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NorCal Grammy Award Nominees Revealed: Victoria Monét, Metallica and More

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A pop star with long, flowing hair and a sparkling outfit performs amid bright stage lights. She sings into a microphone stand.
Victoria Monét performs onstage during her The Jaguar Tour at The Regency Ballroom on Oct. 04, 2023 in San Francisco, Calif.  (Dana Jacobs/Getty Images)

The Recording Academy announced the nominees for the 2024 Grammy Awards last week, kindling the usual deluge of conversations around which artists were snubbed.

Sifting through 91 categories revealed two big reasons for music fans to celebrate: the domination of women across many major categories that historically championed male artists. The sheer number of Bay Area and Northern California musicians also stood out, highlighting local talent who continue to break barriers and accumulate accolades.

Rising R&B superstar Victoria Monét commanded seven nominations for her indelible debut album Jaguar II. Monét grew up in Sacramento before relocating to Los Angeles to launch her songwriting career.

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Monét performed a homecoming show last month in Sacramento following two sold-out nights at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. The star quality in her performance was palpable. Monét previously received three Grammy nominations for her work on Ariana Grande’s album thank u, next and Chloe x Halle’s hit single “Do It,” but this year’s seven nominations mark a first for her as a performer.

Monét’s 2-year-old daughter, Hazel, achieved a milestone as well. She’s the youngest nominee in the history of the awards for her featured voice in the song “Hollywood” alongside the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category.

Monét is also nominated in these categories: Best R&B Song for “On My Mama”, Best R&B Performance for “How Does It Make You Feel”, Best R&B Album and Best Engineered Album categories. What’s more, she’ll compete in two of the four general field categories as she receives a coveted Best New Artist nomination while her hit song, “On My Mama,” lands in the Record of the Year tier. Colin Leonard, nominated as the mastering engineer of “On My Mama,” studied classical guitar at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

The most nominated artist this year, SZA, had some Bay Area magic on her album, too. Rob Bisel, who received three nominations as the songwriter, producer and engineer on SZA’s multiplatinum hit “Kill Bill,” was raised in Moraga and interned at Studio 880 in Oakland as a teen.

Raised 115 miles north of San Francisco in the rural town of Ukiah, Phoebe Bridgers netted seven nominations, including one for her own collaboration with SZA, “Ghost in the Machine.” Six additional nominations for her group Boygenius, including Album of the Year for The Record and Record of the Year for “Not Strong Enough,” brought Bridgers into a tie with Monét’s seven nominations.

With nine Grammy Awards earned over their decades-long career, iconic San Francisco-based band Metallica received three nominations in the rock and metal categories. The group released their eleventh studio album 72 Seasons earlier this year to positive critical reception. If they win in 2024, it will end the band’s unlucky streak, giving Metallica its first set of golden gramophones since 2009.

San Francisco Symphony conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen notched two nominations for the Best Orchestral Performance and Best Choral Performance categories for his recording of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” with the Symphony and the SF Symphony Chorus’ recording of Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna,” respectively.

Molly Tuttle, who was born in Santa Clara and raised in Palo Alto, received a nod in the Best Bluegrass Album category with City of Gold, a project featuring her band Golden Highway. The album is partly an ode to Tuttle’s roots in California, with titles like “San Joaquin” and “Yosemite” on the tracklist.

Jeremy Cohen-led Quartet San Francisco’s “Cutey and the Dragon” got recognition in the Best Instrumental Composition category. While Cohen is a Bay Area musician, he is not credited as a composer, making him ineligible for a nomination in this field.

More nominees with Bay Area ties include:

Ray Keys, a songwriter on Coco Jones’ sultry hit “ICU,” was born in San José.

Rogét Chahayed, a songwriter on Doja Cat’s comeback single “Attention.” Chahayed attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and studied under professor Yoshikazu Nagai.

Zakir Hussain, who lives in San Anselmo, received two nominations in the Best Global Music Performance and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album categories.

Julian Lage, a Santa Rosa-bred jazz musician, was nominated for his album The Layers in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category.

And Skrillex, the popular DJ, spent part of his childhood in San Francisco and scored two nominations in the Dance/Electronic genre.

The 66th Annual Grammy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 4, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Viewers at home can tune into CBS or Paramount+ to catch the show.

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