Why do we still allow ourselves to get upset with the Grammys? After watching Nicki Minaj lose in the Best New Artist category with “seven songs simultaneously charting on billboard” in the 2012 Grammys, I lost hope in the Recording Academy. 

The nominations for the 2021 Grammys, which took place March 14, was released in November of last year and artists expressed their frustration via social media.  

After seeing his R&B album “Changes” was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, Justin Bieber took to Instagram and said, “For this not to be put into that category feels weird considering from the chords to the melodies to the vocal style all the way down to the hip-hop drums that were chosen it is undeniably, unmistakably an R&B Album!” 

The Weeknd, who had a much more successful year than Bieber, wasn’t up for any nominations. His album “After Hours” was the second most streamed album globally in 2020, following Bad Bunny’s “YHLQMDLG,” which won Best Latin Album. 

His single ‘Blinding Lights” was released over a year ago and became the first song to spend a year in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. With no nominations for his album or hit single, The Weeknd called the award show “corrupt.”

And I have to agree. 

Post Malone’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding” had less streams than The Weeknd’s and was still nominated for Album of the Year. Post Malone did have the third most streamed album of 2020, but it came after The Weeknd’s. How did the first and third most streamed albums get nominated but not the second?

Another artist who was robbed at the show was Lil Baby, who had the most consumed album of 2020. His album “My Turn” went double platinum and made him the first and only artist to reach this achievement, but still no nomination. How could an artist do numbers like that and not get any recognition?

His song “The Bigger Picture” was up for Best Rap Performance, but he lost to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” remix that featured Beyoncé. The question that should’ve been asked was would her song even be considered if it wasn’t for Beyoncé being on the remix? Remixes should get their own categories. 

However, there were some artists who deserved to win like Billie Eilish, for example, who took home Record of the Year with her song “everything i wanted,” and Kanye West, who posted a video of himself urinating on an award last year and was still able to win another this year with his “Jesus is King.”

The Grammys have failed artists so many times before. They give awards to their “darlings,” as Eminem said in a 2018 interview, instead of giving it to the artists who made an impact on music. 

Maybe we still allow ourselves to get upset because we want something to be upset about. The Grammys wouldn’t make so many people upset if they were more inclusive and looked at numbers a little bit closer.