By Lilli Ferry Ellis | 3 February 2023
The News Stan(d) team boasts broad musical tastes—from BTS to Lizzy McAlpine to Harry Styles—but one thing we all agree on: Grammy Sunday should be a national holiday. Sure, there’s the glamor and the excitement of who will win. But for us, there’s more. From the performances to the red carpet interviews, every moment is a love letter from the artists to the fans who got them where they are today.
This year, our team attempted to predict which artists would take home the Big Four awards: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. We’ll all be tuning in on Sunday, February 5 to see how we did.
Record of the Year
Explainer: This award goes to the Artist and to the Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s) and mastering engineer(s), if other than the artist, of a single or song.

If you put all the various fandoms that The News Stan(d) team belongs to in a giant Venn diagram, the artist where you would see the most overlap is Harry Styles—and our pick for Record of the Year proves that.
“As It Was” is a song written for this moment in history, with a serious pandemic slowly moving to the rearview and all of our lives forever changed by it. At the top of 2022, live music was on its way back in; we all just wanted to get out there and dance. Styles, with the help of Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon (producers), Jeremy Hatcher and Spike Stent (engineers), and Randy Merrill (mastering engineer), captured the conflict between the reminiscence of days past and the excitement to get back out there.
Other records considered by our team: “The Heart Part 5” by Kendrick Lamar; “Woman” by Doja Cat; “You and Me on the Rock” by Brandi Carlile; “BREAK MY SOUL” by Beyoncé.
Album of the Year
Explainer: This award goes to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s), Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and Mastering Engineer(s) of a full-length studio album.

Harry Styles might be on a rollercoaster that only goes up, but if there’s one or two artists we can always count on to release music that sends the entire globe into a frenzy, Beyoncé is certainly on that list. With 25 Grammy Awards already credited to her (compared to Styles’ one), she’s a fan—not to mention an Academy—favorite.
The News Stan(d) team may be a house divided on this one, but we know we’re all better off because both of these albums (really, all of these albums) exist.
Other albums considered by our team: 30 by Adele; Music of the Spheres by Coldplay.
Song of the Year
Explainer: This award is a Songwriter(s) award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. Singles or Tracks only.

Nobody’s music better captures the heart of a very online generation than Taylor Swift. In an era when everybody is looking to the bygone Y2K era for inspiration, Swift is taking things a step further: re-recording her entire catalog of music. “All Too Well,” originally released in 2012 on her album Red, was a deep cut that only real Swifties knew—until Taylor’s Version of Red came out with the long-mythologized 10-minute version.
Perhaps the only other artist that could make our team swerve lanes, the Harry vs. Taylor battle for fan loyalty is shaping up to be an interesting one. Will the Academy weigh in with the Song of the Year Award? Will Harry Styles add to his Grammy collection with a song that became the soundtrack to many a 2022-recap Reel, or will Taylor Swift’s emotional ballad reign supreme?
Other songs considered by our team: “Easy on Me” by Adele; “BREAK MY SOUL” by Beyoncé.
Best New Artist
Explainer: This category recognizes an artist whose eligibility-year release(s) achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and notably impacted the musical landscape.

This award might be one of the most exciting for our team—we all love discovering new music. And when former winners of the Best New Artist Grammy include the likes of Mariah Carey, Dua Lipa, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Billie Eilish, and Bon Iver, it’s highly likely that this artist will go on to have an illustrious career and see their fanbase explode.
Måneskin was the run-away favorite. An Italian band whose Danish name means “moonlight,” these rockers exploded onto the global music scene after winning the Eurovision song contest in 2021. Last year, they brought home Top Rock Song at the Billboard Music Awards and debuted a cover of Elvis Presley’s “If I Can Dream” for the Oscar-nominated film Elvis’ soundtrack. This year is promising to look bright for Måneskin.
Other artists considered by our team: Omar Apollo, Wet Leg.
Whether or not Adele, Beyoncé, or Taylor Swift make a surprise appearance at the 2023 Grammy Awards, we know it will be a great night of celebrating this moment in music history—and the artists who always manage to keep us going, year after year.
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