Critic’s Notebook: The Grammys are important, but not as important as Beyoncé – Hollywood Reporter

Beyonce

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Let me clear up this uber super duper: it doesn’t matter that Beyoncé lost Grammy Album of the Year in 2023, as well as 2017, 2015, and 2010.

Of course Renaissance was the best album of the last year and most critics judged it as such. But when it comes to the Grammys and the majority of her voters, artists like Beyoncé will never win and that’s fine.

Because at the end of the day, Beyoncé is Beyoncé – a superstar singer and dancer who’s evolved with every album she’s released. She did the unthinkable. She defied predictions. She broke the internet. She rewrote history. She changed the game.

The reason why the albums are released on Fridays instead of Tuesdays? Beyoncé did this. The artists who decide to surprise the music and not pre-announce the releases? Beyoncé again. She is one of the most impressive visual artists, but still managed to release a revolutionary and daring album without accompanying music videos or films.

I knew Queen Bey had no chance of winning album of the year for Renaissance — after years of covering the Grammy Awards and predicting the winners, it was clear she was going to lose. Voters don’t appreciate the kind of art Beyoncé presents. Instead, they’re shamefully traditional – you’ll get gold points for strumming a guitar or banging on drums, but for the epic runs Beyoncé sings on “Plastic Off the Sofa”? Nothing. For the artful lyricism on “Heated”? Nothing. For the intricacies and intricacies of “Church Girl,” a song you can shake your ass to and praise the Lord above, at the same time — not a damn thing.

It’s just that – people like Beyoncé and all of hip-hop, mostly black and brown people – don’t get technical points when it comes to Grammy votes. Voters don’t understand the lyrical detail. They don’t understand cadences. They lack epic metaphors. They find the inventive rhythms loud and disruptive and think the deep singing is loud and obnoxious.

And here’s the thing – they’ll probably never understand the music.

That’s why you’ll see Bruno Mars – an extremely talented singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist and drummer – be the closest thing to an album, song and record of the year from the R&B star the same year. This is why Beck, performer, multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer, will succeed Beyoncé. This is why U2 will trump Kanye West and Mariah Carey’s always fiery comeback album Mimi’s Emancipation. That’s why Arcade Fire will beat Eminem, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will get more votes than Lil Wayne. That’s why Bad Bunny could literally dominate the entire world and be reduced to three Grammy nominations, only to win one award in a Latin music category.

The Grammys have made some changes to their voting body – even requiring older voters to show they have recent music credits to retain their membership. They added 2,000 new members last year, but that means nothing when 11,000 people have their say. Changes have been made, but a major overhaul is needed to fix the voting culture of the awards show.

Maybe that will happen. It probably won’t. And who cares — because winning a Grammy is cute, but it’s not for the culture.