Recapping the 2023 Grammys
Image From WSJ.com
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards was held the evening of Sunday, February 5th, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. This was a historic Grammy Awards ceremony as it had Beyoncé breaking the record for most Grammys won by an individual, and it also celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. The celebration of hip-hop included an incredible performance by many artists from many different eras of the genre. The ceremony also included a beautiful tribute to artists that have passed away in the last year by artists in a number of genres.
Comedian Trevor Noah hosted this year’s show and brought a lighthearted vibe to the night with jokes about Taylor Swift’s fans being powerful enough to lower egg prices, among others. This year also saw the introduction of new awards given by the Recording Academy. The new awards included Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical), Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media, and Best Song for Social Change. The winners of those awards listed were: Tobias Jesso Jr.: Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn Of Ragnarok - Stephanie Economou, composer; and “Baraye,” by Shervin Hajipour.
Despite all of these new awards and changes to the show structure, the Grammys still sits under the shadow of criticism and controversy. The shadow has taken some credibility away from the Recording Academy, but they have held onto their credibility more than other awards ceremonies have, like the Golden Globes. They are not doing much to stop the critiques when it comes to who actually wins the awards, though, but we’ll get into that a bit later.
First, I want to shout out Viola Davis for her win in the Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording category with her recording of Finding Me, which solidified her EGOT. For those who may not know, an EGOT winner is someone who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. It’s a very impressive feat, and she is very deserving. Now, I will not be going through every category here because there are so many that not even all of them are televised for the actual ceremony. But if you want to see all the winners, click here. I will hit some high points for what everyone has been talking about and also just some categories I cared about personally. One of the earlier album categories to be announced in the night was for Best Country Album, which featured three female artists nominated out of the five nominations. Although Willie Nelson took home the honor, I wanted to highlight the number of women in the category because there have been many conversations within the country music industry about the suppression female artists face to reach the same audiences as their male counterparts. Due to that, it is significant to see one of the most prestigious musical awards shows highlighting them to such a degree.
Many of the big awards went to the big names like Record of the Year going to Lizzo — it’s important to note she’s the first Black woman to win in that category since Whitney Houston won for “I Will Always Love You.” Also, her acceptance speech for that win is one of my favorite speeches at the Grammys to date. Other big names to win were Adele winning Best Pop Solo Performance for “Easy On Me” and Kendrick Lamar winning Best Rap Album for Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, Beyoncé’s four wins this year made her the most-awarded artist in Grammy history with thirty-two Grammys to her name.
Now, to address the elephant in the room. I promise I won’t beat a dead bush, but we need to talk about Harry Styles not only winning in the Best Pop Vocal Album Category for Harry’s House but also the Album of the Year category. For some perspective, at the 2021 Grammys two years ago, Dua Lipa took home Best Pop Vocal Album, and Taylor Swift won Album of the Year. This made sense because while both deserved Grammys, Future Nostalgia was an amazing pop album, whereas folklore was a defining album for many people’s quarantine experience that transcended genre. Watching the ceremony two years ago, I was comforted when Future Nostalgia won Best Pop Vocal Album because I wanted Taylor to win Album of the Year, and I knew they were not going to give Dua Lipa both. Now, imagine my surprise when Harry Styles took home both this year. The person I watched the show with literally looked over at me and said, “During Black History Month?” She was referencing the fact that he beat out not only Beyoncé but also Lizzo and Kendrick Lamar to get the top award. Now, if we’re looking at the 2021 Grammys as an example, Renaissance, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, and Harry’s House were all previously awarded that night in genre-specific categories. One would expect that none would take home the biggest award, and maybe it would go to Adele or Lizzo. If the Grammys is going to break the mold by awarding Harry two times over, why wouldn’t they do that for Beyoncé and Kendrick?
As a Harry Styles fan myself, I was very excited when he won Best Pop Vocal Album. I think Harry’s House is a phenomenal album and that Harry is a very talented artist who deserves accolades, but I did not think for a second he was going to take home Album of the Year. I was so sure it would go to either Adele or Beyoncé, and even then, I wanted it to go to Beyoncé. I know many people have said things like “she’s got enough Grammys” which isn’t false. Like I’ve said, she is the most awarded artist in Grammy’s history; however, out of all her Grammys, none of them were for Album of the Year. She has been nominated in that category four times and lost. As many people say, she could be considered the greatest artist of our time, yet she still has not won Album of the Year. This is just one of the reasons why the Grammys continue to be criticized. To many, there seems to be purposeful calculation in how the Recording Academy chooses to award Beyoncé many times over in less significant categories but never giving her all her flowers.
Harry Style’s success is not just due to his musical talents. He is also a very good entertainer who has an amazing stage presence. The enormous success of Harry’s House could be credited to his huge Harry Styles: Love On Tour that had unprecedented residencies in major US cities like New York and Los Angeles. Just considering the songwriting, the production, and the overall sound of the album, it deserved to be nominated for Album of the Year, but I can’t agree with it winning the whole thing when considering the other nominees. In my opinion, it’s not even his best album of his solo career (that would go to Fine Line). However, if the Grammys had an award like Entertainer of the Year, which is the highest honor of the night at the Country Music Association Awards, then I could see Harry taking home an award like that. If something like that was added, then maybe there would not be as many mainstream and conventional albums winning Album of the Year.
