This post was updated Nov. 12 at 9:07 p.m.

For once, it seems that the Grammy nominations are mostly right.

The nominations for the 67th Annual Grammy Awards – which will be held Feb. 2, 2025 – were announced Friday. Hundreds of artists, songwriters, producers and musicians were nominated across 94 categories for music released between Sept. 16, 2023, and Aug. 30, 2024. Despite some talent being overlooked and a few middling nominations, the contenders for February’s ceremony are a strong set of musicians whose work, for the most part, accurately reflect the most impactful songs of the past year.

With 11 nominations, Beyoncé’s “COWBOY CARTER” will compete for more awards than any other act. With a record 32 wins and now 99 career nominations, Beyoncé is no stranger to Grammy success, but it is still worth celebrating that the genre-bending ambition of “COWBOY CARTER” is being accepted with a nomination for Best Country Album. Of course, there is no guarantee that “COWBOY CARTER” will finally secure Beyoncé an incredibly overdue Album of the Year trophy, or that “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” will yield Grammy gold in Record of the Year or Song of the Year. Regardless, the individual nods for seven of the album’s songs – including career highlights “BODYGUARD” and “YA YA” – present the Recording Academy with several opportunities to award Beyoncé’s sonic exploration and continuous artistic growth.

The Recording Academy also warmly embraced Charli xcx’s viral “BRAT” phenomenon, with seven well-deserved nominations. Before Friday, Charli xcx only had two prior Grammy nominations for her featured performance on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy.” Now, she will compete in Album of the Year for “BRAT” and Record of the Year for “360,” with other songs “Apple,” “Guess featuring Billie Eilish” and “Von dutch” also receiving nominations. After years as one of the unsung visionaries of hyper-pop music, it is thrilling to see the Recording Academy recognize the English singer-songwriter’s unconventional approach to hedonistic yet introspective club music.

[Related: Concert review: Erotic, euphoric, electrifying — tour’s no ‘Sweat’ for Charli xcx, Troye Sivan]

The coronation of Chappell Roan as a breakout pop star could continue in February with any of her six well-earned nominations. Roan’s campy synth-pop music and LGBTQ+-accepting perspective makes her one of the freshest voices in the industry, so her nod for Best New Artist is especially worthwhile. Her breakthrough year has carried her to a nod for Album of the Year for “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” Roan also scored spots in Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Good Luck, Babe!” These nods make her one of two artists – alongside Sabrina Carpenter – who will compete in all of the “Big Four” General Field categories.

Elsewhere, hip-hop offered exciting nominations for some of the genre’s most vital torchbearers. 17-time Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar received seven nominations, five of which – including Record of the Year and Song of the Year – are for his incendiary Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.” Rising talent Doechii – who headlined UCLA’s Bruin Bash concert in September – was nominated for Best New Artist. But more impressively, her electrifying project “Alligator Bites Never Heal” will be the first female album to compete in Best Rap Album since Cardi B won the category for “Invasion of Privacy” in 2019.

As with any Grammy nominations announcement, there are always a few artists left out of the conversation that probably deserved to be recognized. Hozier’s chart-topping hit “Too Sweet” seemed poised to follow his past smash “Take Me to Church” in receiving a Song of the Year nomination, but the track was shut out despite its vocal strength and euphonious melody. Likewise, Vampire Weekend received no nominations for its critically acclaimed LP “Only God Was Above Us” after winning Best Alternative Music Album for its past two projects.

That said, not all artists who received fewer nominations than they could have were truly snubbed. Ariana Grande received three nominations for her March album “eternal sunshine.” The outcry by some of Grande’s fans on social media that she was snubbed in the General Field was more justified when 2018’s Grammy-winning “Sweetener” was left out of Album of the Year or when 2019’s “thank u, next” went home empty handed. By comparison, the nods for “eternal sunshine” seem fair when recalling that the 35-minute LP is far from Grande’s strongest work.

Several other female artists were less fortunate than Grande and were completely absent from the nominations list. Namely, past Grammy winners Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion and Tyla will not be competing in February despite having eligible material and hit singles that should have been included for consideration. In particular, the exclusion of Doja Cat’s playful but sensual R&B slow jam “Agora Hills” and Megan Thee Stallion’s eponymous third album were unjustified when both of these artists continued to elevate their song craft and wordplay.

Just as each Grammy nominations day presents several omissions, there are also artists whose nominations were undeserved. Taylor Swift received six nods, including an Album of the Year placement for the banal “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT.” The album’s Post Malone collaboration “Fortnight” is up for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Music Video. When comparing this bloated, uneven LP to the strength of Swift’s past work, it seems safe to say that her latest output – while popular – does not deserve to compete for top Grammy prizes.

[Related: Second Take: The declining popularity of girl groups in Western music harms sonic diversity]

Likewise, Carpenter’s inexplicable nod for Best New Artist seems unwarranted when her chart-topping album “Short n’ Sweet” is actually her sixth full-length LP. The category’s history with recognizing new artists is admittedly inconsistent, but Carpenter being included in the field when she released her first album almost a decade ago seems counterintuitive. That said, Carpenter’s five other nods – especially her Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance nominations for the addictive disco-pop banger “Espresso” – are welcome entries.

Broadly, the Grammy nominations this year reveal the program’s increasing shift toward populism. Album of the Year contenders “New Blue Sun” by André 3000 and “Djesse Vol. 4” by Jacob Collier might seem relatively obscure, but the rest of the field is dominated by mainstream hitmakers: Beyoncé, Charli xcx, Carpenter, Roan, Swift and Eilish, the latter of whom received seven nominations. Although other General Field nominees, such as Lamar and Best New Artist hopeful Shaboozey – who grabbed three of his five nods for his No. 1 hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – represent an effort to diversify the pool of nominated artists, the Recording Academy’s system still favors predictable big hits and has moved away from its more niche selections in past decades.

All things considered though, this year’s Grammy nominations do not have any enormous surprises or egregious omissions. Some artists being overlooked is par for the course, and populism will always have some effect for a broadcast awards show like this. Far more importantly, the openness to recognizing boundary-pushing music, such as “COWBOY CARTER” and “BRAT,” is nothing short of invigorating. The Recording Academy has long been tethered to favoring the most commercially popular and conceptually safe bodies of work, so the inclusion of some of the year’s most forward-thinking music is to be commended.

Ultimately, music listeners can be happy that the Grammy nominations successfully captured the pulse of the past year’s most important music.