Days before boygenius is up for seven Grammys nominations, the trio, made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, announced that they are taking a break for an indefinite amount of time. “We’re going away for the foreseeable future,” said the band during a secret show at The Smell in Los Angeles, California on Thursday, February 1.
The band told the intimate crowd that it was their “last show,” just three days before their big Grammy night. “This is our last show,” said Dacus during boygenius’ acoustic performance, “and we’re feeling it.”
This year, boygenius is up for seven Grammys, including Album of the Year, Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Engineered Album Non-Classical for The Record, along with Record of the Year, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance for “Not Strong Enough,” Best Alternative Performance for “Cool About It.”
Before ending their 13-song set, Dacus added “This is our last song,” before going into their Grammy-nominated “Not Strong Enough.” Baker interjected, “Not ever,” implying that the band would return at some point.
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Formed in 2018, the band released their self-titled EP before each member pursued their respective solo projects and returned with their debut in 2023. “I think people know this is a rarity and that there’s no guarantee that it’ll continue,” said Dacus in 2023. “Like, we will continue to be Boygenius and be friends, but we also will get back to our own things.”
The band’s hiatus caps off a big year for the trio, following the release of their 2023 debut, The Record, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 14 weeks. In October 2023, the trio followed up The Record with a four-track EP, The Rest.
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Boygenius also made its debut on Saturday Night Live and collaborated with actor Kristen Stewart, who directed three boygenius music videos.
“It’s been 10 years of me trying to make music with friends and people who care about me, and it’s cool to still be doing it,” said Baker around the release of the record in 2023. “I don’t want it to be a glory-esque ‘We made it’ type thing. It’s more complex of a feeling than that. It’s that I still love this in the same way that I did at that moment.”
The band is joined by fellow top Grammy nominees SZA, who topped the nominees with nine nods around her album SOS, followed by Victoria Monét and boygenius with seven. Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Jon Batiste, Brandy Clark, all came in third with six nominations.
Hosted by Trevor Noah, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards will air starting on CBS (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Photo: Matt Grubb / Courtesy of The Oriel
