Grammy Noms are Here, But We Aren’t Nodding
The Grammy nominations have once again proven worthy of all the gasps of surprise, both good and bad. Why bad? Well, haven’t you heard that millennial saying – disappointed but not surprised? That seems applicable to the Grammys this year, more than ever.
Classic icons like Madonna, the ‘Queen of Pop’ was left out of the lists. Fans were enraged at the fact that BTS, the k-pop boy band with the best selling album this year, wasn’t nominated by the panelists.
People were quick to point out the subtle racism and xenophobia present in the nominee list that largely excluded people of color. Halsey, Madonna, BTS, Pink, Mariah Carey, Juice WRLD, Kane Brown and Sam Smith (with Normani) are some major leaguers that got none at all. One common factor among these artists were that they were mostly people of color or queer.
Meek Mill and 21 Savage, two rappers who spent time in detention centers, got nominated for Best Rap Album. They vouched for the prevalence of racism within the industry as their careers were heavily impacted by the legal accusations surrounding their illegal overstay in the US since 2006. Meek Mill said that he had “lost a lot of my people” referring to his fan based largely constituted of Trump supporters who were openly xenophobic.
But all is not lost! Some of the year’s biggest hit makers from Lizzo to Lil Nas X made it through with plenty of nods. Fans swooned over the nomination of Michelle Obama , who got nominated for Best Spoken World Album for her audio book “Becoming”. If won, this would become the third award won at the Obama household. Barack Obama has already bagged two awards for his books in the same category.
Beyonce’s live album “Homecoming” didn’t receive any attention but her project for the Lion King Movie – “The Lion King: The Gift” found some approval from the nomination committee after all. It was picked for the Best Song curated for visual media.
It’s hard to predict what will happen at the 2020 Grammy Awards on January 26, but we hope that deserving and hard working artists will be awarded! We’re looking forward to the wild night which will be graced by artists like Lil Naz X and the Jonas brothers.
