Zach Bryan Will Not Receive Any 2025 Grammy Nominations: Here's Why

After winning his first Grammy award earlier this year for his Kacey Musgraves collaboration, ‘I Remember Everything’, Zach Bryan will not compete at the 2025 ceremony.

This is not due to a lack of votes, esteem or releases in the eligibility period, which spans from September 16th, 2023 to August 30th, 2024. During this timeframe, Zach Bryan dropped his Boys of Faith EP and The Great American Bar Scene album, both of which were met with widespread critical acclaim and commercial success.

However, Zach Bryan has chosen to withhold his music from consideration at the 2025 Grammys. Although Zach is yet to comment directly, numerous reports are suggesting this is due to his belief that awards shows cultivate an unhealthy sense of competition.

In making this decision, Zach Bryan joins the likes of The Weeknd, Drake and Frank Ocean in boycotting the prestigious awards ceremony. The Weeknd has refused to submit his music for consideration since he was conspicuous by his absence from the 2021 list of nominations, despite his hit single, ‘Blinding Lights’, ruling the charts throughout the previous year. As a result of this perceived snub, The Weeknd no longer takes part in the Grammy Awards selection process.

Drake, who remains one of the most popular artists in the world across all genres, withdrew himself from the race for the 2021 and 2022 ceremonies, before returning to submit his 21 Savage collaborative album, Her Loss, for 2023 Rap Album of the Year consideration. The project was ultimately defeated by Killer Mike's Michael.

Unlike The Weekend and Drake, Zach Bryan's move to bow out of the 2025 Grammys, after his first ever triumph in February 2024 for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for the Kacey Musgraves-assisted ‘I Remember Everything’, does not appear to be motivated by any sense of resentment towards the Recording Academy.

Rather, Zach Bryan's decision aligns with the ‘Deep Satin’ crooner's general comments regarding the music industry, with the Oklahoma native regularly criticising more commercial aspects of Nashville, for instance, and the idea of awards shows as a whole.

In 2022, Zach Bryan took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to fans that were surprised not to see him nominated or performing at the CMA Awards, “Guys I don’t and will never want to be considered at the CMA’s. My pride is fine and I appreciate all the love and support and I say it with every ounce of respect to other country artists. Establishments will always be weird”. Despite this, Zach Bryan did attend the 2023 CMA Awards, with Zach having been nominated for Best New Artist.

While it's a shame that his fanbase won't get the chance to see Zach Bryan vying for another high-profile Grammy win in 2025, they most likely won't be surprised by his omission. Given the fact that Zach does not promote his music to Country Radio or through the release of ‘commercial’ singles in the traditional sense, this decision to step away from the awards show circuit feels like it's been a long time coming.

The nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards will be revealed on November 8th, 2024. The ceremony itself will take place at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on February 2nd, 2025.

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