There is a familiar criteria to award shows I tend to notice: lists of nominees from well known to unheard of, long thank you rants that get cut off, and emotions targeted at a song or production’s place in the competition, whether they won or lost. Viewers at home are passionate about supporting their favorite movie or artist, but it seems as though there is a common trend with the winners that many, including myself, seem to find strange. From the Oscars, to Emmys, to Golden Globes and this year’s Grammys, the nominations and the winners from those nominations are confusing.
The nomination process begins with members and record companies submitting entries, which are then screened for eligibility and category placement. The Academy’s voting members then participate in the nominating process that determines the five finalists in each category and the final voting process which determines the Grammy winners. Submissions to begin with are considered by the recording academy to see if the nominee is even worthy to be part of the Grammys. This seems fair, but the “worthy” portion of the process can contribute to an artist’s name’s popularity or how influential their name in the industry was, not just their music.
Still, a lot of times, the nominations for award shows were not reflected in mainstream media. Artists such as Andre 3000, Jacob Collier and others were unrecognizable, at least to me. In the Golden Globes, there were multiple movies that were nominated that were not as commonly heard of, ones that ended up winning like “Emilia Perez.” Out of curiosity, I searched up this musical to find that its songs were odd, with strange off-putting lyrics that reflected explicit topics that were uncommon to find in a musical. The box office numbers from “Emilia Perez” are incomparable to its popular competitor, “Wicked,” where “Wicked” made $726,849,009 compared to $5,872,284 from “Emilia Perez.” The fact that this unknown less popular musical won over its successful and beloved competitor “Wicked” in the musical category was strange to me.
What was even more surprising was this year’s Grammys, especially the Best Album of the Year winner: “Cowboy Carter” by Beyoncé. I did not even know Beyoncé released this album, and I only heard one song from it, which was “Texas Hold ‘Em.” This win was upsetting to many during the Grammys, as other artists like Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter put so much work and effort into their well known albums — using as little to no extra writers for their songs — yet they did not receive this award. Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” album was very popular across social media. “Birds of a Feather” had 2,095,295,032 streams on Spotify compared to “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which had 622,211,415 streams. Even though Eilish’s beautifully crafted album — which sold 520,000 copies vs. “Cowboy Carter’s” 168,000 — was much more popular, Beyoncé’s random country album won Album of the Year. Even though Carpenter’s “Short and Sweet” album — which sold over one million copies — was played all over the radio, with “Espresso” having 1,958,877,862 streams on Spotify, Carpenter still lost to Beyoncé’s hidden releases. How come all of these popular, amazing artists lost their chance at a Grammy to someone whose album was obviously less popular? Those 13,000 academy voters who chose “Cowboy Carter” as the winner are definitely questioned right now.
There is a lot of drama surrounding Beyoncé, with multiple celebrities thanking her and acknowledging her past achievements. Trevor Noah went on about a minute-long speech talking about how great Beyoncé was in this year’s Grammys. Adele, Lizzo and even Jojo Siwa have thanked her on stage in the past. Though this strange pattern of giving Beyoncé random recognition for her music in past winner’s speeches can be a contributing factor to her own win, I do believe that Beyoncé’s Grammy was not a fair decision, because though she is a talented singer, she was very influential in the past but not right now. With the evidence of the other nominees’ album streams vs. hers, it is evident to see that the Album of the Year Grammy belonged to Eilish for her beautifully written album or Carpenter for her successful pop album. Both albums contained multiple hits incomparable to “Cowboy Carter,” which only contained one small hit.
Award shows should award and honor artists and producers for making successful, knowledgeable art in music and movies. The loss that multiple artists faced at the Grammys is heartbreaking, knowing that singers like Eilish put their heart and soul into her album to be rewarded with nothing. Though I understand that opinions are opinions, just by seeing the streams, statistics and overall praise Eilish’s album received from fans like her 107,743,364 monthly listeners just shows that the Grammys does not make fair evidential decisions for their awards. Even artists I do not listen to like Taylor Swift or Chappell Roan had much more significance in today’s modern pop culture than Beyoncé, and I could understand seeing one of them earn that award instead. Their songs were played much more on the radio, each of their albums surpassing one billion streams on Spotify, and both performed and promoted their songs multiple times at their own concerts. Still, it is sad to see that so many forms of art in the entertainment industry are rejected and overlooked by award shows when these forms are highly appreciated by the rest of the world.
