This year’s Grammy Awards have set the stage for this Sunday (March 14th), and several UMG Nashville artists are in the running. Little Big Town picked up two nods for Best Country Album for Nightfall, as well as one for Best Country Duo/Group for “Sugar Coat,” along with Brothers Osborne for “All Night,” their sixth career Grammy nomination.
Eric Church’s “Stick That in Your Country Song,” Vince Gill’s “When My Amy Prays” and Mickey Guyton’s “Black Like Me” are nominated for Best Country Solo Performance.
Mickey, the first Black solo female artist to be nominated in a Grammy country category, will perform her nominated song “Black Like Me” on Sunday’s show, and she says it will be very emotional for her, as is her first Grammy nomination.
“Getting my first Grammy nomination for ‘Black Like Me’ means the absolute world to me,” she says. “I’ve been pursuing music for a very, very, very long time, and there are many times that I thought I was going to quit. And my music journey didn’t change until I stopped running away from who I really am, embracing who I really am, and opening the door for other people, other people that are marginalized.”
Of significant note, Taylor Swift earned six nominations. folklore, a follow-up to her Lover album, was nominated for best pop vocal album. The album’s lead pop single, “cardigan,” was also recognized in the overall Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance categories. Her collaboration with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, “exile,” received a nod in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. If that wasn’t all, the “betty” artist earned a nomination for best song written for visual media for her collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Cats’ “Beautiful Ghosts.”
The 63rd annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, will broadcast live on Sunday, March 14th beginning at 8pm ET/5pm PT on CBS. The show will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
Best Country Album
Lady Like, Ingrid Andress
Your Life Is a Record, Brandy Clark
Wildcard, Miranda Lambert
Nightfall, Little Big Town
Never Will, Ashley McBryde
Best Country Solo Performance
“Stick That in Your Country Song,” Eric Church
“Who You Thought I Was,” Brandy Clark
“When My Amy Prays,” Vince Gill
“Black Like Me,” Mickey Guyton
“Bluebird,” Miranda Lambert
Best Country Duo / Group Performance
“All Night,” Brothers Osborne
“10,000 Hours,” Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber
“Ocean,” Lady A
“Sugar Coat,” Little Big Town
“Some People Do,” Old Dominion
Audio / BROTHERS OSBORNE'S JOHN OSBORNE SAYS THEY HAD THEIR FANS AND LIVE SHOWS IN MIND WHEN WRITING AND RECORDING THEIR LATEST SINGLE, "ALL NIGHT."
DownloadBrothers Osborne (All Night) 2 OC: …what we did. :15
“‘All Night’ is a song we wrote with our friend, Andrew DeRoberts. We wanted to write a song that just felt good. We didn’t want to think too hard about it. We wanted to write a song that no matter what happened we knew that our fans at our shows were gonna love to sing along to (it), and that’s what we did.”
Audio / Mickey Guyton, who will perform “Black Like Me” on this year’s Grammy Awards, said her performance will be emotional because it’s not just about her.
DownloadMickey Guyton (Grammy performance) OC: …right now. :33
“My performance at the Grammys is going to be so special and emotional, like it’s not just about me, there’s it’s the song Black Like Me. It is so many people’s stories. And that was my goal in this performance. There’s representation as well, which is really important to me in this performance. But I just wanted people to feel like they’re coming together. This is a huge moment for black people in country music, and I just feel so honored to stand in these shoes right now.”
Audio / Mickey Guyton talks about her first Grammy nomination and what it means to her.
DownloadMickey Guyton (Grammy nomination) OC: …are marginalized. :29
“Getting my first Grammy nomination for ‘Black Like Me’ means the absolute world to me. I’ve been pursuing music for a very, very, very long time, and there are many times that I thought I was going to quit. And my music journey didn’t change until I stopped running away from who I really am, embracing who I really am, and opening the door for other people, other people that are marginalized.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Phillip Sweet talks about the band’s ninth studio album, Nightfall.
DownloadLBT (Nightfall) OC: …proud of it. :23
“Nightfall is our ninth studio album, and we poured our hearts into this project and we’re so proud of it. We feel like it makes a beautiful statement about where we are right now as a band and how much we love making music together and also that the album takes you on a journey. It will transport you hopefully into a beautiful place, because we love it and we’re very proud of it.”
Audio / Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlapman talks about the band's Grammy-nominated song “Sugarcoat,” a tune that appears on their new album, Nightfall.
DownloadLBT (Sugarcoat) OC: …what’s going on. :20
“I love ‘Sugarcoat.’ It’s a story about a woman who is putting up all these fronts to live a perfect life, and actually what is happening behind closed doors is the opposite of perfect. It’s really devastation, but she’s covering it up at every time but then she realizes that she needs to let her man know she knows what’s going on.”
Audio / Eric Church talks about his song, "Stick That In Your Country Song."
DownloadEric Church (STIYCS) OC: …found itself. :56
“I’ve never had a song in my career that was a harbinger of things to come. When we recorded ‘Stick That in Your Country Song,’ we had a booming economy and a pretty great world going on. And I remember thinking when I did it, ‘Wow, I’m not sure this, I’m not sure how relevant this is for right now. I love the song. I love the sentiment, but I’m just not sure.’ And within about 30 days, the world changed, and it changed for a while, and this song just became more and more real and more and more relevant. And truth be told – 100% honesty – I had a different single picked out as the first single, and then the world kept changing and it kept bringing itself almost like a magnet back to this song and back to this moment. So, this song found itself. It wasn’t me finding it, it found itself.”
Audio / Vince Gill talks about his song, "When My Amy Prays."
DownloadVince Gill (When My Amy Prays) OC: …give myself. :15
“To me the real beauty of that song is the light that I paint her in, obviously. But the, golly, how is the right way to say this? Maybe the emotion comes from the vulnerability that I give myself.”
