2021 Grammy Nominations
With the 2021 Grammys right around the corner, critics and music fans alike have made their predictions about which artists are most likely to take home an award. Beyoncé leads with 9 nominations for her song “Black Parade'' and her collaboration with female rapper Megan Thee Stallion on “Savage”. Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift received 6 nominations for her surprise album Folklore followed by Dua Lipa and Roddy Rich who both received 6 nominations as well. Other honorable mentions include the Koren boy band, BTS’, with their nomination for their hit song “Dynamite”, and Megan Thee Stallion with 4 nominations.
One of the most talked about snubs of this year’s Grammys is The Weeknd, who was not nominated at all despite his song “Blinding Lights'' being the number one song of the year according to Billboard.
To determine which artists from music’s biggest categories garner the most votes here at Cliffside Park High School, I ran a poll so that students could vote for their top picks in the general categories. These categories included: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Duo/ Group Performance, and Best Pop Album.
For Record of the Year, “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyoncé came in #1 with 40% of the votes. “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa came in second place with 20% of votes. “Say So” by Doja Cat and “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish both received 15% of the votes. “Circles” by Post Malone finished with 5% of the votes along with “Colors” by Black Pumas.
For Album of the Year, Taylor Swift’s Folklore came in 1st place at 50% of the total votes. Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia came in 2nd with 25% and in 3rd place was Women in Music Pt. III by Haim. Hollywood’s Bleeding by Post Malone and Chilombo by Jhené Aiko both received 5% of votes.
For Song of the Year, “Cardigan” by Taylor Swift came in 1st with 35% of votes. Second place was “The Box” by Roddy Rich with 25% and “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish came in 3rd place with 15% of the votes. “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa and “I Can’t Breathe” by H.E.R. were tied at fourth place with 10% of the votes. “Circles” by Post Malone and “If The World Was Ending” by Julia Michaels and JP Saxe came in 5th place with 5%.
Megan Thee Stallion got 55% of the votes for Best New Artist, followed by Phoebe Bridgers, who got 35% of votes. Doja Cat came in 3rd place with 10%. For Best Pop Solo Performance, “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles came in 1st with 40%. Second place was tied with “Cardigan” and “Say So” at 25% of the votes. “Everything I Wanted” and “Don’t Start Now” were tied for 3rd place with 5% of votes.
BTS came in 1st place for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. “Exile” by Taylor Swift ft. Bon Iver came in 2nd place with 25% of the votes, followed by “Rain on Me” by Lady Gaga ft. Ariana Grande in 3rd place. Fourth place went to “Un Día” by J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, and Tainy.
For Best Pop Vocal Album, Folklore came in 1st place with 35% of the votes. Future Nostalgia followed closely behind in 2nd place with 30% of the votes. Fine Line by Harry Styles came in 3rd place.
For both critics and fans, there are many artists this year who were snubbed from major categories or from being nominated at all. As I mentioned before, fans were shocked when The Weeknd received no nominations at all despite having both the biggest song of the year and one of the biggest albums of the year. This upset everyone, even The Weeknd himself, who took to Twitter to speak on the foul, writing: “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans, and the industry transparency.”
Other notable artists who were not nominated for the 2021 Grammys at all include: Selena Gomez for her song “Lose You to Love Me”, Halsey for her studio album Manic. The band Blackpink and singer for Rina Sawayama, were not nominated for Best New Artist, and Kehlani’s album, ‘It Was Good Until It Wasn't,’ both received no recognition. Rapper Lil Uzi Vert was excluded from the Grammys for his studio album Eternal Atake, and the critic favorite, Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple, was also kept from the major categories despite being one of the best reviewed albums of the year.
Another critic favorite, Phoebe Bridgers, was also snubbed from the general categories for her album Punisher. Her album was also one of the best reviewed albums of the year with a Metacritic score of 90/100. BTS did not receive any mentions for their best selling album of the year, Map of the Soul 7, even though their song “Dynamite” received attention. Bad Bunny’s record-breaking album, ‘YHLQMDLG’ (abbreviation of "Yo hago lo que me da la gana", Spanish for "I Do Whatever I Want"), also went overlooked even after it was nominated for Best Latin Pop or Urban Album. Animé’s album Limbo was yet another best-selling album to be snubbed from the rap categories, despite it being one of the best reviewed rap albums of the year with a 75/100 on Metacritic.
In the poll I ran, I asked a question about who voters thought was the most snubbed artist this year. First place was Rina Sawayama, second was The Weeknd, and third was BTS. With so many albums and artists left out from this year’s Grammys, many fans are anticipating who will be named the winners in the end. Tune in to the Grammys on January 31st, 2021 at 8pm EST!
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