Brandi Carlile Notches Six Grammy Nominations

Fellow Seattleites Alice in Chains, the late Chris Cornell, and the Seattle Symphony also are up for awards.

Brandi Carlile, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake walk into a bar. They walk out with the most 2019 Grammy Award nominations.

That’s right, the local Americana singer/songwriter has capped her career year by taking a prominent seat at the table alongside music’s heaviest hitters. Carlile’s album By the Way, I Forgive You and single “The Joke” are up for six Grammys—including the three biggest ones: Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year—meaning she trails only Kendrick Lamar (eight) and Drake (seven) in nominations this year. Considering the Grammys’ popularity-contest modus operandi, it’ll be tough for her to take home the major awards when matched against songs from stars like the aforementioned rappers or stellar albums from Janelle Monáe and Kacey Musgraves, but she’ll be a heavy favorite to take home trophies for her three other nominations: Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song, and Best American Roots Performance. Regardless of how the ceremony shakes out, it’s mainstream validation that she belongs at the top of the musical world.

Three other Seattle acts also notched nominations. Alice in Chains’ Rainier Fog is up for Best Rock Album, while Chris Cornell is posthumously nominated for Best Rock Performance from “When Bad Does Good,” a previously unreleased song from his self-titled retrospective box set which came out in November. Additionally, in what’s becoming an annual tradition, Seattle Symphony earned three nominations. The world-renowned orchestra is up for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Instrumental Solo for Kernis: Violin Concerto, plus Best Orchestral Performance for the Thomas Dausgaard-conducted recording, Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 & Symphony No. 4.

The 2019 Grammys will air on CBS on Feb. 10, 2019 at 5 p.m.

UPDATE (Dec. 7 at 2:15 p.m.): Corrected to include all three Seattle Symphony nominations.

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