Recording Academy adds new categories for Grammys

Six new awards have been named, including one for best songwriter

By ANI

Published: Thu 9 Jun 2022, 9:26 PM

The Recording Academy has added a song for social change Grammy award, along with five new categories, including songwriter of the year.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was announced that the new non-classical songwriter category would recognize one individual who was the “most prolific” non-performing and non-producing songwriter for a body of new work during an eligibility year.

The category will take a different approach than the song of the year, which awards the songwriter or songwriters who wrote the lyrics or melodies to a song.

“I don’t know why there wasn’t one, I’m just glad that there is now - I’m a songwriter myself. They deserve to be recognized the same as producers and artists and engineers and other people that are working in the field,” said Grammy Chief Harvey Mason Jr told Variety.

This new category is another huge step for songwriters. Last year, a rule update allowed any songwriter, producer, engineer or featured artist on an album nominated for album of the year to earn a nomination.

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Best spoken word poetry album, alternative music performance, Americana music performance and score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media are the four other new categories which have been included.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the best song for social change will be determined by the Recording Academy via the newly created special merit award category. This award will be based on lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes “understanding, peacebuilding and empathy.”