When it comes to the hardware being handed out on Grammy night, all eyes are trained upon the Big Four — the quartet of general categories (album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist) that not only represent the most coveted trophies of the yearly ceremony, but also help clarify which artist defined that ceremony. Sometimes, like at the 2023 Grammy Awards, four different artists will win the four different prizes; other times, like when Billie Eilish swept the Big Four in 2020 or when Bruno Mars took home three of the top trophies in 2018, it’s clear which artist has owned the evening.
So who will define the 2024 Grammys? While there’s a chance that 2024 plays out like 2023 and the Big Four gets divvied up across different stars, nine artists will enter the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night (Feb. 4) with the opportunity to win multiple Big Four prizes, and effectively command the narrative of music’s biggest night.
Those artists range from stadium-shaking superstars and awards-circuit mainstays to outsiders trying to crash the party and veterans attempting to secure the first Grammys of their respective careers. The biggest awards of the night are at stake, and so are the Grammy legacies of everyone involved. Will the front-runners prevail, or could we have a shocking upset? And in either case, what would that mean for the general reception of the artist who comes out most on top?
Ahead of the 2024 Grammys, here are the nine artists who have the chance to dominate the narrative of the awards ceremony (in alphabetical order), what they would need to win in order to do so, and what those wins would mean on a grander scale.
