Grammys 2022 Roundtable: Who’s Taking Home The Big Wins? (Part 3)

While the Grammys have figured out the ceremony will be held on April 3rd, Rolling Stone India’s own David Britto (DB), Anurag Tagat (AT) and Amit Vaidya (AV) discuss this year’s nominees, the likely winners and who they wished in an ideal world would win. 

Check out part 1 and part 2 read on for our predictions in the final set of categories.

AV: Okay, so we’re at the Big 4! Let’s start with Best New Artist. They expanded these lists to 10 now so it makes it even more complicated!

Arooj Aftab

Jimmie Allen

Baby Keem

FINNEAS

Glass Animals

Japanese Breakfast

The Kid LAROI

Arlo Parks

Olivia Rodrigo

Saweetie

Who’s taking this home? 

DB: Olivia Rodrigo, I think she’s had quite a successful past year or so. 

AT: It’s probably Olivia Rodrigo, yeah. She was unmissable and arguably had the biggest debut album from a pop artist in a while. 

AV: It seems like a lock, hopefully that’s the case here – Olivia Rodrigo. Now who should win? 

DB: Strange to see Glass Animals on this list, but would like to see them win. 

AT: For the sake of South Asian representation, Arooj Aftab. 

AV: Glass Animals being there is weird. Ditto for FINNEAS.  I’d be less perplexed if any of his solo music was nominated but does anyone really remember any of his music? As far as should win, would love to see Arlo Parks take this home! 

Will Win: Olivia Rodrigo (AT, DB, AV)

Should Win: Glass Animals (DB), Arooj Aftab (AT), Arlo Parks (AV)

AV: Alrighty, Song Of The Year. A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. 

“Bad Habits”

Fred Gibson, Johnny McDaid & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Ed Sheeran)

“A Beautiful Noise”

Ruby Amanfu, Brandi Carlile, Brandy Clark, Alicia Keys, Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Linda Perry & Hailey Whitters, songwriters (Alicia Keys & Brandi Carlile)

“drivers license”

Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo, songwriters (Olivia Rodrigo)

“Fight For You”

Dernst Emile II, H.E.R. & Tiara Thomas, songwriters (H.E.R.)

“Happier Than Ever”

Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)

“Kiss Me More”

Rogét Chahayed, Amala Zandile Dlamini, Lukasz Gottwald, Carter Lang, Gerard A. Powell II, Solána Rowe & David Sprecher, songwriters (Doja Cat Featuring SZA)

“Leave The Door Open”

Brandon Anderson, Christopher Brody Brown, Dernst Emile II & Bruno Mars, songwriters (Silk Sonic)

“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

Denzel Baptiste, David Biral, Omer Fedi, Montero Hill & Roy Lenzo, songwriters (Lil Nas X)

“Peaches”

Louis Bell, Justin Bieber, Giveon Dezmann Evans, Bernard Harvey, Felisha “Fury” King, Matthew Sean Leon, Luis Manuel Martinez Jr., Aaron Simmonds, Ashton Simmonds, Andrew Wotman & Keavan Yazdani, songwriters (Justin Bieber Featuring Daniel Caesar & Giveon)

“Right On Time”

Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)

Who do we think takes this? 

AT: It’s likely going to be “drivers license,” right? It was the biggest song of the year in terms of commercial success, so it’d be odd to see anyone else get it. 

DB: “Leave The Door,” a worthy winner in all aspects of songwriting. 

AV: I really don’t want this to win but I think it will, sigh. Eilish and Rodrigo are going to cancel each other out and “Leave The Door Open” for Silk Sonic to win this.  

AT: I’m doubling down on “drivers license” and I hope I’m right!

DB: “drivers license,” mainly because it only had two songwriters on it.  

AV: I think “drivers license” as well! That bridge alone deserves it!

Will Win: Olivia Rodrigo (AT), Silk Sonic (DB, AV)

Should Win: Olivia Rodrigo (AT, DB, AV)

AV: Now we have Record of the Year! Award to the Artist and to the Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s) and mastering engineer(s), if other than the artist.

