The 2021 Grammys Recapped

Lesley Brey

Reporter

Who doesn’t love award season? It’s the one time of year we’ve all agreed to indulge in celebrity gossip and drama en masse, and boy did this year not disappoint. Maybe it’s a symptom of being stuck inside for 365+ days, but at the 63rd Grammy Awards, celebs were chomping at the bit to get a piece of that sweet, sweet media attention. Today we will be reviewing the biggest snubs and ‘wtfs’ of the 2021 Grammys, on a scale from legit to overrated.

The Weeknd Gets Snubbed: Legit

Popular recording artist, The Weeknd, likened his absence from the nominee roster as “a punch in the gut” during an interview with Billboard. Although the nominees were announced back in November of last year, as award day grew closer more people turned their attention to the Recording Academy’s long history of failing to acknowledge black musicians. While The Weekend topped charts last year with his new album “After Hours”, and singles such as “Blinding Lights”, which broke records when it sat on the top 10 for over 43 weeks, he wasn’t nominated for a single award. The Superbowl half-time artist took to social media to share his outrage over the snub.

“If you were like, ‘Do you think the Grammys are racist?’ I think the only real answer is that in the last 61 years of the Grammys, only 10 Black artists have won album of the year,” said The Weeknd. “I don’t want to make this about me. That’s just a fact.”

“WAP” Takes the Stage: Overrated 

Cardi B is no stranger to scrutiny, having thrived under the public eye since her debut in 2017. During the pandemic, she teamed up with popular rap artist Megan The Stallion to produce what can only be described as a sexual anthem, turning tired tropes on their head. I’ll say it here folks, it’s a good song, but that didn’t stop the usual cultural pundits from clutching their pearls. You may have thought that the drama was over by now, but when “WAP” was performed on stage, the hamster wheel of social media began to spin once again. John Cooper, the lead singer of popular Christian metal band Skillet, compared the performance to fascism during his podcast, aptly titled Cooper Stuff Podcast.

“If you go back and you read some of Hitler’s speeches, he’s like, ‘I’m gonna set people free – free from the bondage of the Ten Commandments, In his mind, he’s a liberator. It’s always like that, you guys. All you do is you just redefine evil and you redefine good. That’s what’s happening right now on the Grammys,” Cooper said.

The backlash was quick and decisive, many taking offense to Cooper’s potentially offensive conflation. This piece of drama is thusly overrated since it was largely resolved months ago and is only being rehashed for media attention.

Taylor Swift Wins Again: Overrated

Taylor Swift is a juggernaut of an artist, having successfully switched genres more than three times. At the Grammys, she made history once again by taking home her third ‘Album of the Year’ award for her newest album “Folklore”. What is particularly surprising about this win is that it followed “Folklore”s defeat at the hands of Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” for the best pop album. This is the first time, this century, that a record lost in its own category while winning Album of the Year. Swift, for her part, celebrated her success.

“We just wanna thank the fans. You guys met us in this imaginary world that we created and we can’t tell you how honored we are forever by this,” Swift said in her acceptance speech.

The drama stems from the negative reaction some viewers took to Swift’s win, many feeling that she is overrated. While people are entitled to their opinions, this piece of drama ends up in the overrated pile as there are plenty of better things to criticize Swift over rather than her saturation in the music market.

COVID-19: Legit

Why is it always the rich and famous who get to skirt the rules? Although the Recording Academy rebranded the Grammys as a “COVID-19 safe” event, that doesn’t change the fact that it had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19 concerns, moving from its original date in January to March 14th. Millions of dollars were spent trying to reformat the show in a way that would minimize contact, including holding some segments outside, as well as using multiple, separate stages.

“Short of the Super Bowl, the Grammys are as big and intricate as it gets as a production. Ben Winston and this team really figured this out. Some of the artists asked for more protections and we want them to feel safe. For example, we’ve created venue areas for talent with only one-way access which helps make sure that nobody crosses paths with people who aren’t in the same pod,” said CBS’s Vice President of live events and specials, Jack Sussman.