Sunday night left most of us wondering what the hell went on with the voting at the Grammy Awards. In recent years, the Grammy Awards have been criticized for whitewashing, as patterns have shown that deserving minority artists have not won such awards.
One of the biggest criticisms of this was last year’s show, where Taylor Swift’s “1989” won Album of the Year over Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly.” The Grammy Award review board’s prestige and validity have been questioned due to this continuing pattern. Even Frank Ocean didn’t submit any of his recent work for Grammy consideration, explaining, “That institution certainly has nostalgic importance. It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down.”
This year’s show seemed promising at the start with the announcement of awarding Chance the Rapper the Best Rap Album for his independent album “Coloring Book,” and Solange Knowles snatching an award for “Cranes in the Sky.” But as the night progressed, Adele won two Grammys for both Record and Song of the Year. Not to discredit “Hello,” but it was a total snub of Beyoncé’s “Formation.”
In the end, Adele took home the coveted Album of the Year award. This is Adele’s second win for Album of the Year. She first won the award in 2012 for her album “21.” Adele and Taylor Swift are the only women in the Grammy’s history to win this award twice.
“25” was a strong contender, but it didn’t hold a candle to “Lemonade.” Beyoncé gave us an album full of female empowerment and thematically bold sounds. She nailed it in the overall production. So why is it that Beyoncé has not been able to win AOTY? Sure she won awards throughout the night, but not where it counted. She has been nominated three times—2010, 2015 and 2017. She’s clearly good enough to get nominated multiple times, but why isn’t she good enough to win?
Her past two losses for AOTY can be justified because Beck’s “Morning Phase” and Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” stood above “I am Sasha Fierce” and “Beyoncé.” But “Lemonade” was more critically acclaimed and received more praise than “25.” It was just a stronger album with deeper messages than “25.”
We still have to give it to Adele though, she was great in her comeback. The strongest argument Adele has is her impressive vocals. Vocals, vocals, vocals! Adele has some of the best pipes in the music industry and they somehow got better on this album.
All award shows aside, “25” is Adele’s best album thus far. She considered quitting the music industry after “21,” but instead she decided to just take a hiatus and “live a little,” as she explained.
Her transition from “21” to “25” was drastic without taking away from her original essence.
In the four years between albums, Adele’s personal life also changed drastically. She became a mother and retreated to a more low-key lifestyle.
She’s at a more stable and mature place in life, but this album is all about being nostalgic and looking back.
“My last record was a break-up record, and if I had to label this one, I would call it a make-up record. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did. “25” is about getting to know who I’ve become without realizing. And I’m sorry it took so long, but, you know, life happened,” explained Adele.
Released in November of 2015, “25” became the world’s best-selling album of 2015 with 17.4 million copies sold within the year. That’s an impressive record to hold, considering she released her album with little over a month before the end of 2015. For months we could not escape her debut single “Hello.” Her chart presence was impressive with “25” with three top-10 Billboard Chart top-100 hits, including “Hello,” “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” and “Water Under the Bridge.”
Congratulations Adele. Here’s to hoping the Grammy’s progress and give credit where credit is due next year.
