Over the past few years, the Grammys have been known to be somewhat problematic. It wasn’t until this year’s socially-distanced Grammy that took place on Sunday, March 14th, that fans finally had enough. 

Several prominent and huge artists had been robbed at this year’s Grammys. This led to the trending Twitter hashtag #scammys, and many fans, along with various celebrities, being disappointed at the result of this year’s award show. Some critics have pointed towards racial bias in the award selection and in past years, celebrities such as Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and Drake have all spoken out about the Grammys and race. This year, Zayn Malik and The Weeknd both openly called the Grammys out for its unfair processes. 

Megan Thee Stallion:

For the Record of the Year award, a majority of the people had agreed Megan Thee Stallion deserved the award. Billie Eilish won, and even Eilish herself was annoyed. When announced that Eilish had won, she was shaking her head and covering her face. “This is really embarrassing for me,” she said when she made it onto the stage. “Megan, girl… I was going to write a speech about how you deserve this,” she went on. “But then I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re gonna choose me.’ I was like, ‘It’s hers…You deserve this,’” Billie told Megan. “You had a year that I think is untoppable. You are a queen. I want to cry thinking about how much I love you…You are so beautiful. You are so talented.” Billie closed with, “Genuinely, this goes to her. Can we just cheer for Megan Thee Stallion, please?” 

BTS: 

The Grammys best duo/group performance award was given to “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande. Fans all over the world were in shock when this happened. By looking at the stats of both BTS’s nominated song, “Dynamite,” versus “Rain On Me,” it’s obvious who should have won. Statistically speaking, the youtube music video for “Rain On Me” got 300M views in 9 months, while BTS’s “Dynamite” has nearly 1B views (912M right now) in 6 months. When the fans were able to cast their votes for the categories, BTS had obtained 87.28% of the votes, Taylor Swift and Bon Iver’s “Exile” had 5.66%, and “Rain On Me” placed third accumulating only 4.85% of the fans’ votes, yet Lady Gaga and Arian Grande still won. Millions of Armys (BTS’s fandom name) and celebrities have called out the Grammys for not recognizing the talent and popularity of BTS, as they are the biggest boy band in the world and have broken records held by The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Adele. BTS had put out 58 songs within this past year and produced the #1 Best Selling Album worldwide. 

In sales, “Rain On Me” had 56,00+ while Dynamite sold 2 million. The fact that BTS did not win a Grammy for the hit, which almost has one billion streams, is extremely confusing to fans. After the performance of BTS’s “Dynamite” had played, Trevor Noah, one of the presenters, started praising BTS for their incredible performance that they did all the way from Seoul, and then said, “Wow there should be an award for that performance.” What’s interesting is that when BTS lost in the category, the live views on youtube dropped from 1.2 million to 400k in less than 5 minutes. Many TikToks and tweets are circling around the fact that the boy band deserved better. 

SZA: 

The hit “Good Days” was one of the best R&B songs of the year and probably my favorite of all time. “Good Days,” which was released on Christmas, has almost 200 million streams just on Spotify. Not only was the song not even nominated, but in the past years, SZA was nominated for 9 Grammys and never won a single one. The “All the Stars” singer is super talented and has such an authentic voice that deserves to be praised. She has worked very hard to obtain a Grammy, so she should have one. 

Doja Cat: 

It’s well known that Doja Cat has been one of the most influential music artists of 2020 and has made quarantine more fun with her hit song, “Say So.” Having one of the biggest hits of 2020, she was nominated for 3 Grammys, yet failed to win one. “Say So” earned Doja Cat her third Billboard Hot 100 entry, and second from the album Hot Pink, which debuted at number 95 on the chart dated January 18, 2020.  Most of Gen Z’s quarantine memory is filled with that song and it totally deserved a win for the power it holds. 

Zayn Malik and The Weeknd have both taken their statements about this year’s Grammys to Twitter, expressing their thoughts about having not a single nomination. They both mentioned that they’re fighting for transparency and inclusion. The ex-One Direction member had just come out with one of his greatest albums, “Nobody Is Listening.” Without a single nomination for his Billboard topped album, he tweeted “…Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year, I’ll send you a basket of confectionery.” In another tweet, he writes “My tweet was not personal or about eligibility but was about the need for inclusion and the lack of transparency of the nomination process and the space that creates and allows favoritism, racism, and networking politics to influence the voting process.” He also demanded the getting rid of “secret committees,” saying they accept “bribes.”  The secret committee was formed for the purpose of reviewing and editing votes and nominations when needed. The 2021 Superbowl performer seems to agree with Zayn. The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” has become the only song in history to spend a full 52 weeks in the top 10 on Billboard hot 100. A full year on Top 10 yet no Grammy? He also had #1 Hot 100 for both “Blinding Lights” and “Heartless” this past year, which is a huge achievement. After not having a nomination or award that he deserved, The Weeknd announced that he and his label will boycott the Grammys from now on, following artists such as Eminem, demanding transparency with voting and diversity amongst nominees. 

Nicki Minaj:

With over 10 Grammy nominations within the past years, Nicki has still yet to receive an official award. Last year, when everyone expected Nicki to win, Billie Eilish won all the awards Nicki Minaj was destined to win and Billie herself even said “hold on- I know I don’t deserve these” and she proceeded to name people who broke records who deserved it way more and coincidentally, they were all people of color. In 2012, Nicki Minaj also called out the award show after losing the “Best New Artist” award to a not so popular white musician named Bon Iver.  She has yet to win a Grammy despite having a very successful music career. 

There are many more artists who were robbed of what they deserved at the Grammys and the list really could go on and on. The Grammys are definitely problematic and I can’t help but feel as if they are pretty racist. The interesting thing about this list of amazing and extremely talented performers who were robbed is that they are all people of color. For the live show that was aired, the Grammys oddly pushed almost all categories with mostly Black/Latino artists into the pre-show. Obviously, there was racial bias going on and this is something that most certainly needs to be addressed and stopped. The artists who deserve the award should obtain it, no matter their skin color. There should be more support for all of these talented musicians who were snubbed!