Country United States Official website grammy.com Instituted 1959 | First awarded 1959 Presented by The Recording Academy Category of Grammy Awards | |
Awarded for quality songs containing both lyrics and melody Currently held by Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, "Hello" (2017) People also search for Grammy Award for Record of the Year Winners & Nominees HelloAdele - Greg Kurstin, Hello, Winner, FormationBeyoncé - Swae Lee - Mike WiLL Made-It -, Formation, Nominee, Love YourselfJustin Bieber - Ed Sheeran - Benny Blanco, Love Yourself, Nominee, I Took a Pill in IbizaMike Posner, I Took a Pill in Ibiza, Nominee, 7 YearsLukas Graham Forchhammer - Morten Ristorp - Stefan Forrest -, 7 Years, Nominee, Thinking Out LoudEd Sheeran - Amy Wadge, Thinking Out Loud, Winner, Girl CrushLori McKenna - Hillary Lindsey - Liz Rose, Girl Crush, Nominee, Blank SpaceTaylor Swift - Max Martin - Shellback, Blank Space, Nominee, Alright [Explicit]Kendrick Lamar - Pharrell Williams - Sounwave, Alright [Explicit], Nominee, See You AgainCharlie Puth - Wiz Khalifa - DJ Frank E -, See You Again, Nominee, Stay with MeSam Smith - Jimmy Napes - William Phillips, Stay with Me, Winner, Shake It OffTaylor Swift - Max Martin - Shellback, Shake It Off, Nominee, ChandelierSia - Jesse Shatkin, Chandelier, Nominee, All About That BassMeghan Trainor - Kevin Kadish, All About That Bass, Nominee, Take Me to ChurchHozier, Take Me to Church, Nominee, RoyalsLorde - Joel Little, Royals, Winner, RoarKaty Perry - Max Martin - Dr Luke -, Roar, Nominee, Same LoveMackle - Ryan Lewis - Mary Lambert, Same Love, Nominee, Just Give Me a ReasonP!nk - Nate Ruess - Jeff Bhasker, Just Give Me a Reason, Nominee, Locked Out of HeavenBruno Mars - Philip Lawrence - Ari Levine, Locked Out of Heaven, Nominee, We Are YoungNate Ruess - Jack Antonoff - Jeff Bhasker -, We Are Young, Winner, AdornMiguel, Adorn, Nominee, Call Me MaybeCarly Rae Jepsen - Josh Ramsay - Tavish Crowe, Call Me Maybe, Nominee, The A TeamEd Sheeran, The A Team, Nominee, Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)Greg Kurstin - Ali Tamposi - Jörgen Elofsson -, Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You), Nominee | ||
The Grammy Award for Song of the Year is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Awards in several categories are distributed annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position."
Contents
History and description
The Song of the Year awards have been awarded since 1959. It is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards. Despite both the Record of the Year award and Song of the Year being awarded for a single or for one track from an album, this award goes only to the composer(s) of the song whereas the Record of the Year award goes to the performer and production team of the song. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide, the award is given to the songwriter(s) of a song that "must contain melody and lyrics and must be either a new song or a song first achieving prominence during the eligibility year. Songs containing prominent samples or interpolations are not eligible".
Since the late 1960s other songwriter's awards have been presented for genre-specific categories including Grammy Award for Best Country Song, Grammy Award for Best Rock Song, Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and most recently in Grammy Award for Best Rap Song (since 2004), Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song (since 2006), Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song (since 2012) and Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song (since 2014).
Achievements
Twenty nine of the winning songs have also won the award for Record of the Year.
In many cases, the songwriters were also the performers. (Domenico Modugno, Henry Mancini, John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Joe South, Paul Simon, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Christopher Cross, Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie, Billy Joel, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Seal, Shawn Colvin, James Horner, Rob Thomas, Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross, John Mayer, U2, the Dixie Chicks, Amy Winehouse, Coldplay, Beyoncé, Lady Antebellum, Adele, Fun, Lorde, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran.)
Christopher Cross is the first artist to receive the Grammy Award for Song of the Year as well as for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist in one ceremony. Adele is the first female artist to receive the award for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Album of the Year, nonconsecutively. Only five artists have won the Song of the Year and Best New Artist awards the same year: Christopher Cross (1981), Alicia Keys (2002), Amy Winehouse (2008), Fun (2013), and Sam Smith. Adele and Christopher Cross are the only recipients of the four Grammys for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist.
The only other multiple winners in this category include Henry Mancini (1962 and 1964), Johnny Mercer (1962 and 1964), James Horner (1988 and 1999), Will Jennings (1993 and 1999) U2 (2001 and 2006) and Adele (2012 and 2017), winning two times each. However, songs written for Andy Williams, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, and Roberta Flack have received this award twice.
The song "Volare", winner in 1959 by Domenico Modugno and performed in Italian, is the only foreign-language song to win this award, although the 1967 winner "Michelle" by the Beatles has a critical part of its lyrics in French.
As of 2017, no songwriter has won Song of the Year twice in a row.