LOS ANGELES — Jordin Sparks was first nominated for a Grammy 15 years ago. Now, she is back with a fresh nomination for contemporary Christian music performance at the 2024 Grammys. For Sparks, it’s a celebration of growth and a grand achievement.
“To get nominated once is incredible. To get nominated twice is even more incredible,” Sparks said with a huge smile.
Sparks is one of the women in attendance at “Women in the Mix,” part of The Recording Academy’s second staging of their Grammy House series. The event shines a spotlight on the incredible female talent in the industry.
“It is incredible to be in the industry at this time when the scales feel like they’re kind of tipping in women’s favor. It is so amazing. All the nominations everybody has. Look, my girl, Victoria, I’m so happy for her,” Sparks said, referencing multiple-nominee Victoria Monét, her smile increasing. “Everybody is getting their flowers and getting their due,” Sparks said.
With a record number of nominations across several big categories, women are poised to make history at the 2024 Grammy Awards. The dominance of women in prestigious categories like Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year is telling. With artists such as Billie Eilish, SZA, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Victoria Monet in the running for some of those top awards, Sparks said there is a unique connection women have with their emotions in music creation. “There’s just something different about the connection with our emotions and how we write and how we make music and how we engineer and how we listen to things.”
Nominee Emily King, up for Best R&B Album, expressed her joy at tapping into the female perspective in her music.
“I try to write songs and tell stories from my perspective and just to be true to myself and hope that someone else can relate to what I’m talking about,” she said. This year’s nomination creates a total of four for King, the first being for the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008 when she was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Under the guidance of CEO Harvey Mason Jr., The Recording Academy has taken steps to promote diversity and inclusivity.
“We’re proud of the work that we’ve done to bring in 2,500 new women voters, which I think will have an impact on our outcomes,” Mason said. “We’ve got almost 40% people of color. So we’re working really hard on inviting people from all different groups, different genres, different genders into the academy because the outcomes are better, they’re going to be more balanced, going to be more relevant, they’re going to be more fair,” Mason said.
He promises more of the same in the future.
“You can expect us to continue to do the work,” he said.
The 66th annual Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.