Taylor Swift has seemingly won everything in sight at the Grammys, so it’s no wonder she’s so souped up about her boo thang Travis Kelce bringing home a different kind of coveted prize— the Vince Lombardi Trophy — when the Kansas City Chiefs tackle the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11.
Seriously, since the 34-year-old pop superstar picked up her first gramophones — winning both Album of the Year and Best Country Album for “Fearless,” her 2008 second LP — back when she was still rocking those fresh-off-the-farm curls, she has been Grammy gold.
In fact, when music’s biggest night goes down this year on Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles — without Swift’s Super Bowl-bound beau by her side —she’ll have six chances to add to her hardware haul of a cool dozen gramophones.
And, after already making history in 2021 as the first woman to win Album of the Year three times, T-Swizzle will have a chance to put herself in the record books again.
If she snatches that top trophy for her 2022 blockbuster “Midnights,” Swift will have sole bragging rights as the first artist period to earn the ultimate LP laurels four times, breaking a four-way tie right now with three legendary fellas: Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.
But as much as you gotta give it up to Swift for going where no woman has gone before — with her other two Album of the Year victories coming for “1989” in 2016 and “Folklore” in 2021 — there’s a blank space in the win column for the other Big 4 categories: Record and Song of the Year, plus Best New Artist.
Of course, Swift only had one chance to win Best New Artist — and that happened way back in 2008, when the 18-year-old Nashville ingénue lost to the late, great Amy Winehouse — so this is really a question of why hasn’t the Empress of Eras won Record or Song of the Year yet?
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Well, first off, a little perspective: I mean, how the hell hasn’t Beyoncé won one single Album of the Year Grammy yet for either “Lemonade,” “Renaissance” or her self-titled surprise set that changed the industry game in 2013?
But Swift — who is up again for both Record and Song of the Year for her No. 1 smash “Anti-Hero” — has previously been nominated 10 times in those categories without a single win.
As her tight-end boyfriend would know, those aren’t great stats.
In 2010, Swift’s hit “You Belong With Me” lost out to Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” for Record of the Year and Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” for Song of the Year. No shame there.
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In 2014, her unshakable single “Shake It Off” was beaten by Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” for Record of the Year and Lorde’s “Royals” for Song of the Year. Again, worthy conquerors.
One could argue that it was reward enough for “Blank Space” to score both Record and Song of the Year nominations at the 2016 Grammys, when it lost to “Uptown Funk” (by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars) and “Thinking Out Loud” (by Ed Sheeran), respectively.
Similarly, the Song of the Year nominations for “Lover” (in 2020), “Cardigan” (2021) and the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” (2023) feel more like wins in and of themselves.
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Perhaps Swift’s best chance to win Record of the Year came in 2013, when her “Red” chart-topper “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was trumped by “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye (featuring Kimbra), who would turn out to be the quintessential one-hit wonder. But back then, Grammy voters surely wanted to slow her roll.
Certainly, “Anti-Hero” has a pretty decent shot at breaking this strange streak on Sunday, with its biggest competition probably coming from Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” and SZA’s “Kill Bill.”
But even if she loses in those categories again, Swift may just have another Album of the Year gramophone — and a certain pigskin stud — to console her.
