An intimate setting featuring socially-distanced artists allowed the Grammy Awards to make the most of the pandemic, with an increased number of performances and fewer awards given out making for an entertaining, historic night.
While there were only three more performances this year than the previous (23 vs. 20), the focus on them with awards just sprinkled throughout made it feel like much more — and in the most positive way possible. Almost an hour in, only one award had been given out on the live show, with many distributed during the pre-show.
The show was opened by host Trevor Noah in a space with Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and HAIM. One by one, they gave their performances, providing for a pretty lengthy intro with almost non-stop music, setting up the format for the rest of the night. Though there were multiple major awards handed out in the show’s final hour (the ceremony ran just over three-and-a-half hours), it didn’t feel like any previous award show. This was a given considering the pandemic and the limitations of a show such as the Grammys, but it was a welcome and positive change. While we all love to see who’s going to win what, in a year where there aren’t many chances to watch your favorite artists perform (and certainly even less so in-person), it’s nice to see the performances and the artists take a bigger spotlight than the awards themselves.
The trio of artists started off the show in a pretty slow manner, but things picked up with a soulful performance by Black Pumas, the live debut of Silk Sonic (the new duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak), a popstar masterclass by Dua Lipa and reached its peak later in the night with a medley performance by Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B. I didn’t appreciate the heavily-censored version of “WAP” and Noah provided viewers with an astounding amount of second-hand embarrassment with his giddy comments, but they brought great energy and electrifying choreography.
Perhaps the most unexpectedly brilliant and shocking performance of the night came from Lil Baby with his song released in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, “The Bigger Picture.” It started off in a potentially triggering way with a Black man being pulled over and shot by white police actors (all acted out, of course) and then panned to Lil Baby. He shared the spotlight with activist Tamika Mallory, who made demands for President Joe Biden, and rapper/activist Killer Mike. It was an incredibly powerful performance that I wasn’t prepared for from Lil Baby specifically, but it will definitely go down as one of the best of the night.
However, they’re not called the Grammy Awards for nothing. So, somewhat unfortunately, we do have to talk about the awards that were given out.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the Grammys and the Recording Academy is they can’t seem to stick to a narrative. What do they reward? Who do they reward? Is it about name recognition (“Yummy” by Justin Bieber, Coldplay for Album of the Year)? The most popular music of the year (Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa)? Critical acclaim (“Folklore” by Taylor Swift)? Music with a social justice message (“I Can’t Breathe” by H.E.R., “Lockdown” by Anderson .Paak)? Or a combination of all three (“Black Parade” by Beyoncé)?
By not being transparent about what type of music gets nominated and awarded, it leads to supposed upsets, snubs, boycotts from artists and viewers alike and, perhaps what the Grammys thrives off of, a sense of unpredictability (Taylor Swift can lose every other award she’s nominated for, yet still win Album of the Year).
We all have our opinions concerning who won, what was deserved, what wasn’t, who was snubbed and who is overrated. That’s going to be consistent every year, with every awards show, but there’s a complaint that comes up time and time again with the Academy, and that’s the lack of rewarding of Black artists, specifically Black women.
Beyoncé went home with four awards and the title of most Grammys won by a singer at 28 (she is now also tied with producer Quincy Jones for most won by a living person). This is 28 wins out of 79 nominations, and only one of these wins was in the Big Four category, which is made up of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Obviously, she hasn’t been eligible for one of them in years, but in her entire career, out of 28 wins and 79 nominations, she’s won a Big Four award once — in 2010, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” won Song of the Year. Most of her awards come from the R&B categories and with her collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion (who went home with three awards including Best New Artist) on “Savage (Remix),” she was able to break into the rap awards.
It’s an accomplishment that should be celebrated, and I don’t want to take away from that. However, the Grammys, who clearly have pretty prominent issues with awarding diverse artists (the Weeknd, despite having the biggest charting song of the year with “Blinding Lights,” was completely shut out by the Academy), being able to boast that their biggest winner is a Black woman simply doesn’t feel like it’s telling the full story.
The final award of the night, Record of the Year, went to Eilish for “Everything I Wanted.” It was definitely a shocker and Eilish knew it, getting onstage and sharing her surprise and how she felt it should’ve gone to Megan Thee Stallion. It was reminiscent of her last year, when she praised Ariana Grande while accepting Album of the Year and a few years back when Adele tearfully said she couldn’t accept her Album of the Year award, citing “Lemonade” as “monumental.”
Awards shouldn’t mean much at the end of the day. Snubbed artist Zayn Malik even wrote them off as what he called a corrupt popularity contest. Still, it’s a shame that it’s so well-known how much the Academy “gets wrong” that artists feel they can’t fully celebrate huge moments in their careers, knowing who they and many others may have felt were the rightful winners (often Black women).
Swift also made history as the first woman to win Album of the Year three times, and while that’s another great accomplishment, her three awards in the category are equal to the number of Black women who have won (Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill).
The entertainment industry has a diversity problem. This isn’t a secret. Yet in a music industry that so often takes trends from Black artists, where Black artists are consistently raising the bar and topping the charts, it feels especially wrong to consistently snub and overlook them in the biggest award categories in the biggest music awards of the year.