Taylor Swift and St. Vincent dropped as Grammy nominees for Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ interpolation

December 6, 2021 - 1:10 PM IST

Singer- songwriter Taylor Swift has been dropped from the nominee list for Rodrigo’s album due to an interpolation on the latter artist’s album, but the Recording Academy has now updated its list of nominees and excluded several names that previously were listed.

Taylor Swift and St. Vincent dropped as Grammy nominees for Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ interpolation

According to Variety, in removing the nominations on Sunday, the Recording Academy said that its policy is not to include the writers of interpolated songs in nominations, and that it did so in the case of Rodrigo only because of a submission that incorrectly named Swift, Clark and Antonoff as full co-writers. St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, and Jack Antonoff and Swift all together wrote 'Cruel Summer', a song from the Lover album, which Rodrigo and her camp credited as an interpolation in the hit 'Deja Vu', even though it bore only the most modest similarity to the Swift album track.

The Academy said in a statement, “During the submission process, the Academy received credits from the label for the track Deju Vu. Last week, we received the correct credits from the label that recognize Annie Clark, Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift as songwriters of an interpolation on the track ‘Deja Vu.’ In keeping with current Grammy guidelines, as songwriters of an interpolated track, Clark, Antonoff and Swift are not nominees in the album of the year category for Sour.”

The Academy’s statement goes on to point out, “Antonoff and Swift are nominated in the category for Swift’s album, ‘Evermore.'” St. Vincent doesn’t appear in the album of the year category, but is nominated for best alternative album for her 2021 release, Daddy’s Home.

With the Swift/Clark/Antonoff mentions having been dropped from the Grammys’ Sour credits, that album now has the second-shortest list of nominated songwriters among the 10 album of the year nominees: It’s just Rodrigo, her regular collaborator Daniel Nigro and Casey Smith. They’re slightly beat in that minimalism by Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever album, which lists only her and her brother Finneas as writers. Swift’s Evermore album also has a fairly spare five writers listed. In contrast, Justin Bieber’s Justice Album lists 73 songwriters as nominees and Kanye West’s Donda has Bieber’s album slightly beat by listing 77 Grammy-eligible songwriters. The H.E.R. album has 51 nominated writers, while Doja Cat’s has a modest 35 in line for a Grammy.

The Recording Academy is keeping a page for updates and corrections to its nominations. “This year, for the first time, we are making these updates public to ensure transparency and accessibility to the most up-to-date and accurate information,” a statement on the updates page says. Some of these corrections involve adding additional contributors who weren’t initially listed, or just making spelling fixes.

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on January 31, 2022.

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