The Grammys have denied that Taylor Swift and Kanye West were nominated at the last minute because of their feud and their "appeal" after it was reported that they were added to the list of potential winners the day before the nominees were announced.
Earlier this week, the Grammys unveiled the list of nominees for their 2022 award ceremony, further revealing that they'd upped the number in the main fields to 10.
But in a report by the New York Times, it was claimed that the decision to up the numbers was made at the 11th hour, with nominees such as Swift, West, Lil Nas X, and ABBA among the artists to benefit.
In the Album of the Year category, it was reported that Swift's Evermore and West's Donda were last-minute additions, joining the likes of Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever and Olivia Rodrigo's Sour.
In the Record of the Year field, Lil Nas X's "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and ABBA's "I Still Have Faith in You" were apparently added to the list of nominees.
Song of the Year reportedly saw last-minute additions from Doja Cat for "Kiss Me More," which features SZA, and "Right on Time" by Carlile, who was already nominated in the category alongside Alicia Keys.
And finally, for Best New Artist, Baby Keem and Arooj Aftab were added to the category, joining Jimmie Allen, Finneas, Glass Animals, Japanese Breakfast, the Kid Laroi, Arlo Parks, Olivia, and Saweetie.
Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the Recording Academy, said that the decision to increase the number of nominees was one that would "make room for more music, more artists, and more genres, and to embrace the spirit of inclusion."
Mason also revealed that the additions to each category were the 9th and 10th most voted for by the Recording Academy's members.
The addition of Swift and West to the Album of the Year category in particular raised some eyebrows, especially because of their previous feud and the fact that they already have a combined Grammy nomination count of 111.
This posed the question of whether the pair had simply been gifted with nominations because of their "appeal" to the show, something Mason was quick to deny.
Swift reacted to her Album of the Year nomination on Instagram, posting a black-and-white video of herself in a huge ball gown while singing "Champagne Problems," a song from Evermore.
"NO PROBLEMS TODAY JUST CHAMPAGNE," she wrote in the accompanying caption. "I wanted to share this video with you from when @aarondessner and I were doing our fittings for the video and there was a piano, so ofc this happened. SO stoked evermore has been honored like this. Congrats to all our fellow nominees!!"
Swift has enjoyed huge success at the Grammys, having become the first female artist to win Album of the Year twice, and the only female artist to win it three times. She was also the youngest to win the award until recently, when Eilish claimed the record at the age of 18.
