Every Grammy Controversy since 2010

Every year when I make predictions on the Grammys, I say this “As long as the Grammys get it wrong, they’ll still exist as an organization. Today we going to look at several times, the Grammys has gotten it wrong and caused a stir. But we are only going to focus on the last 15 years because if I go through every year, it’ll be too long and attention spans will be out exhausted. But let’s explain the tier list, We have the uncalled for (Grammys deserved to get Will Smith slapped for their actions), Pretty Bad, There’s a Case (I can see it from both side), Seen Worse, Get Over Yourself. So without further ado here are every Grammy Controversy since 2010. 

 

Every Grammy Controversy since 2010.

2010: Relapse wins Best Rap Album

In late 2008, Eminem released his comeback album Relapse, it was a highly anticipated release. However, when the album actually came out it wasn’t well received amongst hip-hop. So when it won Best Rap Album there were some surprised faces that this Eminem Album won. It beat out Common, Flo Rida, Mos Def, & Q-Tip so I guess they went with the more mainstream pick. 

2011: Arcade Fire wins Album of the Year

If you don’t know who Arcade Fire is, they’re basically an indie band from Canada. They released an album in 2010 that went to #1 on the Billboard 200. The issue came with the rest of nominees, it include Fame Monster, Em in Recover, Katy Perry having a Teenage Dream, and Lady formally Antebellum Needed You Now. Their manager said this about the other nominees “Eminem made a big selling album but it was far from being his best work. Katy Perry made a big pop record that simply didn’t have weight or credibility. Gaga‘s repackage, great album but it was a repackage of the main release. I think everyone felt it was going to be Lady Antebellum‘s moment having won 5 out of 6 awards to that point. We all felt that way too”

2012: Nicki Minaj...Yes

Best New Artist is a category that no one really wants to win as it was deemed cursed (thanks Milli Vanilli). For Nicki Minaj she lost the Best New Artist to Bon Iver. But that was the least of her concern. Days before the Grammys took place, Whitney Houston one of the greatest voices of all time passed away way too soon. Grammys decided last minute to adjust their show to pay tribute to Whitney. They asked Nicki to withdraw her performance last minute to make room for tributes but she said no. It was said after this performance, she was blackballed by the Grammys and sites this the reason why she is still winless while her peers Cardi, Megan & Doja have won. 

2013: Babel wins Album of the Year over Channel Orange

Channel Orange by Frank Ocean was one of the best albums of that year, channeling a shift in male R&B. But it lost AOTY to Babel by Mumford & Sons. Honestly that wasn’t a strong year for AOTY other nominees included Jack White’s “Blunderbuss”, Black Keys “El Camino” & fun “Some Nights”.

2014: Macklemore wins over Kendrick Lamar

Let me just say the Best New Artist category was loaded also consisting of Ed Sheeran, Kacey Musgraves, James Blake. But in reality, it was down between two of the biggest rap stars of 2013 with Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore. Some of the controversy stirred outside of Best New Artist, in the rap categories Macklemore won three of the four awards which included Best Rap Album for the heist. Best New Artist Macklemore won over Kendrick Lamar and this spewed the whole “Macklemore won because he was white” topic. But to be fair, Thrift Shop was one of the biggest songs of 2013. Things only got worse when Macklemore leaked a text between him and Kendrick apologizing for winning the award which Drake called it out as wack (Drake defending Kendrick, what a time). Looking back at it, it’s apparent the Grammys got it wrong bigtime. 

2015: Kanye West interrupts Beck

2015 and it involves Album of the Year. Beck, the same beck who made a 90s staple in “Loser”, won Album of the Year for Morning Phase. Kanye West, who wasn’t nominated decided to storm the stage but retreated (this being referenced of him actually storming the 2009 VMA stage when Taylor won Best Female Video). But for the same reason, it was to protest Beyonce losing yet again for self titled. Other nods included Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran & Pharrell.

2016: Meghan Trainor wins Best New Artist

Meghan Trainor won Best New Artist at the 2016 Grammys beating out Sam Hunt, Courtney Barnett, James Bay and more importantly Tori Kelly because she gave a look that said “I know this girl didn’t win”. To me that wasn’t the biggest problem. The modern rules says that you can’t be nominated previously if you previously been nominated in any category, I’m going to talk about this a little later. If these rules where implemented, Meghan Trainor should’ve never been nominated to begin with because All About That Bass was nominated for Song of the Year & Record of the Year, year prior. Many called this out because Meghan Trainor isn’t that great of an artist to be blunt, look at the worst songs of 2015-2017 most of it features her songs. Because of what I know about the Best New Artist category, I'm placing this in the Pretty Bad Tier (Tori Kelly should've won in my opinion).

2017: Anti get shutout

Okay, Lemonade getting snubbed for AOTY was also pretty rough but I want to highlight Rihanna and you want to know what’s crazier, black women haven’t won this category since Lauryn Hill. Back to Rihanna, Anti was another successful project for RiRi but at the Grammys, she walked out empty handed. The biggest reason for this was competition with Adele and Beyonce who dominated the night. For that reason, I'm placing this in the I've Seen Worse Tier, not saying it should've won but I understand why it got shutout.

