote at the time of its release. Rolling Stone called it "full of wonder," while Spin called it the band's "shortest, most accomplished, and confident record."
Teyana Taylors knack for R&B magic was ignored altogether.
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Teyana Taylor's "K.T.S.E." ("Keep That Same Energy"), produced by Kanye West , may have gotten lost in the midst of G.O.O.D. Music's five-albums-in-five-weeks cascade— despite promotion from the label's first lady, Kim Kardashian West herself — but the label's most promising prodigy did secure critical recognition.
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Both Rolling Stone and Pitchfork recognized Taylor as "a retro R&B torchbearer," in the words of the former. "K.T.S.E." both paid tribute to traditional R&B artistry while still bringing a fresh new attitude.
But Taylor did not receive any nominations, including the multiple categories focused exclusively on that genre.
Dev Hynes released his fourth and best album as Blood Orange, but saw no recognition.
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Dev Hynes, widely described as a "music polymath," was near-universally praised for "Negro Swan" — his fourth and best album as Blood Orange.
The ambient body of work tackled deep, introspective topics — especially depression in the black community — using a stunning combination of progressive R&B production, scattered jazz piano, and downtempo guitar-driven rock. Hynes received zero nominations for the 2019 Grammys.
Lil Wayne finally released the much-anticipated "Tha Carter V" just before the eligibility cutoff — to no avail.
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2019 will mark 20 years since Lil Wayne released his debut album — and for nearly two decades, he has managed to maintain a reputation as one of the most celebrated, disparate rappers of all time.
"Tha Carter V," many years in the making, did not disappoint ravenous hip-hop fans. The album — scattered, strange, and often gorgeous — managed to sneak in just before the end of the eligibility period for the 2019 Grammys. But Lil Wayne ended up empty-handed with zero nominations.
Neglecting to nominate Beyoncé and Jay-Z in bigger categories was a missed opportunity.
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While Beyoncé and Jay-Z joint album as The Carters, "Everything Is Love," may not have put either artists' best foot forward, it certainly deserved a nod in the higher-profile "nominated for "Best R&B Album" category — especially consideringtheir song "Summer" was nominated for "Best R&B Performance."
But the Grammys continue to relegate unique, varied, genre-bending music by black artists to the "Best Urban Contemporary Album" category with unclear reasoning.
Additionally, the album's lead single "Apes---" was a defining musical moment of 2018, but missed out on a seemingly obvious nomination for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration."
Kali Uchis should have been recognized in at least one category.
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Kali Uchis' "forward-looking but vintage-feeling" sound — her smooth blend of reggaetón, soul, hip-hop music, and funk—may be difficult to categorize. But her critically-acclaimed debut album "Isolation" certainly deserved a nod or two, whether for her pop vocals or contemporary R&B stylings.
The album's greatest triumph, for example — standout single "After the Storm" with Tyler, The Creator and the legendary Bootsy Collins — seemed like an obvious choice for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration."
The 1975s newest album isnt eligible, but several award-worthy singles are.
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The 1975 released their third studio album, "A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships," in November, making it ineligible for the 2019 Grammys (nominations include recordings released between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018), despite it being one of the most stunning, electric albums of the year .
But the band's extended album rollout included multiple singles that could easily qualify for "Best Rock Song" or even "Record of the Year" — including and especially the anthemic, inciteful, and insightful "Love It If We Made It."
The 61st Annual Grammy Awards will air live from LA's Staples Center Sunday, February 10, 2019, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS.
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