This year sees quite a lot of differences between Record and Song of the year, so it makes sense to consider them separately. Basically it’s a bunch of ballads against Billie Eilish and Lizzo.

Song of the Year

Always Remember Us This Way – Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey & Lori McKenna (Lady Gaga)
Bad Guy– Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell (Billie Eilish)
Bring My Flowers Now – Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth & Tanya Tucker (Tanya Tucker)
Hard Place – Ruby Amanfu, Sam Ashworth, D. Arcelious Harris, H.E.R. & Rodney Jerkins (H.E.R.)
Lover – Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift)
Norman Fucking Rockwell – Jack Antonoff & Lana Del Rey (Lana Del Rey)
Someone You Loved – Tom Barnes, Lewis Capaldi, Pete Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn & Sam Roman (Lewis Capaldi)
Truth Hurts – Steven Cheung, Eric Frederic, Melissa Jefferson & Jesse Saint John (Lizzo)

I was a little less accurate with my predictions for Song of the Year than Record, though I did manage to mention 5 of the 8 nominated songs above at some point. I was anticpating a bit more crossover between the two categories though, the lack of Sunflower and Thank U, Next is surprising, but missing out Halsey’s Without Me from any category at all is astounding. I thought she might have WON this category, so not appearing at all is mad.

Two writers are nominated for the second consecutive year, one as an artist too – Lady Gaga – and one as a writer on the comeback of a country legend – Brandi Carlile. Undoubtedly the breakout star of last year’s show, Brandi’s inclusion here for Bring My Flowers Now by Tanya Tucker was one of the biggest surprises, but rumblings among country fans meant it became a real contender. For Gaga, Always Remember Us This Way is by far the best single from A Star Is Born and I’m so glad it appears here instead of the Whitney-lite closing ballad instead.

Taylor Swift gets her fourth career Song of the Year nomination with her least irritating single of 2019. Lover really doesn’t have much of a chance here, but it proves that the blip with Reputation was just that for Grammy voters. Interestingly it’s the nominee written by just one person since Mike Posner’s I Took A Pill In Ibiza. H.E.R. appears here too, where I think Hard Place feels a bit more at home than in Record. It’s not a ‘huge’ sounding song, but is certainly an enjoyable one.

The last (and only other) song containing the F word to be nominated for this award was Fuck You by Cee-Lo Green back in 2011. Norman Fucking Rockwell might not be as insistently catchy as that song, but it definitely packs a punch. Lana Del Rey finally making it into the General field is amazing to see, while Jack Antonoff returns to the category he won in 2013. Personally I think there are more Song of the Year worthy choices from NFR as an album, hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it especially, but it’s a great pick here.

As with ROTY though there are 3 songs here that truly have a chance, one nominated here and the two favourites from that category. I was really edging towards Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved here for a while, since it became such a massive hit on the charts, but his exclusion from any other category this year doesn’t bode well. Much like Ed Sheeran before him, perhaps this will simply lead to another inescapable song that will give him a Grammy after a few attempts.

That leaves Lizzo vs Billie again and while in the last 5 award shows only one has seen two different artists win Record and Song of the Year, I could see voters giving this one to Truth Hurts over Bad Guy. ‘Why are men great till’ they gotta be great’ sums up just about every aspect of Truth Hurts as a song in the first few seconds. It may not even be Lizzo’s best song, but here I think it’s the clear favourite.