The 67th Grammy Awards will commence on Sunday night with smoke from the Los Angeles fires still lingering in the air. But the show goes on and winners will be crowned. Some races are particularly competitive: Album of the Year is a monster this time, while some genre categories are shaping up to be locks (see: the Best Rap Song field).
After running the numbers, talking to experts, and, most importantly, digesting all that music, we predict the winners in 13 categories, including the Big Four of Album, Record, Song, and New Artist.
The 2025 Grammys, hosted by Trevor Noah, air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
The Nominees
André 3000 – New Blue Sun
Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
Charli XCX – Brat
Jacob Collier – Djesse Vol. 4
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft
Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department
The Lowdown
This has been a strong year for albums as albums, and not just as collections of songs designed to support a single or two: Both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift lived up to that ideal. They’re hardly the only ones, though. Few artists epitomize that like Chappell Roan, whose debut full-length, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, has been a bottomless gold mine of vibrant, deeply felt pop. “‘Good Luck, Babe!’ was the song that finally propelled her,” says Spotify’s Talia Kraines, senior editor of pop, “but it’s been truly fascinating to watch everybody really dig into her catalog — nearly the entire album is in the Spotify Top 200.”
Elsewhere, Billie Eilish’s sharply drawn, yet tenderly felt Hit Me Hard and Soft, says Kraines, “was really her being a twentysomething instead of a teenager — it was incredibly relatable despite her being one of the most famous people in the world.” Charli XCX’s Brat introduced her as a solo artist to a whole new audience while staying true to her future-pop ideals. “We’ve always known she had it in her,” says Kraines. But don’t overlook the unbridled artistry of André 3000’s flute adventure New Blue Sun, just the kind of eclectic release Grammy voters often like to reward.
Who Should Win
Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter
Beyoncé is the winningest artist in Grammy Awards history — but somehow has never won Album of the Year. Cowboy Carter could fix that: It’s an important history lesson about Black contributions to American music, as well as an introduction to the next generation of Black country music. “Uplifting other Black female country artists, and creating important conversations that needed to happen, is so important,” says Kraines. That the album is stuffed with indelible tracks like the slick “Bodyguard,” and the sweetly supportive Miley Cyrus duet “II Most Wanted” makes it a contender, too. “The two things stand side by side: the cultural piece and the excellent album,” she says.
Who Will Win
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department
Can anyone stop Swift’s momentum, especially since she announced The Tortured Poets Department at the 2024 Grammy Awards? “Obviously, the impact of the Eras Tour is hard to ignore, and obviously The Tortured Poets Department has been huge,” Kraines says. “Her whole catalog still continues to stream like crazy, and when she added the new album’s section [to her show], that gave it another boost.” TTPD was produced by Jack Antonoff, who’s currently on a three-year winning streak for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and that should help Swift’s case — as well as the hysteria she created on her Eras Tour, which wrapped in December.
The Nominees
The Beatles – “Now and Then”
Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em”
Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso”
Charli XCX – “360”
Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”
Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”
Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone – “Fortnight”
The Lowdown
This nomination year was one of pop’s most lively in recent memory, with newly minted phenomena, breakout hits, and superstar flag-plants jostling for position on playlists and charts. It makes for a fairly wide-open Record of the Year field that balances star-power (Beyoncé! Billie! Taylor with Posty!) with new talent (Shaboozey!) and surprises (The Beatles?!). Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” could be the category’s spoiler, however. An undeniable sensation immediately upon its surprise release, the DJ Mustard-produced banger’s popularity has only grown, with marching bands picking up its mantle for the fall’s football season.
Who Should Win
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”
Few songs have been as universally embraced this year as “Good Luck, Babe!” — everyone from Franz Ferdinand and Miranda Lambert with Kelly Clarkson have covered it live. Roots band Josiah and the Bonnevilles even released an acoustic cover last summer. The song, which Roan told RS was about “wishing good luck to someone who is denying fate,” is fully in the zeitgeist. It’s also her most streamed song.
Who Will Win
Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”
Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” is a pop gem that showed how the eclectic artist’s vocal interpretations have matured since her late-‘10s breakthrough. Listeners naturally gravitated toward it, too, and it unexpectedly became the hit from Hit Me Hard and Soft last summer. “When a record comes out, there’s a planned [focus] song, but then we begin very quickly seeing on Spotify different songs beginning to trend,” says Kraines. “We immediately all loved ‘Birds of a Feather.’”
The Nominees
Shaboozey – “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
Billie Eilish – “Birds of a Feather”
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars – “Die With a Smile”
Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone – “Fortnight”
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”
Kendrick Lamar – “Not Like Us”
Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please”
Beyoncé – “Texas Hold ‘Em”
The Lowdown
Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” make this crop of Song of the Year contenders a little bit country — and music fans have been more than fine with that. “The mass audience is really not afraid to get their twang on,” says Alex Tear, SiriusXM’s vice president of music programming. “We called it the summer of Yeehaw here at Hits 1, because there were a lot of crossover artists.” And though Beyoncé was shut out of the CMA Awards nominations last year, she has a shot at winning Song of the Year at the Grammys. “Beyoncé is not a poser in this format,” Tear says. “She has the origins of country music running through her DNA.” But the front-runners are undeniable: “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Please Please Please.”
Who Should Win
Sabrina Carpenter – “Please Please Please”
Carpenter’s nu-disco stunner, from her excellent album Short n’ Sweet, helped give her mainstream recognition that was long overdue. And while Chappell Roan is sure to take home Best New Artist, it would be gratifying to see Sabrina Carpenter win in this category (after all, she’s a singer who’s been working late). “I’m just so happy to see Sabrina get her due,” Tear says. “It’s time. She’s been on the game in this scene for close to a decade, and it’s her turn to get flowers.”
Who Will Win
Chappell Roan – “Good Luck, Babe!”
This was the year of Chappell Roan, and it all starts with her biggest hit: “Good Luck, Babe!” surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify. The explosive track is so beloved — even Tom Morello is a fan — yet many think her success was overnight. “What’s so infuriating is how people are just now taking me seriously,” she told Rolling Stone in her cover story. “Like, ‘You know what, bitch? I’ve been doing this shit and you’re just now catching up.’” “Good Luck, Babe!” is Billie Eilish’s favorite song of the year. If that doesn’t convince the Grammys, what will?