​Women to Take Center Stage at the Grammys

Women to Take Center Stage at the Grammys

女性将在格莱美奖上占据主导地位

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　　By Dan Novak

　　02 February 2024

　　The American music industry holds its highest honors Sunday night in Los Angeles at the 67th Grammy Awards ceremony.

　　Artists including Taylor Swift and SZA, as well as songs from the Oscar-nominated movie Barbie lead the competition in nominations. And mostly women are nominated for Album of the Year, the top Grammy. Just one of the eight nominees is male.

　　SZA has the most nominations of any artist this year: nine in all.

　　The wide female representation in nominations follows a year of huge success for women in the mostly male music business.

　　Swift's Eras Tour broke the record for ticket sales, passing that of British singer-songwriter Elton John. Beyoncé also played to full stadiums. And, Swift's concert film, also was a huge hit, earning more than $180 million in ticket sales.

　　"Women had a phenomenal year, not just in music, but in Barbie being the biggest-grossing movie," said Billboard magazine reporter Paul Grein. "Women dominated pop culture."

　　In addition to Swift and SZA, the other women nominated for this year's album prize are Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, Olivia Rodrigo, Janelle Monae and boygenius. The group boygenius is musicians Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. The single male artist nominated for Album of the Year is Jon Batiste.

　　It is just the 12th time in the Grammys' 66-year history, Grein said, that women received the majority of nominations for album of the year.

　　In other award fields, music from the Barbie movie received 12 Grammy nominations, including one for song of the year: Billie Eilish's, What Was I Made For?

　　Recording Academy recruits women

　　The Recording Academy has been admitting an increasing number of female music makers as members in recent years. The Academy is the group of musicians, producers, engineers and others who vote on the Grammy nominees and winners. Since 2019, the percentage of female members has gone from 30 percent to 36 percent.

　　"They are infusing the membership with a lot of members who will probably see things differently," Grein said.

　　Some of the male artists normally in competition were between projects. Harry Styles, Bad Bunny and other past Grammy winners did not release new music during the eligibility period. Still, a University of Southern California study shows the percentage of women artists on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 list at the end of 2023 reached 35 percent, a 12-year high.

　　Women also made gains behind the scenes, with women of color driving the first increase in female songwriting credits in 12 years. Almost 20 percent of songwriters are women, up from 14 percent a year earlier.

　　Female musicians made a lot of progress in just a few years, Smith said.

　　"When you look at the data, you see that the collective action across the music industry is moving toward women," she said. "That we haven't seen before."

　　The number of female producers increased but remain mostly male. In 2023, women received 6.5 percent of producer credits. No women were nominated for the producer of the year Grammy.

　　But, on Sunday, several women could make history at the ceremony, including Swift and SZA.

　　Swift could become the first artist to win album of the year four times if her work Midnights wins the big prize. And, if SZA wins for her recording "SOS," she will be the first Black woman to win album of the year as lead artist since Lauryn Hill.

　　Hill received the honor 25 years ago.

　　I'm Dan Novak.

　　Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by Reuters.

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　　作者：Dan Novak

　　日期：2024年2月2日

　　美国音乐界将于周日晚在洛杉矶举行第67届格莱美奖颁奖典礼，颁发其最高荣誉。

　　包括泰勒·斯威夫特和SZA在内的艺术家，以及来自奥斯卡提名电影《芭比》的歌曲，在提名竞争中领先。而且，主要是女性被提名为年度专辑，这是格莱美最高奖项。八个提名者中只有一位是男性。

　　SZA是今年提名最多的艺术家：总共有九项提名。

　　提名中女性代表的广泛展示，跟随了女性在主要由男性主导的音乐业界取得的巨大成功的一年。

　　斯威夫特的"Eras Tour"打破了票房销售记录，超过了英国歌手兼词曲创作人埃尔顿·约翰。碧昂斯也在满员的体育场演出。此外，斯威夫特的音乐会电影也取得了巨大的成功，票房收入超过1.8亿美元。

　　"女性在今年表现出色，不仅在音乐上，而且在《芭比》成为最高票房电影上，"Billboard杂志记者Paul Grein说。"女性主导了流行文化。"

　　除了斯威夫特和SZA，今年的专辑奖的其他女性提名者包括麦莉·塞勒斯，拉娜·德雷，奥利维亚·罗德里戈，詹妮尔·莫奈和boygenius。乐队boygenius是由音乐家朱利安·贝克，菲比·布里奇斯和露西·达库斯组成。被提名为年度专辑的唯一男性艺术家是乔恩·巴蒂斯特。

　　Grein说，这是格莱美66年历史中的第12次，女性获得了年度专辑提名的大部分。

　　在其他奖项领域，来自《芭比》电影的音乐获得了12项格莱美提名，包括年度歌曲的一项：比莉·艾利什的《我是为了什么而生》。

　　录音学院招募女性

　　近年来，录音学院一直在接纳越来越多的女性音乐制作人成为会员。学院是由音乐家、制作人、工程师和其他人组成的团体，他们对格莱美奖的提名者和获奖者进行投票。自2019年以来，女性会员的比例已经从30%增加到36%。

　　"他们正在用很多可能会有不同看法的会员充实会员队伍，"Grein说。

　　一些通常参与竞争的男性艺术家正在进行项目之间的切换。哈里·斯泰尔斯、Bad Bunny和其他过去的格莱美奖得主在资格期间没有发布新音乐。然而，南加州大学的一项研究显示，到2023年底，Billboard杂志热门100首歌曲榜单上的女性艺术家比例达到了35%，这是12年来的最高水平。

　　女性也在幕后取得了进步，有色人种的女性推动了12年来女性歌曲创作信用的首次增长。近20%的歌曲创作人是女性，比一年前的14%有所上升。

　　女性音乐家在短短几年内取得了很大的进步，Smith说。

　　"当你看数据时，你会看到整个音乐行业的集体行动正在向女性倾斜，"她说。"这是我们以前没有看到过的。"

　　女性制作人的数量增加了，但主要还是男性。在2023年，女性获得了6.5%的制作人信用。没有女性被提名为年度制作人格莱美奖。

　　但是，在周日的颁奖典礼上，包括斯威夫特和SZA在内的几位女性可能会创造历史。

　　如果斯威夫特的作品《Midnights》赢得大奖，她可能成为第一位四次赢得年度专辑奖的艺术家。如果SZA凭借她的录音"SOS"赢得奖项，她将成为自劳伦·希尔以来，第一位作为主要艺术家赢得年度专辑奖的黑人女性。

　　希尔在25年前获得了这个荣誉。

　　我是Dan Novak。

　　Dan Novak根据路透社的报道，为VOA学习英语改编了这个故事。

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　　这个故事中的词汇

　　ticket — n.一张允许你观看表演、参加活动、乘坐交通工具等的纸。

　　stadium — n.一个通常没有屋顶的非常大的建筑，有一个被许多排座位环绕的大开放区域，用于体育赛事、音乐会等。

　　phenomenal — adj. 非常好或伟大：以非常令人印象深刻的方式不寻常

　　gross — n. 扣除税款、费用等之前赚取的钱的总额

　　infuse — v. 使充满某种东西

　　eligible— n. 能够被选为某事的