Beyoncé took home 11 nominations this year and secured the most nominations across her whole career with 99 — including several first-time nominations in the country categories.

Stephen Thompson on the biggest surprises, trends and questions to be found in the Grammy nominations, plus the most interesting stories to be found beyond the major categories.

The Grammy nominations were announced last week. You might have missed it because, even though the Grammy television show is the only award show people care about anymore, the Recording Academy has never done a very good job of building up narratives leading into the program itself.