“I Still Have Faith In You”

ABBA

Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, producers; Benny Andersson & Bernard Löhr, engineers/mixers; Björn Engelmann, mastering engineer

“Freedom”

Jon Batiste

Jon Batiste, DJ Khalil, Kizzo & Autumn Rowe, producers; Russ Elevado, Kizzo & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Michelle Mancini, mastering engineer

“I Get A Kick Out Of You”

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga

Dae Bennett, producer; Dae Bennett & Josh Coleman, engineers/mixers; Greg Calbi & Steve Fallone, mastering engineers

“Peaches”

Justin Bieber Featuring Daniel Caesar & Giveon

Louis Bell, Josh Gudwin, HARV, Shndo & Andrew Watt, producers; Josh Gudwin & Andrew Watt, engineers/mixers; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer

“Right On Time”

Brandi Carlile

Dave Cobb & Shooter Jennings, producers; Brandon Bell & Tom Elmhirst, engineers/mixers; Pete Lyman, mastering engineer

“Kiss Me More”

Doja Cat Featuring SZA

Rogét Chahayed, tizhimself & Yeti Beats, producers; Rob Bisel, Serban Ghenea, Rian Lewis & Joe Visciano, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer

“Happier Than Ever”

Billie Eilish

FINNEAS, producer; Billie Eilish, FINNEAS & Rob Kinelski, engineers/mixers; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer

“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

Lil Nas X

Omer Fedi, Roy Lenzo & Take A Daytrip, producers; Denzel Baptiste, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes & Roy Lenzo, engineers/mixers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer

“drivers license”

Olivia Rodrigo

Daniel Nigro, producer; Mitch McCarthy & Daniel Nigro, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer

“Leave The Door Open”

Silk Sonic

Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II & Bruno Mars, producers; Serban Ghenea, John Hanes & Charles Moniz, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer

Lots of choices. Who wins? 

DB: “Leave The Door Open,” it is such a well engineer song. Definitely going to win this. 

AT: Way too many choices! I guess “Leave the Door Open” might take it home, but then there’s “Happier Than Ever”! Once again, Billie and Finneas are Grammy faves so this one might go to them.

AV: While I’d be happier if Silk Sonic won over Eilish, I think Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett are going to win here because, well, he’s super old and she’s Gaga and Grammys love the old man/ingenue combination. Who actually should win? 

DB: From a nostalgic point of view, it would be nice to see ABBA win. 

AT: Yeah, it’d be quite a coup to see ABBA win! Why not. Maybe Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga pull up with a surprise victory, who knows?

AV: “drivers license” should win this. I’ll say it again, that bridge alone deserves it!

Will Win: Silk Sonic (DB), Billie Eilish (AT), Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga (AV)

Should Win: ABBA (DB), Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (AT), Olivia Rodrigo (AV)

AV: And finally we have Album of the Year. 

We Are

Jon Batiste

Love For Sale

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga

Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe)

Justin Bieber

Planet Her (Deluxe)

Doja Cat

Happier Than Ever

Billie Eilish 

Back Of My Mind 

H.E.R.

Montero 

Lil Nas X

Sour

Olivia Rodrigo

Evermore 

Taylor Swift

Donda

Kanye West 

Who takes home the gold? 

AT: I’d be very surprised if it didn’t go to Billie or Olivia. Such powerful albums, so my guess is Billie Eilish. 

DB: Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever will win this, a very wholesome album overall. 

AV: But why! I feel like such a hater not wanting Eilish to win anything but come on. She’s won 7 Grammys in 2 years! I think it’s between Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga or Jon Batiste. Between the two, I think it’s likely going to be Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Now, who should win? 

AT: Jon Batiste really grabbed the headlines when he got the most number of nominations, so if the Recording Academy wasn’t just messing around, they’d do well to give it to him. 

DB: Quite enjoyed Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s record of standards. Will be nice to see them win and break the mainstream pop winners. 

AV: I actually think Olivia Rodrigo should win this. Critically and commercially, the album was unstoppable. I hate that Eilish is likely not going to let that happen and they’ll cancel each other out but at least here I can say, Rodrigo should have won!

Will Win: Billie Eilish (AT, DB), Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (AV)

Should Win: Jon Batiste (AT), Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (DB), Olivia Rodrigo (AV)

AV: Okay, well that’s a wrap, I’m very curious to see if any of our predictions come to fruition and if there are some unexpected surprises! Let’s see when it finally airs!