The Grammys aren’t until February, but Texas artists started celebrations early.
Members of the Recording Academy’s Texas chapter gathered at the Granada Theater in Dallas to celebrate this year’s new class of members and its nominees.
“I think the cool thing about the Grammys is that there is the big shiny object of the awards. For somebody like me, when I got into the Recording Academy, I was kinda like, ‘OK, well who doesn't want to win a Grammy,?’ You know? That's great,” said Latin Grammy-nominated singer Gina Chavez. “And then once I got in, I realized it's actually so much more than that.”
Chavez is the president of the Recording Academy’s Texas Chapter, which also includes Oklahoma.
Through the group, Chavez met Karin Bliznik, a St. Louis-based trumpet player, and the two toured together, and played a pride event in Mongolia.
“That's something that would not have happened without the Recording Academy, which is pretty awesome,” she said. “I didn’t have that one on my bingo card.”
When artists say that it’s an honor just to be nominated, it’s true, said Michele Rhea Caplinger. She’s been the senior executive director of the Recording Academy’s Atlanta chapter for 25 years.
“It’s gotta be just staggering for someone to even be nominated because sometimes there's anywhere from 800-1,000 entries that have to go to five nominations. Imagine that,” she said. “You're already a winner.”
Fort Worth’s Kirk Franklin already has 20 Grammys to his name, and he has the chance to earn another with this year’s nomination for Best Gospel Performance/Song.
The Mean Green can root for three University of North Texas alumni to take home golden gramophones: jazz saxophonist and PhD candidate Tito Charneco, jazz artist and composer Amanda Ekery, and Lecrae, a Christian rapper and four-time Grammy winner.
The Dallas String Quartet will represent the Big D, and Grammy-nominated singer Selena Gomez will represent Grand Prairie.
Other artists with strong North Texas ties like Charley Crockett and Miranda Lambert also earned nominations.
The final round of voting opens Dec. 12 and runs through Jan. 5. Winners will be announced in a televised ceremony Feb. 1.
