VOA慢速英语--女艺人在格莱美提名中“步步高升”

Women Artists 'Step Up' in Grammy Nominations²

The music from the film Black Panther -- and its artist Kendrick Lamar -- received more 2019 Grammy Award nominations than anyone else.

But the big news is the high number of women nominees³, after being largely left out last year.

The Recording⁴ Academy announced the nominations Friday morning. It named Lamar eight times, including seven nominations for Black Panther: The Album, Music From and Inspired By.

It is among eight album of the year nominations. A record five of the other nominations went to female artists. They are Cardi B, Kacey Musgraves, Janelle Monae, H.E.R. and Brandi Carlile. Artists Drake and Post Malone are also in the running.

The Panther nomination¹ gives Lamar another chance to win an album of the year award. He has been nominated three times but has never won. His most recent loss was in February, when his critically praised DAMN fell short to Bruno Mars' 24K Magic.

Two months later, however, Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for DAMN. He is the first popular music artist to win the honor.

Lamar's Top 10 hit, All the Stars, assisted by artist SZA, is nominated for both record and song of the year. Five other songs scored nominations in both categories, including Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's Shallow from the film A Star Is Born; Childish Gambino's This Is America; and Drake's God's Plan. The other two nominations went to Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey for The Middle and The Joke from Brandi Carlile?.

Ella Mai's Boo'd Up and Shawn Mendes' In My Blood earned song of the year nominations, while Post Malone's Rockstar and Cardi B's I Like It, featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, complete the nominees for record of the year.

Just behind Lamar in number of nominations is Drake, who earned seven. Although he was nominated for album of the year, surprisingly, he did not win a place in the best rap album competition.

Women made a big hit in the best new artist competition. Six of the eight nominees are female: H.E.R., Chloe x Halle, Dua Lipa, Margo Price, Bebe Rexha and Jorja Smith. Rock band Greta Van Fleet and country singer Luke Combs also earned nominations.

Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow was criticized earlier this year when he blamed women for their lack of representation at the Grammys. He said women need to "step up" if they wanted more nominations in the top categories.

Later, Portnow described his statement as a "poor choice of words." The academy launched an operation centered on inclusion and diversity. Portnow also announced he would be leaving the academy in 2019.

The Recording Academy will present the 2019 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, on February 10. The ceremony will be broadcast live.

I'm Caty Weaver⁵.

Words in This Story

feature - v. to have or include (someone or something) as an important part

diversity - n. ?the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.

category - n. a group of people or things that are similar in some way

1 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

2 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

3 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。