Grammy predictions: Will Beyonce or Billie Eilish reign supreme in 2025?

The Grammy Awards boast more than 90 categories.

Still, the event, especially the portion shown on broadcast coverage, tends to be dominated by the biggest names in pop music: Beyoncé, for example, leads all nominees with 11 (she has 99 in all, now); followed by Post Malone, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Charli xcx, with seven each, and Taylor Swift, and first-time nominees Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, with six each.

The categories that get the most attention, of course, are the so-called “Big Four” general field categories, where the marquee artists — irrespective of genre — battle it out for top honors.

The “Big Four” field in 2025 is absolutely fantastic — there is so much great talent. So many good stories. It should be an absolute treat to see how it all plays out when “Music’s Biggest Night” goes down on Feb. 2 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Here are our predictions for how will win the four biggest categories — album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist.

Tune in to see if they come true when the Grammys are aired live at 5 p.m. on CBS-TV and Parmount+. (You can also stream the awards on any service that includes CBS and view the show up to 24 hours afterward on Paramount+.)

Album of the Year

Nominees: “New Blue Sun,” Andre 3000; “Cowboy Carter,” Beyonce; “Short n’ Sweet,” Sabrina Carpenter; “Brat,” Charli xcx; “Djesse Vol. 4,” Jacob Collier; “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” Billie Eilish; “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” Chappell Roan; “The Tortured Poets Department,” Taylor Swift

The skinny: This trophy is commonly known as “The Big Award,” although some might prefer to refer to as “The Taylor Trophy” given that Swift has won this one more times than any other artist in history.

And although you can never count out Tay-Tay in this (or, really, any) Grammy category, we really don’t think the biggest star on planet Earth will win her 5th album of the year prize for what is — no doubt — the most mediocre offering of her beyond-compare career.

On the other side of the coin is Beyonce, who has lost this category as many times as Swift has won it. (And she has actually lost to Swift twice — in 2010 and 2015).

We’ve spent years predicting that Queen Bey will finally have that breakthrough — for albums far better than 2024’s “Cowboy Carter” — only to have voters keep proving us incorrect. Do we dare being wrong once again and say that 2025 will be Beyonce’s year? That’s a tough one.

Looking beyond Swift and Beyonce, this category is absolutely loaded with great storylines and possible winners.

Putting her Disney Channel ever further in the rearview mirror, Sabrina Carpenter released the best mainstream pop album of the year with “Short n’ Sweet.” Billie Eilish is always a threat to win, at pretty much every award show, and “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is another excellent offering.

Charli CXC and Chappel Roan captured the zeitgeist of 2024 perhaps better than anyone else in the business, as the former turned the title of “Brat” into the word of year and the latter skyrocketed from seemingly out of nowhere into pop’s top-tier.

Honestly, it’s such a close race that it wouldn’t be shocking to see any of these six women take home the trophy. The only surprise would come if either Andre 3000’s “New Blue Sun” or Jacob Collier’s “Djesse Vol. 4” managed to sneak a win.

Who will win: Yeah, we might be a glutton for punishment, but we’re going with Beyonce — once again — to finally have that breakthrough and win for “Cowboy Carter.”

Record of the Year

The nominees: “Now and Then,” The Beatles; “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Beyonce; “Espresso,” Sabrina Carpenter; “360,” Charli xcx; “Birds of a Feather,” Billie Eilish; “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar; “Good Luck, Babe!” Chappell Roan; “Fortnight,” Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone

The skinny: No, that’s not a typo – The Beatles are indeed nominated in this category, some 55 years years after the group broke up. And this tune — a marvel of audio restoration that is dubbed “the last Beatles song” — could indeed win the Fab Four their first-ever Record of the Year Grammy.

Go figure.

Yet, we’d rather see the award go to any of the other nominees — all of which are better than the Beatles’ number.

Well, maybe not “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

“Not Like Us” might be the most impressive in the pack, a first-tier “diss track” that serves as further proof that Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper alive. Yet, we’re not sure how many votes will go to track that references someone as a pedophile.

“Good Luck, Babe!” and “360” are — to borrow from summer 2024 — totally brat, but neither deliver that caffeine-style buzz quite like “Espresso,” which is good but not quite good enough.

“Fortnight” is also quite good, even though its parent album isn’t.

And that leaves an undeniable triumph from an established Grammy winner, a soaring tune that has the look, feel and momentum often associated with a record of year winner.

Who will win: Look for Eilish to add to another award to her already ridiculously overcrowded trophy case thanks to “Birds of a Feather.”

Song of the Year

Nominees: “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Sean Cook, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Chibueze Collins Obinna, Nevin Sastry and Mark Williams, songwriters (Shaboozey); “Birds of a Feather,” Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish); “Die With a Smile,” Dernst Emile II, James Fauntleroy, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars); “Fortnight,” Jack Antonoff, Austin Post and Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone); “Good Luck, Babe!” Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Daniel Nigro and Justin Tranter, songwriters (Chappell Roan); “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar); “Please Please Please,” Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter); “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Brian Bates, Atia Boggs, Beyoncé, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro and Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Beyoncé)

The skinny: We’re always tempted to give this one award — which is devoted to songwriters — to the song that lists the most writing credits. But, in this case, that would mean “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which isn’t anywhere close to being one of Bey’s best.

So, we thought about going in the other direction and picking the one with the fewest writing credits. And that’s “Not Like Us,” a Lamar-Drake feud number that voters aren’t likely to further reward in the general field. (Although, it could win both of the rap-specific categories that it’s nominated in.)

Swift holds the lifetime record for most nominations in the category — with eight — and, remarkably, has yet to score a win here. So, that’s definitely something working in favor of “Fortnight.”

A win for “Birds of a Feather” would make it two years in a row in this category for the O’Connell siblings (Eilish and brother Finneas), who triumphed in 2024 with “What Was I Made For?”

Who will win: While it’s tempting to spread the wealth — especially to include Swift — we’re actually going to double up here and say that “Birds of a Feather” will win both record and song of the year.

Best New Artist

The nominees: Benson Boone, Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, Khruangbin, Raye, Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, Teddy Swims

The skinny: As always, there are some nice talents in the mix — including many who will likely remain forces in the biz for years to come.

Yet — let’s be honest here — the category really boils down to a two-artist race in 2025 between two skyrocketing pop stars.

In one corner is Roan, who rode massive internet buzz, an opening slot on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour and a collection of solid retro-dance-pop tunes to worldwide fame.

She’d be an absolute shoe-in to win in most years, except that – well – we have the person responsible for the best mainstream pop album of 2024 waiting in the other corner.

That would be Carpenter, whose top-to-bottom solid “Short n’ Sweet” served as a convincing case that she now needs to be ranked among the genre’s top names.

We’re not, however, convinced that Carpenter deserves to even be in this category – given that “Short n’ Sweet” is her sixth (!) album to date. But Grammy voters probably don’t pay attention to such details – just ask Shelby Lynne.

Beyond the studio, both artists showed that they are formidable live artists when they performed at the 2024 Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco.

Who will win: Roan, by a nose, over Carpenter. Although we’d be willing to accept the first-ever tie in this category in 2025.