2024 Grammy Nominations: Photos by Chelsea Guglielmino/WireImage, Christopher Polk/Penske Media, Kaitlyn Morris, via Getty Images

The 2024 Grammy nominations were announced this morning at 8am PST and let me tell you they are GAY GAY GAY.

I’m sure a lot of us have a complicated relationship with the Grammys. I mean, every award show shouldn’t be taken too seriously, since they’re more about politics than talent. But the Grammys have felt especially frustrating over the years for reasons ranging from their continued support of abusive men to their inexplicable refusal to give Beyoncé Album of the Year to, you know, their overall historic mistreatment of women, queer people, and people of color.

Nevertheless, award shows do represent a skewed snapshot of mainstream culture, and the performances sure can be fun. So I can’t help but be a little excited that the 2024 Grammy nominations include so many of our queer favorites!

Let’s break these nominations down.

First, the big category: Album of the Year. Not one, but two, of my most listened to albums are included this year: boygenius’ The Record and Janelle Monáe’s The Age of Pleasure. I made two Pride playlists in June — one for partying and one for sad feelings — and I’m thrilled that the tentpoles of both are now award nominated. The Record had a grand total of seven (7!) nominations while The Age of Pleasure was oddly only nominated in one other category (Best Progressive R&B album). Miley Cyrus is also nominated for Album of the Year for Endless Summer Vacation, one of six nominations she received this year.

Bisexual icon and Kehlani’s ex Victoria Monét secured seven (7!) nominations of her own including Best New Artist and Record of the Year. She’s joined in the Best New Artist category by fellow bisexual Ice Spice, who has four nominations including two for her contribution to the Barbie soundtrack.

I’d be remiss not to mention that SZA also shows up nine (9!) times in the 2024 Grammy Nominations. I will respect her vagueness about her sexuality, but anyone who is as close as she is to Kehlani (see above) is at least going to get a mention.

Something fun about the Grammys is there are 91 categories, so I’m sure there are even more queers nominated who aren’t on our radar. Classical music gays, help me out, who are the queers in your world? (Other than Lydia Tár.)

But for now I’ll end this quick queer roundup of the 2024 Grammy Nominations by saying it’s always inspiring to me when queer artists manage to achieve mainstream recognition without compromising themselves. All of these artists are not just making great music as openly queer people but their open queerness is REALLY open and REALLY queer. The music itself is really queer too.

Queer sexuality is integral to Janelle Monáe and Victoria Monét’s work, and even boygenius, whose songs are more about gay feelings than gay sex, are always making out with each other on-stage! To be this gay and still get Grammy nominations is a sign of the undeniable greatness of these artists. Even if one of the straight nominees ends up winning Album of the Year, this recognition is still worth celebrating. And, hey, to misquote another straight Grammy winner: Well, nevermind. We are hot and we have the music.

Whether you’re making out with your friends and feeling cool about it or making out with your friends in your age of pleasure, this award season is looking to be better — and gayer — than most.

The 2024 Grammy Nominations can be seen in full here.

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