Table of Contents
By Alex Lauzon from the “Course of Life” podcast
MUSIC’S BIGGEST NIGHT – OUR BIGGEST WINNERS
As awards season powers through, we turn our attention to the world of music for the 65th annual Grammy Awards. The biggest names in the industry are in attendance to see who gets top billing from the past year, and the main narrative for 2023 is that this feels like a big night incoming for Beyonce aka Queen B. Her Nine nominations lead the way for any artist this year, and with those nine nominations, she ties her husband Jay-Z (may have heard of him) for an all-time nominations record. Is it a “Bet on B” type of night?
My last show betting preview for the Golden Globes yielded a plethora of winners – we hit the winner on over 70% of the categories including “The Fabelmans” for best picture. So who says we can’t keep the magic rolling for music’s biggest night – The Grammys? As a radio-loving kid who’s seen over 100 live shows and still plays CDs in a boombox in my backyard (best Christmas gift ever), this show holds a soft spot in my heart. Cheers to it holding a nice thick spot in my wallet come February 5th. Let’s get to the biggest categories of the night:
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Album of The Year
This mega category is led by three of the darlings of the music industry, who all thrived to new heights with their releases in the past year. Adele’s “30” and Beyonce’s album “Renaissance” are both evenly marked as +150 favorites to win, while “Harry’s House” from Harry Styles is checking at +250 odds to win. If you listen to the radio in the past year you would immediately hand this award to Harry, but much more is at play than airplay, and the two female favorites are always popular to have accepting big time awards. These shows typically lean into giving Album of the Year to the biggest wavemaker, and if you’re on the internet you know the answer in Queen B here.
Alex’s Play: Beyonce – Renaissance +150
Best New Artist
Let’s make this clear for those who aren’t fully tuned in – Latto and Lizzo are not the same. Lizzo (nominated for this award in 2020) is already on her path to stardom and has multiple albums and hit records to her name. LATTO is the buzzy new rapper + singer that sampled Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” and turned it into the catchy “Big Energy” hit we know today. That song and the releases to follow sent her into hip-hop stardom, and she’s the prohibitive -160 favorite to win the award. I guess it’s true what they say – one giant hit can really change everything for an artist. The second favorite is Brazilian singer Anitta, who is far from a new artist in her homeland but making waves in the U.S. There’s just not enough competition to stray away from the favorite and the price is still bearable.
Alex’s Play: Latto -160
Song of the Year
This category encapsulates ”the best-written song of the year” so with that knowledge I have to lean into Adele here as the +150 favorite. Taylor Swift and Harry are second and third favorites at +250 and +300 respectively. Though I’ve never been her biggest fan, her pen-to-pad on “Easy on Me” elicits the widest range of emotions from music fans across the world. It’s another masterful play from her “make us feel all the feelings” playbook that she loves to run. This song will have her back on the Grammys stage. The goofy range of nominees in this category from Steve Lacy to Bonnie Raitt and DJ Khaled did have me chuckling, but there’s no joking about Adele taking this one home.
Alex’s Play: Easy on Me +150
Record of the Year
While the song of the year focuses on the writing aspect, Record of the Year looks at the production team and body of work that went into the sign creation for these hits. In the last decade, it’s about a 50/50 hit rate on the Song of the Year winner ALSO being the Record of the Year winner. This year, I see a divide and an opportunity to get more of our favorite stars on stage. With the massive 2022 that Harry Styles had musically, this category is his best shot to win a big one. While Adele’s “Easy on Me” is obviously the +100 favorite, Harry’s mystical banger “As it Was” is not placed far behind at +150 odds which is telling. While Adele’s voice and lyrics are astounding, I would contend a lot more production value went into Harry’s hit record so I lean his way for this category. This is the year the Grammys avoids redundancy and everyone gets a trophy.
Alex’s Play: As it Was +150
BONUS PLAYS
Best Pop Solo Performance – Adele’s “Easy on Me” will find another winner here in this alternate category.
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance – If the Grammys want to pander to the massive K-POP fanbase, Coldplay + BTS could be a surprise winner for “My Universe”.
Best Dance/Electronic Recording – Watch Beyine win this for her first and probably only EDM track ever “Break My Soul.” Electronic music purists will be cringing.
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