The nominations for the 2021 Grammy Awards were announced this week, and it would be an understatement to say many people had a lot of feelings about said nominations. Spoiler alert – many of these feelings were not positive.
There were quite a lot of WTF, huh, what, why…reactions across social media. A few names were expected (should we all just prepare for Taylor Swift’s record-breaking third Album of the Year win), others were a pleasant surprise (hi Jhene Aiko) and some were just inexplicable (Noah Cyrus…really? Miley was never even nominated for New Artist).
There are certainly debates to go around on who should and should not have been nominated, so I’m sure some will disagree with this list or at the least think I should mention another artist or two. But the following is just my opinion of the snubs that particularly stood out to me the most.
The Weeknd Shut Out – At this point it’s probably all been said. Possibly the one consensus across the board regarding this year’s nominations was, “where the hell was The Weeknd”. It genuinely was the first thing that immediately stood out to me when I read the list. Whether you are a fan of The Weeknd’s music or not, his critical and commercial impact this past year is unquestionable – an 80 Metacritic score for After Hours, almost 450,000 in first-week sales and of course Blinding Lights not only a Billboard Top 100 number one single, but a global smash. To not only be left out of the big categories – Album of the Year, Song of the Year and, Record of the Year – but left out entirely is just baffling. There is simply just no way to make sense of this.
No Album of the Year Nomination for Fiona Apple – While she did not have the commercial success like The Weeknd did, Apple’s first full-length studio album in eight years, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, topped almost every critic’s list, garnering a stunning Metacritic score of 98. Only Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy came as close to a score that high with a 96 and 94 respectively. Certainly, Fetch the Bolt Cutters was not the most fun or accessible album to listen to. It was equal parts stunning and strange. However, it was certainly more deserving of an Album of the Year nomination than a few of the albums that were nominated. That said, at least Grammy voters didn’t completely forget about her, as the album and single, did garner three nominations in Rock and Alternative categories.
No Love for The Chicks – The artists formerly known as The Dixie Chicks returned with their first full-length studio album in almost 14 years, Gaslighter (yeah, as crazy as it is to believe, it’s been that long). As a long-time fan of The Chicks (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played and sang along very loudly and very badly to Fly), I will say this wasn’t my favorite album of theirs. That said, the depth of these women’s talent means that even their “not the best” is still pretty damn good. The album had an indescribable depth and poignancy to it. It may not have been Album of the Year worthy, but it was certainly worth a few country nods.
No Love for Country Music At All – Speaking of country nods, didn’t seem like Grammy voters had much love for country artists at all. The biggest snubs were Luke Combs and Maren Morris. Morris at least received a nod for Best Country Song for her hit The Bones. However, many felt the song should have garnered at least a Song of the Year or Record of the Year (or both) nomination, particularly it has become Morris’ highest-selling single and seen crossover success on pop radio. That said, one nomination is better than none, which is the story of Luke Combs’ Grammy journey. And much like The Weeknd’s snub, this one is particularly baffling. Combs’ sophomore album, What You See is What You Get, was one of the biggest selling country albums of the year and one of the most critically successful, even winning the Country Music Association (CMA) Award for album of the year. And therefore, to say it’s surprising that a committee of Combs’ peers did not nominate him for any of the individual country categories is an understatement.
Harry Styles Misses Out on The Big 3 Categories – In the interest of fairness, Harry’s doing a lot better than some other artists on this list, with three nominations (two in the pop category and one for Best Music Video). He’s also now become the first member of One Direction to receive the industry’s highest nod for his solo work. So not too shabby. That said, with the critical and commercial success Styles enjoyed this year, for his sophomore album Fine Line, it was surprising that he didn’t garner at least a Record of the Year nomination.
So there we have it. Another year of Grammy nominations and another year that I feel my interest waning. I can’t say I’ll likely watch the January ceremony, especially as we’re still living in unprecedented times. But I might have been more willing to entertain the idea if the nominations had been a little less “what’s happening here” and more “I’m loving all of this”.
PoPnOgR@PhY 