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\n\tJustin Tranter<\/a> is in the midst of a massive week. The renowned hitmaker is up for the songwriter of the year award at this Sunday\u2019s Grammy Awards and will also host the Premiere Ceremony prior to the 2024 Grammys, live from Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \n\tAhead of Grammys week, Billboard<\/em>\u2018s senior music correspondent Katie Bain sat down with Tranter to talk about why the Grammys\u2019 addition of the songwriter award is so important. 2024 marks the second year the songwriter of the year Grammy is being awarded and marks Tranter\u2019s first nomination in the category. (They were previously nominated for song of the year in 2018 for Julia Michaels\u2019 \u201cIssues.\u201d)<\/p>\n \n\tTranter says they found out they were nominated when when they were out walking the dog and suddenly, 300 congratulatory texts came through. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s important because we almost always get the short end of the stick in this business,\u201d Tranter says of the Grammys acknowledging songwriters with the new-as-of-last-year songwriters category. \u201cWe\u2019re always kind of thought of last; we\u2019re always treated the worst, and I do think it is intentional because we are so powerful, that if we are allowed to recognize our power and flex our power, we would run the industry, and people don\u2019t want that. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo I think that this award is very important,\u201d they continue, \u201cbecause it lends visibility to songwriters, and without visibility we have no power, because we live in a world where if you can\u2019t see something, you can\u2019t hear something, it doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTranter also shares stories of working on each of the songs they were nominated for in 2024, including Rene\u00e9 Rapp<\/a>\u2018s \u201cGemini Moon\u201d (\u201cShe was mentioning her moon is in Gemini, and I\u2019m a Gemini\u2026and we Googled and that day the moon was also in gemini\u2026\u201d), Maneskin<\/a> (\u201cI DM\u2019d them on Instagram when they won Eurovision and said \u2018you are the coolest band I\u2019ve seen since my band, we should work together’\u201d), and Miley Cyrus<\/a> (\u201cwe had one day together, and she was in the beginning of a new relationship and was feeling really sexy and fabulous and wanted to write something, in her words, pretty f\u2014ing filthy and sexy\u201d).<\/p>\n \n\tTranter has worked with some the biggest superstars in modern pop music, and says building rapport with artists like Justin Bieber<\/a> and Cardi B<\/a> during the writing process is about sharing part of themselves. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI can\u2019t be afraid to ask slightly more personal questions than you\u2019d usually ask someone you met an hour ago,\u201d Tranter says. \u201cBut I think if you ask them with respect and also share at least a little bit about my life, then it feels like we are in this together. And I am very lucky too that I was just born pretty confident, and so I think me being a very femme queer person who is also very confident creates a space that\u2019s [like] \u2018if I can be confident in this, then you can be confident in what you\u2019re in, what you\u2019re living through.’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n