Kanye and Taylor Swift Added as AOTY Grammy Nominees at the ‘Last Minute’

According to a new report from the New York Times, the Grammys decided to expand the number of nominees in top categories just 24 hours before nominations for the 2022 award show were set to be publicly announced.

The decision ultimately increased nominees in categories like Album of the Year from eight to ten, which allowed for Kanye West’s Donda and Taylor Swift’s Evermore to be included on the list. Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and Abba’s “I Still Have Faith in You” benefited from the expansion as they were able to make the cut for the Record of the Year category due to it being increased to ten instead of eight. 

In the category of Song of Year, Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA and Carlile’s “Right on Time” were added due to the increase of the number of nominees allowed while the category of Best New Artist saw the inclusion of Baby Keem and Arooj Aftab. The NYT notes, citing Mason, that artists who were added to each respective category were just those that placed ninth and tenth on the list. Before 2018, the aforementioned categories only contained five nominees.

“For us this is all positive movement,” Harvey Mason Jr., who is the chief executive of Recording Academy, said. “This is us honoring more great artists, more great music, giving artists an opportunity to shine and showcase.” Mason added that the change will “make room for more music, more artists and more genres.”