keen to keep viewers glued to the grammys the recording academy has asked the music worlds powerhouse performers to anchor yet another awards gala forced to go virtual megan thee stallion cardi b bts taylor swift dua lipa and billie eilish are among the long list of musicians who will appear during the mix of live and pretaped performances on sunday the grammys gala falls nearly a year to the day that the coronavirus pandemic shuttered clubs and halted touring dealing a crippling blow to the industry heres a guide to the event which comedian trevor noah will hostwomen take centre stage beyonce is the leading nominee with nine despite not releasing an album in the past year while swift and lipa both nabbed six nods for records they dropped during quarantine bluesy rocker brittany howard known for her leading vocals with the band alabama shakes jumped into the spotlight on her own with five nominations for her first solo album jaime howard is among the leading women in the rock categories where female artists made an extremely strong impression on grammy voters for the first time ever the best rock performance category is comprised entirely of solo women or femaleled acts howard fiona apple phoebe bridgers sister group haim grace potter and the adrianne lenkerfronted band big thief the best country album category features four solo female acts along with one malefemale group mickey guyton who will perform sunday is up for best country solo performance becoming the first black woman nominated in a country category for her song black like me and rapper megan thee stallion is poised to make a splash with four nominations including for best new artist a category featuring seven women out of eight nomineesmea culpa to beyoncebeyonce is the most nominated woman in grammy history with 79 and is tied with paul mccartney for the second most nods ever theyre each just one nomination behind top dogs jayz beyonces husband and quincy jones who both have 80 but the 39yearold whose art social media messaging sales innovations and pop culture presence have indelibly shaped the industry has repeatedly fallen short in the top categories in 2017 she notably lost out to adele despite dropping the seminal visual album lemonade and embarking on the previous years most lucrative tour after several years of promising to improve its recognition of artists who arent white men sunday could be the moment the academy finally pays beyonce her due her sweeping black parade released amid explosive nationwide antiracism protests is in the running for record and song of the year honors she could also bag several awards thanks to her collaboration with megan thee stallion on the wildly popular savage remix whether beyonce will attend virtually or otherwise is up in the air shes not on the performance list and since 2018 has skipped the ceremonypandemic performancesthe mostly virtual event promises toptier talent recruited