The singers, songwriters, and producers who topped the 2024 charts gathered recently either to win big with a Grammy or go home empty-handed.
From music industry veterans like Taylor Swift to emerging stars like Benson Boone, many singers, producers, and songwriters attended the 67th Grammys award show, at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 2.
The Grammys typically takes place on the first Sunday night of February every year, often falling on a week before the Super Bowl. The awards show celebrates the most accomplished artists of the year before, and its most famous and pursued awards include Song of The Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist, and more.
A collection of Grammys won is known to add to an artist’s reputation — influential and legendary artists such as Beyonce, John Williams (composer of the “Star Wars” franchise soundtrack), and Stevie Wonder take the lead with 20+ Grammys. So for small, new artists and esteemed artists alike, taking to the big stage to make an acceptance speech or watching as a fellow nominee holds the glittering, gold trophy instead can make or break the night.
If an artist is lucky, they are praised by their fellow songwriters and fans, but it happens often that the public disagrees with the 13,000 voting members who decide the winners.
Beyonce, after chasing but just falling short of the win through her entire music career, finally received the Album of the Year award for Cowboy Carter, her first ever country album—which also enabled her to snag the Best Country Album award. However, the joy of her wins has not been celebrated by much of the public due to the debate on whether or not Cowboy Carter topped other popular albums like Hit Me Hard and Soft (Billie Eilish), Short ‘n Sweet (Sabrina Carpenter), as well as if the album was “country enough” to even merit the country genre nomination.
In an article from the Rolling Stone, “The Grammys Understood Beyonce Was Country. Why Didn’t Nashville?” published Feb. 4, journalist Brittney McKenna writes, “Despite earning more nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards than any other music record, Cowboy Carter was largely ignored by Nashville’s Music Row and excluded from other major awards last show, last November’s 58th annual CMA [Country Music Awards].”
Mel McCullough, a junior from Allentown, PA, believes that it was Beyonce’s reputation and not quality of country music that gave her the win.
“I think it was more hyped up strictly because it was Beyoncé that was singing and not for the actual quality of music,” she said. “She’s a great artist, but I think the other nominees had better, more popular albums and simply they were just better music.”
The controversy surrounding Beyonce’s country win is made even more by the fact that, for the most part, she was up against country genre veterans.
“Especially for a country category I would feel robbed if I was Kacey Musgraves, Lainey Wilson, or Chris Stapleton because a pop artist won in the category that was not for them. Although I respect her as an artist, I don’t think Cowboy Carter should’ve won the award,” Mel said.
Post Malone, too, was nominated for Best Country Album, and even featured on “Levii’s Jeans,” a song on “Cowboy Carter.”
Still, there are also many who have faith in Beyonce’s country journey and enjoyed the “Cowboy Carter” album. Zh’ky Johnson-Tuzo, a junior from Bermuda, expressed his support for Beyonce’s country win at the Grammys.
“I am glad Beyonce won the award for best country album. And in my opinion, I do believe it was ‘country enough’ to win, given that it had many known country artists featured and samples of classic country songs,” he said.
Zh’ky is a Beyonce fan, yet he acknowledged the controversy surrounding Beyonce’s win in the category. He also pointed out its impact on diversity in the country genre.
“The album caused a lot of talk within pop culture, many agree that is country and many disagree. This is an even further step in her career and opens doors for other Black country artists or artists in general to challenge the limits in which genres can bring about,” he said.
The same article from the Rolling Stone brought up the same point as Zh’ky.
“That omission [“Cowboy Carter’s” omission in the Nashville Country Music Awards] reignited long-running conversations about country music’s ever present diversity issues among fans, artist, and journalists, with criticisms also pointing to the show’s overwhelmingly white roster of nominees — Shaboozey, who appears on ‘Cowboy Carter’, was just one of two non-white acts to score a nod.”
Vanity Fair, too, credited and even bet on “Cowboy Carter” for its cultural impact.
“Of course, this is Bey’s year to get the prize… True, saying ‘she’s overdue’ hasn’t done it for her before. But combine that ongoing sentiment with the fact that ‘Cowboy Carter’ was a really provocative musical and cultural statement… and the odds of her crossing the finish line seem stronger than anyone else’s,” Christ Willman wrote in Vanity Fair’s annual Grammys predictions article.
Another hot debate sparked by the Grammys, and Beyonce’s win especially, was Billie Eilish’s lack of wins that Sunday night despite her seven nominations. Some fans are especially upset by, Eilish’s loss to Beyonce for Album of the Year, considering the high popularity of “Hit Me Hard and Soft” last year.
“I really think Billie Eilish should’ve won the award for “Hit Me Hard and Soft” as I and many of my friends had her album on repeat for multiple months after it came out,” said Mel. “It was one of the albums I couldn’t stop listening to and I didn’t find that with “Cowboy Carter.”
“Cowboy Carter” sat at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the Billboard 200 the week of its release on March 29, 2024. It sold 407,000 album-equivalent units (the streaming and downloading consumption as a unit of sold albums), which may seem like a lot. And it is — until you compare it to the 2,259,000 album equivalent units sold by “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”
Mel also noted that her opinion seemed to be in agreement with the majority.
“I think her album was one of the best I’ve ever heard to this day and it probably stands in my top five favorite albums ever. I also think this is not a hot take as everyone I’ve talked to also agrees she deserved at least some recognition and in a lot of what I see on social media right now everyone also agrees,” she said.
On the other hand, Zh’ky, an occasional listener of Billie Eilish, believes “she is very creative and an amazing vocalist. Yes, it is sad and disappointing she left empty handed but I guess the other nominees and winners just stuck more with these audiences.”
While there are several other win and loss controversies circulating around social media, there are also quite a few artists who won both the trophy and the hearts of music fans.
Mel is “a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan,” and was “glad she walked away with the Best Vocal Pop Album award. She definitely blew up this year and became more popular than she was in the first place.”
“I gained respect for her as an artist outside of her acting world and I think it was really important for her to win this to prove that she is a good singer and not defined by her past ‘Disney’ inflicted career. Her album has also been in my head ever since it came out and I think I’ve listened to it on repeat tens of thousands of times,” Mel said.
Zh’ky also has admiration for a “newer female rapper, Doechii,” who won Best Rap Album and is the third female to win the category since Cardi B in 2019… This category is mostly male dominated and was introduced in 1989. I love her and am rooting for her, I can’t wait to see what else she has to bring.”
