Adele and Beyonce will compete for the three top awards at the 2017 Grammys, where David Bowie has earned a string of nominations for his last album Blackstar.
Bowie, who died of cancer in January aged 69, is up for four gongs at music’s biggest awards show, including best rock performance, rock song and alternative music album.
Adele received five nominations, with 25 up for album of the year and her smash-hit single Hello nominated for both record and song of the year.
She will compete for the three main awards with Beyonce, who earned the most nominations with nine, following her celebrated visual album Lemonade.
Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West each have eight nominations.
Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool is up for best alternative music album, while the band’s single Burn The Witch will compete with Bowie’s Blackstar – from his album of the same name – for best rock song.
Beyonce, a 20-time Grammy winner, is the first artist to earn nods in the pop, rock, R&B and rap categories in the same year, while her 62 nominations over her career make her the most-nominated woman in Grammy history.
Meanwhile, Adele is aiming to become only the second woman to receive the best album prize twice after Taylor Swift achieved the feat earlier this year.
The British singer will compete for the award with Beyonce’s Lemonade, Drake’s Views, Justin Bieber’s Purpose and Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide To Earth.
Adele’s Hello, Beyonce’s Formation and Lukas Graham’s 7 Years are nominated for both record and song of the year.
The record of the year category recognises an artist’s performance as well as the overall contributions of producers and recording engineers, while the song of the year award is solely for songwriters.
Mike Posner’s I Took A Pill In Ibiza and Justin’s Love Yourself, co-written with Ed Sheeran, will compete for song of the year, while Rihanna and Drake’s Work and twenty one pilots’ Stressed Out are also nominated for record of the year.
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Adele’s five nominations include best pop vocal album for 25 and pop solo performance for Hello, while Bowie’s four nods include best engineered album, non-classical.
Of Bowie’s nominations, Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy, said: “I think this is beyond sort of the sympathy vote, because sometimes you’ll see those kinds of things happen just ’cause people feel sorry about it. But listen to (his) album – it’s quite extraordinary.”
The Recording Academy announced a rule change allowing streaming-only music to be nominated at the 2017 ceremony, which recognises music released between October 2015 and September 2016.
Chance the Rapper, whose album Coloring Book was released via online-streaming, earned seven nominations, including best new artist and best rap song for his hit No Problem.
The other best new artist nominees are Maren Morris, The Chainsmokers, Anderson .Paak and Kelsea Ballerini.
Kanye will compete with himself in three categories: best rap song, rap performance and rap/sung performance.
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Coldplay’s Up And Up and Gosh by Jamie XX are nominated for the video of the year prize.
Other British nominees include Underworld who are up for best dance/electionic album for Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future. Peter Gabriel’s The Veil is nominated for best song written for visual media.
US comedian Amy Schumer earned two nominations for best spoken word album and comedy album.
The 59th Grammy Awards will be hosted by James Corden in Los Angeles on February 12.