Grammys 2023: Harry Styles or Doja Cat Could Have the Shortest Song to Win Record of the Year in More Than 50 Years
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards are set to take place on February 5, 2023, with Beyoncé leading this year’s pack of artists as she secured nine nods with her smash summer album Renaissance. 10 songs are nominated for Record of the Year, one of the most coveted awards of the night, including hit singles by Harry Styles and Doja Cat. If either Styles or Doja take home the award, they could come close to breaking an all-time Grammy Awards record.
Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’ and Doja Cat’s ‘Woman’ are nominated for Record of the Year at the 2023 Grammys
Harry Styles had a history-making run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2022 with “As It Was,” so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the song is up for Record of the Year at the Grammys. Styles is joined by Doja Cat with her 2021 single “Woman,” as well as eight other nominees spanning the music world: “Don’t Shut Me Down” by ABBA, “Easy On Me” by Adele, “Break My Soul” by Beyoncé, “Good Morning Gorgeous” by Mary J. Blige, “You and Me on the Rock? by Brandi Carlile and Lucius, “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy, “The Heart Part 5” by Kendrick Lamar, and “About Damn Time” by Lizzo.
Styles and Doja both have one Grammy Award to their name already. Styles won Best Pop Solo Performance in 2021 for his single “Watermelon Sugar,” while Doja Cat won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her SZA collab “Kiss Me More.”
Harry Styles or Doja Cat could make history if they win Record of the Year
Billboard pointed out that if Harry Styles’ “As It Was” or Doja Cat’s “Woman” wins Record of the Year at the 2023 Grammy Awards, it would be the song with the shortest runtime to win the sought-after award in over 50 years. “Woman” clocks in at 2 minutes, 52 seconds, while “As It Was” is even shorter at 2 minutes, 47 seconds. The last winner that short was The 5th Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” in 1968, with a runtime of 2 minutes, 40 seconds.
“Woman” and “As It Was” isn’t the only song under three minutes to be up for Record of the Year this year: Mary J. Blige’s single “Good Morning Gorgeous” is 2 minutes, 54 seconds long.
Many winners have clocked in at under 3 minutes
Back in the early days of the Grammys, sub-three-minute winners of Record of the Year were not uncommon. In fact, from 1961 until 1968, every winner of the Record of the Year category ran less than three minutes. The shortest of them all — and the shortest winner in Grammys history — was Henry Mancini’s “Days of Wine and Roses,” which won in 1964 and measured just 2 minutes, 5 seconds long.
The other winners in that eight-song streak include Percy Faith and His Orchestra’s “Theme From A Summer Place,” Mancini’s “Moon River, Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto’s “The Girl from Ipanema,” Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ “A Taste of Honey,” Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” and The 5th Dimension’s aforementioned “Up, Up and Away.”
