Photo Collage by Jillian Darnell
Every time Beyoncé comes out with an album, it changes the cultural landscape of the music industry. So you would think that the Grammys would see that excellence and finally award her album of the year.
You would think wrong.
On Sunday – yet again – Beyoncé lost Album of the Year for a fourth time for her incredible and groundbreaking work on 2022’s “RENAISSANCE” to former One Direction member Harry Styles, for his album “Harry’s House.”
Of all the nominees that could’ve won that night, which included Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s critically acclaimed and massively popular “Un verano sin ti,” Lizzo’s “Special” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” I was absolutely not expecting for Styles to be the winner in that category.
Now, I enjoyed a few songs off of “Harry’s House.” I had fun with “As It Was” and “Matilda” as both were songs I constantly had repeating on my commutes.
You also couldn’t escape the album because it was, quite literally, everywhere.
Whether the album is being played in commercials, in Target when you would be looking for your shampoo in aisle 27, or even on every single video that would pop up on your “For You” page on TikTok, it was annoyingly inescapable.
Even during the Grammys, Styles couldn’t hide the fact that his performance during the ceremony was mediocre at best.
It’s just him trying and nothing could help him transcend the persona people think he has on stage.
This performance is the perfect metaphor for what “Harry’s House” is: a glitzy pop record that seemed like it was designed for the Recording Academy’s voting board, something to razzle and dazzle, but just like Style’s Gucci knock-off Elton John outfits, it falls flat.
To give Styles the benefit of the doubt, the stage malfunctioned during the performance where he and his dancers had to quickly adapt to the situation, according to a Tuesday BBC News article.
When he was awarded Album of the Year, he had the gall to get up on that stage and say, “This doesn’t happen to people like me.”
Yes, the Grammys are notoriously known for not giving out awards to British white men for their music.
Many people came to Styles’ defense after the comment, saying he came from a working-class home with a single mom, that it doesn’t really happen to people like him, nor does it happen to boy-band members, according to Twitter posts from the night of the win.
This didn’t stop Paul McCartney, nor Justin Timberlake (both white former boyband members) from winning Grammys in the past.
Whatever Styles meant, the comment was embarrassingly tone-deaf.Even with your “working-class hero” background, it’s still ignorant to say.
It isn’t Styles’ fault that he won Album of the Year over Beyoncé. My criticism of Styles stems from the fact that we have seen people like him win time and time again.
Mediocrity and commercialism will always win, that’s just how the Grammys roll.
One of the more infamous examples of this is at the 2012 Grammys, when hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “The Heist” beat out Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city” the most acclaimed album of that year, for best Rap album.
A win so mystifying, Macklemore texted Lamar an apology for beating him in the category, according to a Jan. 28, 2018 Vox News article.
Beyoncé didn’t leave the Grammys on Sunday empty handed as she officially became the most awarded artist in Grammy history, with 32 wins and 88 nominations.
Even in her losses, Beyoncé finds a way to make history.
Of her 32 wins, however, only one of those wins was in a major category, according to a Sunday Daily Beast article.
A Black woman has not won in the Album of the Year category since 1999 with Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, according to a Monday Time Magazine article.
Only three Black women have won Album of the Year in the Grammys’ 65-year history. Considering the influence and mark Black women have on the greater cultural landscape, that’s hard to hear.
All four times Beyoncé was nominated for Album of the Year, she has lost to a white artist whose albums have been argued as less culturally significant, according to the Time Magazine article.
It also just seems to be that the Grammys just doesn’t like Beyoncé.
In an article published Feb. 2 by Variety Magazine, five Grammy voters spoke anonymously about who they have decided to vote for in the ceremony.
A voter described as a music veteran in his 70s said in the interview he would choose ABBA’s album over Beyoncé’s.
“With Beyoncé, the fact that every time she does something new, it’s a big event and everyone’s supposed to quake in their shoes — it’s a little too portentous,” the Academy member said in the interview.
Portentous means to be done in a pompous or overly solemn manner to impress, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
It seems a little “portentous” to completely disregard a critically acclaimed and popular album because someone feels as though Beyoncé is doing “too much.”
But that always seems to be the main critique of Beyoncé. She works with too many people, the public loves her too much, she doesn’t deserve it because she already gets the praise.
And yet, the Grammys still need her for its own reputation and ratings, while still giving her shallow backhanded praises.
Beyoncé herself is all too aware of this, expertly summarizing in her 2022 hit “HEATED,” “Monday I’m overrated, Tuesday on my dick.”