T
HERE WAS NO TIME FOR OPTIONS. IT WAS
February 2000, and Jennifer Lopez was enjoying an
ascent to superstar status thanks to the success of
her 1999 debut album, On the 6, and a hit film career.
But amid the chaos of filming The Wedding Planner
and starting a new LP, Jenny From the Block found
herself without a dress the day before the Grammys.
“I was preparing for a last-minute fitting with [Lopez] in
New York, driving down Fifth Avenue in a taxi, and I remem-
ber seeing that green dress in the window of the Versace
boutique,” recalls former stylist Andrea Lieberman. “When she
tried it on, everyone knew it was the dress.”
The now-iconic emerald silk chiffon dress, which plunged
all the way down to the navel, landed Lopez on the front
page of major newspapers — even though she didn’t win
any awards that night (she was nominated for best dance re-
cording for “Waiting for Tonight”). And instead of breaking the
internet, it helped build it: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
has credited the dress with inspiring Google Images after it
became “the most popular search query we had ever seen,” he
wrote in a 2015 essay.
The dress, conservatively valued at $100,000 to $200,000,
defined Lopez’s elegant yet unabashedly sexy style, but it
also changed how artists approached red carpets. “Bodily
exposure to this degree had not been seen at an awards show
before,” says Kevin Jones, curator of the Fashion Institute of
Design & Merchandising Museum. “It was one of the first
[looks] to establish a formula that has become expected of
celebrities at popular music awards shows today: make a
confident entrance, and make people’s jaws drop.”
In the 20 years that followed, artists began showing more
skin, stylists began wielding more double-sided tape and
Donatella Versace — who took over her namesake Italian
fashion house after her brother Gianni’s death in 1997 — be-
came a Grammys red-carpet mainstay for musicians looking
to make a sexed-up statement. “It’s one of those moments
in time that’s so difficult to repeat, almost like Lady Gaga’s
meat dress,” says Darren Julien, president/CEO of Julien’s
Auction House. “It will definitely be one of Jennifer’s holy
grail items as far as collectibility. But it’s really a piece that
belongs in a museum.” —BROOKE MAZUREK
2019 NOMINEES
AND WINNERS
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
KACEY MUSGRAVES,
GOLDEN HOUR
Cardi B, Invasion of Privacy
Brandi Carlile, By the Way,
I Forgive You
Drake, Scorpion
H.E.R., H.E.R.
Janelle Monáe, Dirty
Computer
Post Malone, beerbongs &
bentleys
Various Artists,
Black Panther: The Album
RECORD OF THE YEAR
“THIS IS AMERICA,”
CHILDISH GAMBINO
“I Like It,” Cardi B,
Bad Bunny and J Balvin
“The Joke,” Brandi Carlile
“God’s Plan,” Drake
“Shallow,” Lady Gaga
and Bradley Cooper“All the Stars,” Kendrick
Lamar and SZA
“rockstar,” Post Malone
featuring 21 Savage
“The Middle,” Zedd,
Maren Morris and Grey
SONG OF THE YEAR
“THIS IS AMERICA,”
CHILDISH GAMBINO
“The Joke,” Brandi Carlile
“God’s Plan,” Drake
“Boo’d Up,” Ella Mai
“Shallow,” Lady Gaga
and Bradley Cooper
“All the Stars,” Kendrick
Lamar and SZA
“In My Blood,” Shawn Mendes
“The Middle,” Zedd, Maren
Morris and Grey
BEST NEW ARTIST
DUA LIPA
Chloe x Halle
Luke Combs
Greta Van Fleet
H.E.R.
Margo Price
Bebe Rexha
Jorja Smith
2020 GRAMMYS
PLANNER
→ SEPT. 25 First round of
voting begins→ OCT. 10 First round of
voting ends
→ NOV. 20 Nominations
announced
→ DEC. 9 Final round of
voting begins
→ JAN. 3 Final round of
voting ends
→ JAN. 26 62nd annual
Grammy Awards
The slightly-more-veteran pop set could find its
representative in Swift, whose topical synth-pop
barnstormer “You Need to Calm Down” marked a
new chapter for the formerly statement-reticent star,
and in Grande, whose chart-topping, radio-dominat-
ing “7 Rings” should be a contender. Grown boy-
band Jonas Brothers may squeeze in with “Sucker,”
the year’s most immediately ingratiating pop-rock
smash, and millennial heroes Halsey and Post
Malone should also have a shot with their respective
No. 1s, the anthemic “Without Me” and the summery
Swae Lee duet “Sunflower.” And it’d be foolish to
overlook Lizzo’s hit “Truth Hurts,” the sensation of
the 2019 awards season.
SONG OF THE YEAR
IT’S ALWAYS A CHALLENGE TO PREDICT
what will separate each year’s best-song crop from
its best-record choices — in 2019, six of the eight
nominees were the same across the two categories,
and a similar overlap seems likely this year. But
a couple of stars with multiple contending songs
could split recognition between them — like Swift,
whose “Lover” fits more neatly in this songwrit-
ers-only category, or Grande, whose names-naming
“Thank U, Next” lyric was arguably the year’s most
widely discussed.
The category could also offer recognition for
some of 2019’s most ubiquitous singer-songwriters,
including British breakout Lewis Capaldi, whose
weepy “Someone You Loved” is growing into one
of the year’s biggest international hits, and country
star Luke Combs, whose “Beautiful Crazy” was one
of the longest-reigning No. 1s on Billboard’s Country
Airplay chart in recent memory. Less radio-friendly
singles from Morris and Tyler, The Creator — “The
Bones” and “Earfquake,” respectively — may also
figure in as down-ballot nominations, much like
Carlile’s “The Joke” did last year.
BEST NEW ARTIST
UNLIKE LAST YEAR, WHEN IT WAS TOUGH
to confidently predict more than a couple of likely
nominees, this year the favorites seem set in stone:
Eilish, Lil Nas X and Lizzo will almost certainly
garner recognition as three of the year’s biggest, most
talked-about and most fascinating breakout stars.
Capaldi also seems like a fairly smart bet, as does alt-
pop singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers, whose Heard
It in a Past Life was one of the year’s most acclaimed
debuts and a surprise No. 2 hit on the Billboard 200.
Elsewhere, a handful of young faces in hip-hop
with top 10-storming Hot 100 hits could make a
showing — Blueface, DaBaby, Lil Tecca — though last
year’s snub of SoundCloud sensation Juice WRLD
makes their individual chances look a bit dicier. A
more likely candidate might be Megan Thee Stallion,
whose acclaimed Fever and sizzling single “Hot
Girl Summer” made her an instantly beloved new
voice. And a couple of international stars have a shot
to make Grammy history here: Spain’s Rosalía is a
meteorically rising performer whose mainstream
crossover feels imminent, and hitmakers Blackpink
have made unprecedented commercial inroads as a
K-pop girl group in America.
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The 62nd Grammy Awards will mark
20 years since Jennifer Lopez changed
red-carpet fashion forever
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