And the Grammy Goes to... Not Them

The 63rd annual Grammy Awards brought yet another year of disappointment. Not only did the Recording Academy’s voting members disrespect some nominees by denying them well-deserved wins, but they also failed to nominate some of the music industry’s most influential artists in the first place.

Yes, of course we can all celebrate the fact that Beyoncé became the female artist with the most Grammys ever, but when taking into account that it was her first win in a major category since 2010, it’s not quite as satisfying. Makes you think twice about Taylor Swift’s cryptic comment of “We’ll never forget you did this for us” after winning her third Album of the Year award, doesn’t it?

The cause of this controversial debacle is deeply rooted in a history of discrimination against women and Black artists, as well as a fundamentally flawed voting system that values critical acclaim over impact. This is perhaps best reflected in the poorly assembled rap and R&B categories, which have led to artists like the Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West refusing to participate or submit their work in the future. To celebrate unrecognized icons like these and more, here is a list of nominees and winners who really deserved to bring home those Grammys.

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

If you’ve so much as opened Twitter in the past couple of days, you’ve probably seen the hashtag #scammys trending worldwide. This is because all over the world, the South Korean group BTS’ fandom, ARMYs, were left disappointed but not surprised after the Bangtan Boys did not win in the only category they were nominated for. Pretty audacious of the Recording Academy to ask the group to perform during prime time, advertising them front and center in between each commercial break to attract more viewers, only to ultimately not give them the Grammy — especially considering the fact that their nominated single “Dynamite” topped Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart for months.

Album of the Year

What even are these nominations? Sure, “Future Nostalgia” was wildly successful on the charts and “Folklore” helped Swifties get through the pandemic, but Jacob Collier and Coldplay? Really? How about Bad Bunny’s “YHLQMDLG” that revolutionized the Latinx music industry? Or the Weeknd’s “After Hours,” which had already scored both AMA and MTV awards earlier this year? There were so many missed nominations that most of the nominated albums couldn’t even hold a torch next to.

Best Pop Solo Performance

According to The Recording Academy, the Best Pop Solo Performance Award is designed for pop recording from “some of pop music's most listened to artists, and ones whose songs have been on our playlists for months.” Look, Harry Styles had an amazing year and deserved to win his first Grammy to celebrate that, but his single “Watermelon Sugar” is not the one that should have taken home this prize. Not when the Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” has had one hell of a record-breaking year, going viral on Tiktok to become an anthem for 2020 and winning him the Super Bowl LV halftime show. Tesfaye quite literally outsold and outperformed other nominees like Styles, Justin Bieber, and Dua Lipa.

Record of the Year

In the words of Billie Eilish, the winner of this Grammy herself: “This goes to her. Can we just cheer for Megan Thee Stallion?” This is the single most important award of the night, announced last and written about first in the media. That scale of impact must be reflected in the work which gets the win. For Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” this is not the case. Everything about Meg’s “Savage” — the creative mixing on the track, the collaboration with Queen Bey, the insane amount of sales, and the sheer Black excellence that went into producing this song — deserves a large-scale celebration akin to the Record of the Year award.

Best Rap Song

Having said that, however, “Savage” is not the best representative of rap music in this past year. It’s an amazing song to perform and dance to, and a wildly famous one at that, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to the cleanest flow or the most elaborate verses. With songs like Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” under consideration, the nuances lie precisely in those details, which is why Drake and Lil Durk were more deserving of winning in this category. But The Recording Academy has never been particularly thorough in making the distinction between the artist and their work, so this wrongly awarded Grammy is unsurprising.

— Staff writer Alisa S. Regassa can be reached at alisa.regassa@thecrimson.com.