This morning, the Recording Academy announced its list of 2021 Grammy nominations. Eagle-eyed music fans may have noticed something was a bit off about this year’s list, though. There are 84 categories for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, but only 83 sets of nominations were announced today. This means the Academy didn’t share the full list of nominees for the 63rd Grammys, and it turns out it’s all because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Academy’s official list of 2021 Grammy nominees, as posted on its website, doesn’t include any nominees for the Best Immersive Audio Album category. Instead, under that heading is a message revealing that the committee tasked with deciding that category’s nominees was unable to meet due to the pandemic, so nominees for the category will be announced at a later date. The message reads:
“Due the COVID-19 pandemic, the Best Immersive Audio Album Craft Committee was unable to meet. The judging of the entries in this category has been postponed until such time that we are able to meet in a way that is appropriate to judge the many formats and configurations of the entries and is safe for the committee members. The nominations for the 63rd GRAMMYs will be announced next year in addition to (and separately from) the 64th GRAMMY nominations in the category.”
While committees for other categories were presumably able to communicate and work in socially distanced ways, that may not have been as practical a solution for Best Immersive Audio Album. Since the category is more technically dependent than others, the Academy found they were unable to properly judge the category during the pandemic.
Find the (almost) full list of 2021 Grammy nominees here.