As of recent, the Recording Academy has released the nominations for the 68th annual Grammy awards. And the first reaction from the public about the nominations, have already caused some controversy. Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga lead the world with the most nominations this year; Lamar received nine. With four of those being for his hit song with SZA, “Luther”, for Song and Record of the year, best pop duo, and rap/melodic rap performance. And the remaining nominations were for album of the year and best rap album of the year with “GNX”. And with Gaga, most of her nominations clashing with Lamar’s, with album of the year, record of the year, and song of the year, with her album “Mayhem”, and song “Abracadabra”. All of these nominations outweigh the artists who were surprisingly stripped of nominations, like The Weeknd, Morgan Wallen, and Benson Boone. Who all released albums that got a lot of attention this year, fans were seeking at least just one or two nominations.
“Yeah I’ve been a fan of the Weeknd for years and I went crazy when I found he got no nominations. He literally dropped this best album of the year and didn’t get noticed at all. It’s just crazy I don’t know what else the Grammys want.” Ethan Marger ‘28 said.
This is obviously not the first time the Grammys have enraged fans, as they have been getting accused of bias and corruption for years. The biggest possible example is with The Weekend again, in 2021, With his album “Blinding Lights” (The most streamed song ever), and his album “After Hours”, which received zero nominations. This also comes from a lack of diversity in who wins, going through gender and race, which has caused the prestige and significance of the award to be dimmed down by the public. These accusations have been present dating all the way back to 1957, but have been getting worse, and finally erupting after 2018, with artists like Drake trying to boycott the Grammys, and the hashtag “GrammySoMale” trending all over the internet.
“I haven’t trusted the Grammys ever since 2018 when Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy” won best rap album over Travis Scott’s Astroworld. Ever since then I’ve known that the Grammy just feel like they draw from a hat to pick or something.” Maclain Campbell ‘27 said.
Through all the accusations of controversy, the Recording Academy has to do everything right from here to start to please the public in the slightest, and it will be interesting to see how they end up going about it all.
