New York (AFP)

With eight Grammy nominations, American singer Lizzo came top of the charts in the American music industry on Wednesday, marked by diversity and a strong female presence.

The truculent Melissa Jefferson, her real name, leads the other two revelations of the year, singer Billie Eilish and rapper Lil Nas X, with 6 nominations each.

Lizzo (31) and Billie Eilish (17) were both nominated in the four queen categories, recording of the year (for production), song of the year (for writing), album of the year. year and best new artist.

This is a new wind that could blow on the Grammys to be awarded January 26 in Los Angeles: the 2020 nominations are dominated by two artists who have broken this year, even if they have been in the circuit for several years.

Lizzo and Billie Eilish also embody two styles far apart from each other. On one side Lizzo the bubbly black young woman, with colorful clips and shouts of voice, the other Billie Eilish, the white teen and his dark universe, his voice soft and heady.

The two artists also represent, each in their own way, the mix of musical genres. Lizzo thus draws in rap, dancing pop, or soul. In her Houston debut, she was even part of a rock band.

"It's been an incredible year for music and I'm grateful to have just been part of it," Lizzo, a charismatic, tweeted on Wednesday.

Flute player, rapper, singer, dancer, the artist from Houston recently signed some of the most catchy sounds, such as "Juice" released in December 2018, after "Truth Hurts" (2017).

- Communicative energy -

In addition to her songs, her success is partly due to her communicative energy, which she relay relentlessly on social networks.

She says she was encouraged to convey this positivism in her music by Prince, with whom she collaborated after leaving Houston for Minneapolis in the early 2010s.

An independent black woman, Lizzo said she made an artistic shift with her album "Cuz I Love You", determined to open up more to the world and to get naked.

Author, she co-wrote all the songs on the album, determined to reconcile the power of her stage performances with her studio recordings, in which she was so far too restrained, according to her.

Now superstar, Lizzo has also become a standard bearer of physical diversity, claiming its forms and staging a seductive register in his videos.

"I'm doing this so that little girls do not have to be afraid of being blamed for their physique," she told Rolling Stone magazine.

"This criticism of the body in the media prevents us from moving forward," she added, "but that does not hold me back."

These nominations are a blessing for the Recording Academy, the representative body of music professionals in the United States.

Regularly criticized, the organization had initiated a series of reforms to promote the diversity of its members and the Grammy charts.

This year, the list of nominations is dominated by women. In addition to Lizzo and Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande (5 nominations), Beyoncé and the singer HER have also done well.

As for Lil Nas X, improbable hero of 2019 with his hit "Old Town Road", he is also a representative of diversity, as one of the very few rappers to have declared openly homosexual.

A black rapper, he also rocked the very white world of country, which was slow to accept the song as one of his own.

If Ariana Grande rebounded after being shunned last year in the major categories, it is a new setback for Taylor Swift, who has received only three nominations.

© 2019 AFP