Grammy Awards

In the words of Leo Tolstoy, ‘music is the shorthand of emotion’ and why not? The influence of music is ubiquitous, it is a force to be reckoned with. Musicians today get their hands tied and shed every bit of their artistry to fulfill their dream of making it big. Their diligence is undeniably worthy of recognition, and this purpose is served by the prestigious Grammy Awards.

What makes them so noteworthy? The Grammys date back to 1959 and have since grown into a staunch cultural phenomenon known to recognize and honour underrated artists. The process of decision-making is heavily scrutinized and includes a careful examination of all entries. A bigger fan base certainly does not guarantee a win. Emerging victorious with such prerequisite demanding criteria is inarguably huge.

 But there are two sides to every coin. With prolific tales of prominent misses, the Grammys have managed to raise questions on their competency. Owing to rumours surrounding the management and their constant interference, we notice a rapid decline in the popularity of the award ceremony and this situation demands a change in the prevailing policies. Nevertheless, the Grammys are just like the IPL- no matter how disappointed one is with the result, there is always lingering excitement for the next season.

Grammys’21 saw the inclusion of a wider range of artists. Before reviewing the highlights of the show, it’s necessary to mention the explicitly pronounced snub this year – The Weeknd, who received no nominations despite having released one of the best and most critically acclaimed albums of 2020 – After Hours. Something similar happened to Halsey. The Grammys are to music what the Oscars are to films, hence practicing transparency and neutrality is the only way to go. Talent and hard work are the planks artists should be judged on.

Diving deeper into the main ceremony, though we did not see a clean sweep this time, it wouldn’t be wrong to call Beyonce and Megan Thee Stallion, the frontrunners. “It was Beyonce’s Grammys and we just loved it,” queen B won four Grammys hence making history as the female artist with the most number of Grammys. Megan Thee Stallion bagged three awards, including best new artist, the only female rapper to win the same after Lauryn Hill.

Taylor Swift, in her iconic floral outfit, received Album of the Year award for Folklore, making her the first female artist to have achieved this feat thrice. Watching Harry Styles with his Best Pop Solo Performance trophy for Watermelon Sugar was undoubtedly an incredible moment for all Stylers. Future Nostalgia won Dua Lipa Best Pop Vocal Album. Ari and Lady Gaga, on winning best pop duo/group performance for Rain on Me, became the first all-women collaboration to win in this category. H.E.R proved that the SOTY was reserved for her, winning it for her single ‘I Can’t Breathe’. Eilish took ROTY for her single ‘Everything I wanted’. Honouring the legendary Selena Quintanilla with the Life Time Achievement award was deemed ‘too rushed’ by fans who felt it was very disrespectful.

The silver lining however will always be the spiffing performances by our favourite artists, which continue to carry the ceremony and help maintain high viewership! Some of the fan-favourites this year were Dua Lipa performing Levitating, and the Haim sisters who closed the show’s opening segment with ‘The Steps’ to name a few. Album of the Year winners Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff shared the stage too, and K-pop sensation BTS performed their hit digital single Dynamite with which the main event was brought to an end.

Oh, and us Swifties can’t get over the Taylor-Harry interactions, forever grateful to the recording academy for sharing snippets of the same!

– Abhay Singh