The 65th Annual Grammys ceremony will be happening at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles tomorrow, February 5. But it seems the controversies never end. There were several glaring omissions when the 2023 nominations were announced. While we will be rooting for everybody Black as we do here at The Root, we can’t forget all the times the Recording Academy didn’t do right by us. Here are some of the biggest Grammy snubs of all time.
In 1984, at the 26 Annual Grammys, Michael Jackson took home a record breaking eight awards for his second solo album Thriller. It spurred classic hits like “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Thriller.” However, Song of The Year went to The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” instead of MJ. A travesty indeed.
Even though the Grammys started in 1958, it wasn’t until 1989 that D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” became the first hip-hop recording to win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance. However, no rapper or rap group was invited to perform on the show. A year later, the pair also became the first hip-hop act to perform at the Grammys. “We’d like to dedicate this performance to all the rappers last year that stood with us and helped us to earn the right to be on this stage tonight,” Smith said.
There’s no doubt that Celine Dion is one of the most powerful singers of all time. But it was shocking that in 1997, her album Falling Into You won Album of The Year instead of the groundbreaking project The Score by the Fugees. No doubt that sis can sing, but the impact of that Fugees album is felt around this world until this day.
The 55th annual Grammy ceremony in 2013 celebrated the brilliance of Frank Ocean and nominated Channel Orange for several awards including Album of The Year and Best Contemporary Urban album (which he won). However, Fun beat out Ocean for Best New Artist which shocked everyone. In 2017, Ocean didn’t submit Blonde for Grammy consideration. “[The Recording Academy] just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down,” he said.
No one will ever, ever, ever, ever, ever forget when subpar duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won for their blinding white mediocrity at the 2014 Grammys. The first hip-hop artist to win Best New Artist was Arrested Development in 1993, and everyone though Kendrick Lamar was poised to win that night. However, Macklemore unfairly took home the title—and apologized to Kendrick via text (then posted the screenshot on Instagram???) over their wackness being rewarded.
Every time Beyoncé doesn’t win a Grammy she’s nominated for, the whole institution literally gets called into question. In 2015, Beck’s Morning Phase won Album Of The Year over her self-titled project and outrage quickly ensued. Beyoncé gave us 17 music videos, transformative anthems, looks, attitude, choregraphy and catch phrases off that one project alone. And Beck gave the culture what exactly????
Everyone knows Adele has a powerhouse voice—that fact is undeniable. But when she won Album of The Year for 25 when it should have gone to Beyoncé’s Lemonade at the 59th annual Grammys, she apologized for the Recording Academy’s mistake. “The Lemonade album was so monumental and so well thought out and so beautiful and soul-baring. We all got to see another side to you that we don’t always see. You are our light,” she said to Bey.
“Alright” is a galvanizing, Pharrell-produced track from Kendrick Lamar that quickly became an anthem during police brutality protests and movements. In 2016, Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” beat out “Alright” for Song of the Year, though, which further proved that the Recording Academy is not only tone-deaf but continues to have a pervasive racial bias as well.
The greatest rapper of all time was the most nominated artist at the 60th annual Grammys in 2018. Jay Z led the pack with 8 nominations, including Album of The Year, Song of The Year and Record of the Year. Shockingly, he walked away that night completely empty-handed. On “Apesh*t,” the lead single from his 2018 album Everything Is Love with Beyoncé under the moniker The Carters, he eloquently stated: “Tell the Grammys f**k that 0 for 8 sh*t.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves, king.
“Blinding Lights” was the biggest song of 2020, with the After Hours single breaking streaming and download records almost every other week. The Weeknd’s fourth number one album shockingly didn’t get any love when the nominations were announced for the 63rd annual Grammys. Soon after, he called the Grammys “corrupt” and stopped submitting his albums for award consideration.
The Grammys rewarded Billie Eilish for Record of the Year at the 2021 Grammys for her song “Everything I Wanted.” However, Beyoncé was also nominated in the same category for “Black Parade.” Bey still took home two Grammys that night for Best Rap Song (she appeared on the remix to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage”) and Best R&B Performance. Eilish acknowledged her lack of star power when she apologized for headlining Coachella in 2022 by stating onstage: “Sorry I’m not Beyoncé.”
Last year, Nicki Minaj called out the Recording Academy for moving her smash hit “Super Freaky Girl” from consideration in the Grammys’ rap category to a pop category. “I have no prob being moved out the RAP category as long as we r ALL being treated FAIRLY,” Minaj said on Twitter. “If SFG (‘Super Freaky Girl’) has 2B moved out RAP then so does [Latto’s] Big Energy! ANY1 who says diff is simply a Nicki hater or a troll.” The Academy responded by not nominating Nicki in anything after her public criticism.