Next weekend are the Grammy awards-- a cultural institution that continues to be plagued with accusations of racism and exclusion. Ella Fitzgerald became the first black artist to win a Grammy (at it's inaugural ceremony in 1959) but in recent years, landmark artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé have failed to win the big prizes for albums that will surely go down in music history as some of the best in their careers.
FarOut Magazine, Lauren Hunter said this:
To this day, the main means of musical recognition of the highest order is through the Grammy's, but with the awards body having frequently been subject to discriminatory racial biases over its nearly 70-year history, it has been made appallingly more difficult for Black artists to receive the same level of plaudits as their white musical counterparts over time. With only 11 Black artists having ever won its most coveted ‘Album of the Year’ prize, it is plain to see that the Grammys still has a long road to travel in terms of its recognition and reverence of the Black musical landscape and the monumental role it indeed plays across the modern sonic realm as a whole.
Last year, Marie Claire’s Quinci LeGardye wrote:
The Grammys have faced accusations of racial discrimination since its first ceremony in 1959, and several notable snubs and upsets have continued raising eyebrows well into the 21st century. In March 2021, a study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that Black performers represented approximately 38 percent of all artists on the Billboard Hot 100 from 2012 to 2020, but they only received 26.7 percent of top Grammy nominations during that same period. That was the same year that the Weeknd boycotted the ceremony, after receiving zero nominations for his After Hours album, including his hit song “Blinding Lights.” That year, the Grammys’ nomination process, including the use of "special committees" to decide the final set of nominees, came under heavy scrutiny, with fans wondering whether the lack of racial diversity in the upper echelons of the Recording Academy was the reason why Black albums—which ultimately shake culture and have proven to change the entire record industry (even earning Pulitzers)—still couldn’t break into the “Big 4” categories (Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, and Album of the Year).
In 2020, Princess Weekes at The Mary Sue explored the Grammy Awards’ snub of Beyoncé’s album, Lemonade:
Lemonade was her sixth solo studio album and the second “visual album” she’d done after the release of the self-titled Beyoncé album in 2013. With this album, the Houston chanteuse got some of the best critical praise of her career. It was ranked the number one album of 2016 by many, including Rolling Stone. Yet when the time came for the Grammy’s she lost Record of the Year and Song of the Year, to Adele’s 25.
Later on, Adele made a statement that reflected a lot of what people were saying. “I thought it was her year,” she said of Beyoncé. “What the fuck does she have to do to win album of the year?”
[Beyoncé's] eighth album, the queer-pop masterpiece "Renaissance," was the obvious choice for album of the year in 2023. To make matters worse, the Recording Academy spent a large chunk of the ceremony exalting Beyoncé for becoming the most-decorated person in Grammys history — and patting themselves on the back for allowing it to happen — just to end the night by handing the top award to Harry Styles. And to be clear, "Harry's House" is good, but it's no "Renaissance." It's not even close.
At this year's ceremony, Kendrick Lamar is up for Record and Song of the Year for "Not Like Us"-- a critical and chart smash that ought to land him long-overdue Grammy gold. This year’s nominees for Album of the Year are: André 3000's “New Blue Sun”, Beyoncé's “Cowboy Carter”, Billie Eilish's “Hit Me Hard and Soft”, Chappell Roan's “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”, Charli XCX's “Brat”, Jacob Collier's “Djesse Vol. 4”, Sabrina Carpenter's “Short n’ Sweet”, and Taylor Swift's “The Tortured Poets Department.” The critical consensus is that this will finally be Beyoncé’s year-- but who knows if backlash from the MAGA world will affect the vote. Tune in next week to find out.
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