Grammy Awards 2019 show more diversity

With a total of eight nominations, Kendrick Lamar leads the field for the coveted music award this year, including song of the year and album of the year. While the rapper didn't release an album of his own in 2018, he was executive producer for the soundtrack to the blockbuster film, "Black Panther." Still only 31, Pulitzer Prize-winning Lamar has already pocketed 11 Grammys.

Rapper Drake is a close second in terms of 2019 Grammy nominations, and he might ultimately take home more awards than Lamar — even though it's claimed both turned down offers to perform at the award ceremony. Drake and Lamar stand to profit from an increase in the number of nominations per main category in the wake of criticism that the awards were to white and too male-dominated.

Brandi Carlile's folk-rock ballads tackle contemporary social issues such as opioid addiction and the migrant crisis, while her 2018 album "By the Way, I Forgive You" topped the US charts and has garnered celebrity fans like former president Barack Obama. The gay 38-year-old is the most-nominated woman at the Grammy's with six, including best Americana album and song of the year for "The Joke."

Lady Gaga scored five nominations this year, four alone for the song "Shallow" from the movie "A Star Is Born." Although she sings the song with co-star Bradley Cooper, he would not be a co-winner for song of the year because he didn't co-write the number. A possible Best Duo award would go to both Lady Gaga and Cooper, however.

Anton Zaslavski was three when his family relocated from the Soviet Union to Germany, where he grew up and learned classical music.In 2012, now known as Zedd, he moved to the US and soon became a top DJ and producer working with the likes of Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. Having won his first Grammy in 2014 for breakout album "Clarity," this year Zedd is thrice-nominated for the song "The Middle."

Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons is an honorary member of both the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, and he holds the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal. Nominated for Best Choral performance of Rachmaninov's "The Bells" with the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Germany's Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcaster, he just might win another Grammy this year to add to his first in 2006.