The 2025 Grammy nominations have begun. These submissions present popular artists of the past year and their works they are most proud of. The artist and their team decide what they think is worthy of a Grammy nomination and submit it for consideration. Grammy voters then choose who will be officially nominated. There were many positive decisions made from these submissions but there were also many missed opportunities or bad ideas in general. This year in particular, the pop genre has dominated the industry and has lots of candidates who could dominate the award winnings.

Let’s start off with likely winners. The “Album of the Year” award, the most anticipated award every year, has some very good candidates. Starting off with Chappell Roan’s “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” this album was a great nomination and has a possibility of winning, especially with its growing popularity over the past months. Roan would be the eighth artist to win Album of the Year for a debut album in Grammy history. Another possible candidate is Charli XCX’s “brat.” Due to its impact on pop culture over the summer and its impact on Charli XCX’s career, it’s a good candidate because of how unique the album cycle has been. Its role in Kamala Harris’s campaign when Charli XCX endorsed her also set this album apart from the rest because of its impact on young voters. Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” is also likely to win. It was an interesting choice from her and her team to not submit “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” which has all the songs on the original record and plus an additional 14 tracks. This was most likely due to the fact that it’s easier to listen to a 17 track album instead of 31 tracks. The latter is difficult to digest and analyze when trying to make decisions, although many fans believe that the best songs are a part of the longer version.

Another popular award with quality nominees is “Song of the Year.” This award goes to the song with the best writing and is mostly focused on the artist, unlike “Record of The Year” which recognizes both the artist and producers involved in creating the song. Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” is a possible contender. Released in the spring of this year, I think this song has potential for a win due to its popularity and influence and that it was performed at the VMAs this past September. The song “Texas Hold ‘Em” by Beyoncé also has a strong chance of winning this year’s award. This is due to it being the lead single of her album and a signal of her genre shift to country.

An interesting choice for the “Best New Artist” award this year was Sabrina Carpenter. Although technically she is a new artist because this is her first time participating in the award, this is actually her sixth album. A missed opportunity for submissions was Charli XCX not submitting “Girl, So Confusing” featuring Lorde for the “Best Pop Duo Performance.” Instead she chose to submit “Guess” featuring Billie Eilish. Although I do think her song with Eilish is a good candidate, “Girl, So Confusing” featuring Lorde was such a good option because it brought the two artists together after a small feud caused by a simple misunderstanding of why Lorde would avoid Charli XCX whenever she would reach out. When Charli XCX thought it was because Lorde didn’t like her, it was actually because Lorde was nervous about being compared to Chari negatively. A song that could have been chosen better for this award is “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift and Post Malone. Although this song is the most logical to submit with it being the first single of the album, I think there were better songs to choose from. Considering the award is based on writing and lyricism, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” by Swift would have been a good choice. Since it was one of the most popular songs on the album, it wouldn’t have been that risky of a choice.

There are definitely other genres that can win these awards but because of the impact pop music and these specific projects have had this year they could have the upper hand in winning these awards.