2018: Shape of You wins Best Pop Solo Performance

Shape of You was one of the biggest songs of 2017 and to the surprise of no one was going to be represented. In the Pop Solo category was Kelly Clarkson “Love You So Soft”, Kesha “Praying”, Lady Gaga “Million Reasons”, & Pink “What About Us”. There where three issues with this:

1. Ed Sheeran was the only male nominated

2. The content of the song highlights the female body

3. Ed Sheeran wasn’t in attendance

Kesha in particular took issue with this given her circumstance with Dr. Luke but hey 2018 was the year of Me-Too and the year things started to favor the pop girlies (but that’s for another conversation for another day)

2019: Invasion of Privacy wins Best Rap Album

2019 Cardi B made history becoming the first female artist to win Best Rap Album for Invasion of Privacy beating out Mac Miller “Swimming”, Nipsey Hussle “Victory Lap” (RIP to both), Pusha T “Daytona” & Travis Scott “Astroworld”. There have been many pundits NFR Podcast declared this as the worst rap album to win a Grammy

2020: Billie Eilish sweeps the General Field

Billie had one of the best nights any artist can have at the Grammys. She won Best New Artist, SOTY, ROTY, AOTY. The controversy came with AOTY when she beat out Lana Del Rey’s “Norman F*cking Rockwell”. In total Billie took home five Grammy’s and her brother took home 6. Many called them out as Grammy/Industry darlings (but not as bad as HER because her father is a member of the Recording Academy)

2021: The snubbing of The Weeknd

2020 was the year of the Weeknd and it was mostly carried by the song “Blinding Lights” one the most successful singles of all time. Many thought that the Weeknd was going to clean house at the Grammys. But when the nominees came out, everyone was surprised that the Weeknd’s name was not on the ballot. For context, CBS has been the home for the Grammys for as long as I can remember and that year the Super Bowl was going to be televised on the network. The Grammys wanted the Weeknd to perform at his show but when he saw an opportunity to do the Super Bowl he turned it down. This was so uncalled for by the Grammys and what’s funny, that year’s Grammy was delayed and eventually moved to Las Vegas due to the pandemic. He has since chose not to submit his works to the Grammys and later on win one the next year with Kanye. 

2022: Kanye wins after pissing on previous Grammys

Drake whining about not being nominated for AOTY was bad and him withdrawing his works afterwards would get an honorable mention but let’s highlight Kanye West. He released Donda in 2021, one of the top rap albums of 2021. But a year prior, a video was taped of him pissing on one of his 21 Grammys and the reason behind this had something to do with the frustration of his music ownership. Despite this he won Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Hurricane” with The Weeknd & Lil Baby (that was more of Grammy apologizing to the Weeknd) and Best Rap Song for Jail with Jay-Z.

2023: Harry House wins Album of the Year

This was one of the more competitive AOTY categories in some time. Front runners coming in where Beyonce (who that night broke the record for most wins all time) & Adele (the easy safe pick who won this category twice already). The rest included Coldplay, Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, ABBA, Mary J Blige. There was even a table talk during the show to hype up this category. When Harry Styles won, there were some shocked faces in the crowd and in household.

2024: Midnights wins Album of the Year over SOS

Midnights was the biggest selling album of 2023 but for SZA is not that far behind. In December 2022, SZA’s second album SOS was released and stayed at #1 for 10 weeks. The critical response was far better of that of Midnights. But heading to the 2024 Grammys it was a two-horse race between the two albums with Midnights ultimately finishing on top. Remember when I said that black women haven’t won AOTY since Lauryn Hill, Many (including myself) felt like this was another slap in the face to the race. Crazier SZA walked out with more Grammys 3 to Taylor’s 2. 

2025: Snubbing of Tate McRae/Circumstances of Best New Artists

Throughout the Grammys, they have changed their rules involving their best New Artist Category meaning Must have achieved a breakthrough into the public consciousness and impacted the musical landscape during the eligibility period. Also, you can’t be nominated previously if you previously been nominated which is why NBA YoungBoy can never be nominated for this category. We seen this circumstance last year when Victoria Monet won despite releasing music as early as 2014. This brings up Tate McRae, who’s been around since 2020 but have not been nominated for Best New Artist. 2023 she had a breakout year with her second album Think Later headline by the single “greedy” being her first top 10 single. But she’s ineligible because she submitted for Best New Artist three times already plus the Grammys deemed greedy ineligible as it was released during the previous period. 

Compare that to Sabrina Carpenter, despite her debut album releasing in 2015, she broke out in 2024 thanks to songs like Feather, Please 3x, and more importantly Espresso. However since she never submitted for the Grammys (might’ve did once can’t confirm) she was ruled eligible for Best New Artist.