Fontaines D.C. have been shortlisted for Best Rock Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards. It’s the Irish post-punk quintet’s first-ever nomination at the award show.

The band’s second album A Hero’s Death will square off against The New Abnormal by The Strokes, Sound & Fury by Sturgill Simpson, Daylight by Grace Potter and Kiwanuka by Michael Kiwanuka for the award.

• READ MORE: The Big Listen: Fontaines D.C – A Hero’s Death

The nomination came as a surprise to the band, who hadn’t been aware they were even up for consideration, frontman Grian Chatten explained in a recent interview.

“Man, it was fucking mental. I was sitting in my flat with my manager [and] he was across from me, just looking at his phone,” Chatten told NME. “He stood up and goes ‘Jesus Christ, what the fuck!’ My heart just dropped and I asked him if something bad was going on. He just turned around and said: ‘You’ve been nominated for a fucking Grammy!’”

He added: “It was honestly like a phone call from space, it was that heavy.”

The band are one of the few Irish acts to ever be nominated for a Grammy, an honour they don’t take lightly.

“I hesitate in all situations to say anything like we’re flying the flag,” Chatten said. “But it’s a global event and it’s not every day that an Irish act gets nominated, so I can’t help but feel a sense of that.”

In other Grammy news, the 2021 nominees for Best Rock Performance comprised all female artist and female-fronted bands, a historic first for the category.

For more music news, click here.