TORONTO — While they knew Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" album would probably land them in the Grammys race this year, two Canadian musicians say they were still stunned when those dreams actually came true.
The superstar and her country-pop album led the Grammys with 11 nominations and that helped Toronto producer Nathan Ferraro land three of his own, including record of the year.
He shared two of his nods with German-Canadian songwriter Megan Bülow and Calgary-raised Elizabeth Lowell Boland whose work on the track "Texas Hold 'Em" put them in the running for song of the year and best country song.
"I'm feeling a bit numb right now," explained Boland in a call from her Toronto home.
"But I suppose that's probably a defence mechanism trying to protect myself from the small possibility we didn't get nominated."
Frequent collaborators Boland and Ferraro learned of their nominations separately — he was watching a live YouTube feed of the Grammys while she was woken up by her husband with the news.
Both said it was a career turn they never could've prepared for.
"You can put the work in and try to make the best stuff you can — a lot of it is out of our hands," Ferraro said.
"This year, obviously, it fell in our favour."
"Cowboy Carter" also landed Dave Hamelin, best known as a member of Montreal band the Stills, a nod for producing, engineering and mixing in the album of the year category.
Other Canadian contenders in marquee Grammys categories included Halifax-raised hitmaker Cirkut. He picked up two nominations for his work with Charli XCX on "Brat," including a mention in the album of the year category. The track "360" also earned him a nomination for record of the year.
Prolific audio engineer and mixer Serban Ghenea continued his Grammys run with another five nods in key categories.
Ghenea was named in record of the year for "Fortnight" by Taylor Swift, as well as nods in album of the year for Sabrina Carpenter's "Short n' Sweet" and Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department." He's also up for best dance pop recording for "Yes, and?" by Ariana Grande.
He now holds a career tally of 50 Grammy nominations.
Ghenea was born in Romania before he moved to Canada as a youngster, going on to build his name in the music industry where he’s scored multiple Grammy wins over his career.
R&B singer Deborah Cox was among the best musical theatre album nominees for her role as Glinda in the recording of "The Wiz."
It's the second Grammy nod of her career, and she says it arrives at a welcome time as she digests the outcome of the U.S. election.
"It's a beautiful distraction," she said in a call from Washington.
"And it's definitely put some more wind in my sail, especially dealing with what we're dealing with right now. It was a very heavy, heavy couple of years with the elections with everything going on."
Montreal's Kaytranada added three nominations to his career tally, which includes two wins. His album "Timeless" is among best dance/electronic album contenders, while he also picked up noms for best remixed recording and best dance/electronic recording.
The Weeknd's appearance on Future's Drake-diss track "We Still Don't Trust You" found a spot in best melodic rap performance.
Grant Dickinson, an Ontario producer better known as Thelabcook, is among the team up for best rap song for Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign's "Carnival."
Ottawa-born guitarist Sue Foley is nominated for best traditional blues album for "One Guitar Woman."
In best R&B song, two Canadians were named: Montreal's Sara Diamond, who was a songwriter on "Here We Go (Uh Oh)" by Coco Jones, and Toronto's Scott Zhang, who has a writing credit on SZA's "Saturn." Both are musicians in their own right, with Zhang performing under the stage name Monsune.
And Victoria-founded Spiritbox earned a nod for best metal performance for their song "Cellar Door."
The best engineered album, non-classical category, was stacked with Canadians, including Toronto's Charlotte Day Wilson who is up for her sophomore R&B album "Cyan Blue" alongside fellow citizens Jack Emblem and Jack Rochon.
Also vying for that trophy is Alberta-raised Shawn Everett, part of the team behind Kacey Musgraves' “Deeper Well," and Ghenea, who was involved in Sabrina Carpenter's “Short n’ Sweet."
Frequent Bruno Mars collaborator and Burlington-Ont. native Charles Moniz is nominated as part of the team behind Lucky Daye's "Algorithm." And Vancouver-based Mitch McCarthy is nominated as part of the team behind Willow's "empathogen."
McCarthy picked up another three nominations across this year's Grammys. In record of the year, he's up for Chappell Roan's hit song "Good Luck, Babe!" and in album of the year for her breakout "The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess." For best dance pop recording he contends with Madison Beer's "Make You Mine."
In the classical categories, Montreal's Yannick Nézet-Séguin has three nominations, including two for best opera recording as conductor of "Catán: Florencia En El Amazonas" and "Puts: The Hours," both with New York's Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera Chorus.
He's also up for best compilation soundtrack for visual media for "Maestro: Music By Leonard Bernstein" along with the London Symphony Orchestra and Hollywood star Bradley Cooper.
Toronto-born baritone Elliot Madore also earned a nomination in the best opera recording category for his role in "Adams: Girls of the Golden West."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
David Friend, The Canadian Press
