65th Grammy Awards
Sunday Feb 5th was the 65th annual Grammy Awards. It was hosted by television host and comedian Trevor Noah, who had previously hosted the awards ceremony in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The Grammy Awards have long been seen as the pinnacle of music and what every artist aspires to obtain. But in recent years, it has begun to lose credibility with its treatment and use of Black artists for ratings. With the 65th annual Grammy Awards, there were positive and negative aspects.
History was made on Grammy night. Actress Viola Davis earned an EGOT status by winning a Grammy Award for her 2022 memoir Finding Me. Being the last award to cement her status as the 18th person to become an EGOT, she received an Academy Award for her role in Fences (2016), she was the first African American actress to win a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in How To Get Away With Murder in 2015, and she has won two Tony Awards for her roles in King Hedley II and Fences in 2001 and 2010, respectively. She joins the ranks of fellow African American entertainers Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, and Quincy Jones.
A highlight of the evening was the celebration of 50 years since hip hop was born into the music landscape. Iconic acts such as LL Cool J, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Queen Latifah, Salt N Pepa, and more graced the stage to pay tribute to the genre and culture that is hip hop.
Of course, the biggest moment of the night was when Beyonce made history. The 41 year old singer took home four Grammy Awards for her 2022 album Renaissance, bringing the total of 32 Grammys, the most for any artist in history. She also was the first Black woman to win in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category. However, she was nominated for Album of The Year once again this year and lost for the fourth time, having lost in 2010, 2015, and 2017, respectively.
Beyonce’s snub once again highlights the relationship between the Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences, the organization that coordinates and runs the Grammy Awards, and its recognition of Black artists outside of typical genres that highlight Black artists: R&B and Hip Hop. Chauncey Alcorn, in his 2021 article for CNN, “The Grammys Rarely Award Chart-Topping Black Artists With Top Honors, New Study Finds”, writes, “A new study underscores just how rare it has been for the music industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony to bestow its highest honors to Black recording artists, a growing trend in recent years, despite many receiving critical acclaim and dominating the Billboard music charts… the diversity think tank’s researchers cross-referenced the number of Black artists who made the Billboard Hot 100 over the last nine years with the number of Grammy nominations they received in the award show’s most coveted “Big Four” categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist… They discovered Black performers represented about 38% of all artists on Billboard’s signature chart from 2012 to 2020, yet they received only 26.7% of top Grammy nominations during the same period. Only 24% of this year’s top Grammy nominees were Black, according to the study.”
By no means is this meant to discredit the accomplishments made by the Black artists that have won. There is nothing wrong with winning awards in R&B and Hip-Hop as these categories have birthed some of the greatest moments in Black culture.
Some of the world’s best-selling artists have been Black and have won Grammys from the late legends Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston to dark horse acts like SZA, Ledisi, and mainstream acts such as Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar, and Beyonce herself. But many artists over the years have famously spoke out against the Grammys, such as The Weeknd famously addressing receiving no nominations in 2021 despite having one of the best selling albums of the year previously, to Nicki Minaj speaking out about her controversial battle with the Grammys in 2012 when they asked her to not perform and she did, much to the discontent of Grammy reps.
While Beyonce herself has never blatantly spoken out about her snubs in years past, her actions have proven that she is well aware, having skipped the ceremonies in years past and refusing to perform since. This snub once again highlights the struggle Black artists endure to receive the same recognition as their white counterparts.
Questioning the value and worth of a Grammy even has to a Black artist.
