The 2023 Grammy Awards will feature five new competitive categories, including those recognizing contributions by songwriters, music in video game soundtracks and spoken word poetry albums.
The Recording Academy on Wednesday unveiled its annual changes to next year’s Grammy Awards, which now enters its 65th year. The five new categories are: Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical), Best Alternative Musical Performance, Best American Musical Performance, Best Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, and Best Spoken Poetry Album.
The Grammys also added a category for Best Song for Spoken Change, which is not a competitive member-voted award, but a special merit award that will be awarded by a Blue Ribbon Committee and ratified by the Board of Directors. administration of the Recording Academy. Submissions must contain lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peacebuilding, and empathy.
“We are thrilled to honor these diverse communities of music creators through the newly created awards and edits, and to continue to cultivate an environment that inspires change, progress and collaboration,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, in a statement. “The Academy’s top priority is to effectively represent the musicians we serve, and each year that means listening to our members and ensuring our rules and guidelines reflect our ever-changing industry.”
Among some of the other procedural adjustments to the eligibility requirements for the Grammys, the Academy added new entry fees for submissions beyond the five courtesy entries granted to Recording Academy members. And for an album to be eligible for the Grammy Awards, albums must now contain 75% unreleased recordings, up from only 50% previously. This rule was approved last year but will come into effect for 2023.
Finally, there were additional category changes that renamed the Best New Age Album category, made changes to categories in Classical areas to recognize other craft committees and composers, and made a new definition of what qualifies for the Best Remixed Recording category. You can find a complete list of Grammy Awards rules and guidelines here.
The full list of rule amendments for the 65th Grammy Awards was voted on and adopted at the last semi-annual meeting of the Recording Academy Board of Trustees held in May.
Jon Batiste won album of the year at the 2022 Grammys for his album ‘We Are’, beating Taylor Swift and Kanye West and winning five Grammys overnight, becoming the first black artist to win album of the year since 2008.
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