LOS ANGELES — The nominations for next year's Grammy Awards are likely to include a number of historic firsts.
Bad Bunny's blockbuster "Un Verano Sin Ti" is widely expected to become the first Spanish-language LP to score a nod for album of the year. Taylor Swift could become the first artist nominated for that prize twice with the same album — in Swift's case with her painstaking "Taylor's Version" expansion of the decade-old "Red." And should Kendrick Lamar pick up a nod with "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers," the Compton native will become the first rapper to compete for album of the year with four consecutive studio LPs.
Yet hovering over the 65th Grammys race — as the yearlong window of eligibility just closed last week and as the start of first-round voting approaches on Oct. 13 — is the prospect of an epic rematch between two veteran superstars: Beyoncé and Adele, both of whom are nearly certain to be tapped for album, record and song of the year — Beyoncé with her dance-floor fantasia "Renaissance" and its Hot 100-topping lead single, "Break My Soul," and Adele with her ballad-heavy "30" and its No. 1 hit of a lead single, "Easy on Me."
