What is Song of The Year at The Grammy Awards?

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FEMUSINDO.com - The Grammy Award for Song of the Year is an award given at the Grammy Awards, an event founded in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards.

The Song of the Year award is one of the four most prestigious categories at the awards, along with Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Album of the Year, which has been given annually since the 1st Grammy Awards in 1959.

According to the description guide for the 54th Grammy Awards, the award was given to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position.

If the winning song contains samples or interpolations of existing material, the publisher and original songwriter may submit a Winner's Certificate.

Song of the Year is related to other general category awards at the Grammy Awards, but is conceptually different from Record of the Year or Album of the Year.

While the Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards are given for a single or a song from an album, the Song of the Year award is given only to the composer of the song.

The Record of the Year award, on the other hand, is given to the artist and production team for the recording of a particular song.

The Song of the Year award is given to the songwriter of a song that must contain both melody and lyrics and must be a new song or a song that first reached peak popularity during the qualifying year.

Songs that contain prominent samples or interpolations are not eligible for the Song of the Year award.

The award is not always limited to new or newly popular songs, for example in 1992, when the winner was Natalie Cole's cover of "Unforgettable" (a song first recorded by Nat King Cole and made famous in the 1950s).

The only rule is that the song must have been recorded during the eligibility year and not have previously been nominated for the award.

Since the late 1960s, other songwriters' awards have been given for specific genre categories, including the Grammy Award for Best Country Song (since 1965).

Then there's the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song (since 1969), the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (since 1988), the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song (since 1992).

More recently, the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song (since 2004), the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song (from 2006 to 2014), and the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song (from 2012 to 2014).

Then, the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song (since 2014), the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance/Song (since 2015), and the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song (since 2015).

The category was expanded to include eight nominees in 2019 and 10 nominees in 2022. The number of nominees will return to eight starting with the 2024 ceremony.

In 2023, a special category honoring songwriters was established: Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical. (*)