It’s a milestone year for the 2018 Grammy Awards, the 60th annual ceremony celebrating the year’s best songs, albums, producers, performers, and other aspects of the music industry. This year’s show is particularly noteworthy because it features a far more diverse list of nominees than previous years. This is largely due to the fact that the Grammys allowed online voting for the first time, making it possible for far more of the roughly 13,000 voting members to easily sound off on nominees.
Who’s the host?
Once again, James Corden will be emceeing. Corden, the host of The Late Late Show with James Corden — also known from Carpool Karaoke, and the 2014 movie adaptation of Into The Woods, in which he played the Baker — is returning to host for the second year in a row. For the previous five years, LL Cool J hosted.
Who’s up for the big awards?
For the biggest awards of the night, we’ve got the unavoidable summer hit “Despacito” up for Record of the Year, but it’ll face stiff competition from Childish Gambino, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Bruno Mars. The latter four are all also nominated in the Album of the Year category, along with Lorde. Song of the Year is between “Despacito,” “4:44,” “Issues,” “1-800-273-8255,” and “That’s What I Like.”
The Grammys include 84 awards, so you’ll want to check the full list of nominees here to see if your favorite artist or song made it in.
I’m just here for the performances. Who’s up?
As always, the Grammys feature a star-studded set list. This year, it includes Lady Gaga, Pink, Childish Gambino, Little Big Town, Ben Platt, Bruno Mars and Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Rihanna and Bryson Tiller, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, Logic, Alessia Cara and Khalid, Kesha with Camila Cabello, Cyndi Lauper, Julia Michaels and Andra Day, Kendrick Lamar, U2, Elton John and Miley Cyrus, Sam Smith, Sting, and more.
When does the party start?
You’ll be able to catch the 60th Grammy Awards at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT on Sunday, January 28th. The show is allegedly set to run for three and a half hours, but given how often award shows run overtime, take that with a grain of salt.
(Excerpt) Read More in: The Verge