By increasing the number of nominees, the minimum percentage of the total votes an artist or song or album needs in order to win falls from a little over 20 percent to a little over 12.5 percent.
(AP) — When the Grammys added more nominees to its top four categories, the Recording Academy said the expansion from five to eight nominees would add more “flexibility” for voters.
But for those artists competing for the night’s biggest awards, the change made it a little harder for any one nominee to win, statistically speaking.
For the first time in the history of the awards, eight nominees will compete in album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist.
The change came after the Grammys were criticized for the lack of female winners on last year’s awards show and often rap and R&B artists don’t end up winning in the all-genre categories even when they are considered favorites.
Here’s a look at how expanding the number of nominees will affect the 2019 Grammys, airing live Sunday from Los Angeles on CBS.
When the nominations came out in December, the immediate effect was that women were a majority of the nominees in two of the top categories. In record of the year, five nominees are rap songs.
Neil Portnow, the academy’s president and CEO, said they wanted to expand the all-genre categories because those were the categories that got the most entries and had the largest number of voting members. Academy voters are performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, musicians and others currently working in the music industry.
Last year, the academy also invited hundreds of new people to become voting members, which can also affect voting this year.
Portnow said adding three more slots for voters to choose from would “broaden the ability of entries to be more diverse,” not only in terms of gender and ethnicity but also the genres of music.
“I do think it’s had the positive change and impact we’re looking for,” he said.
