Jay Z’s Speech and the Taylor Swift of it all: Unpacking this year’s Grammy Awards. The Grammy Awards are known as music’s biggest night and, true to its name, some big things definitely happened that need to be discussed.
Jay Z’s Speech:
To be completely honest, Jay Z is not my favorite person in the world. How could I ever respect someone that cheated on THE Beyonce??
Whatever disagreements you may have with Jay Z as a person, the speech he gave upon being awarded with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award is worthy of respect. In giving a brief history of his relationship with the Grammys since the beginning of his career, Jay Z’s speech examined the biases the Grammy Awards have always had towards Black artists like himself, while providing a glimpse of hope for artists who still feel dispirited with their experiences.
And as a side note, Jay Z’s speech is not at all comparable to Kanye’s 2009 VMA interruptance of Taylor Swift. Jay Z used HIS given time for the award HE was unanimously given, to touch on his perspective of the Grammy’s. Jay Z never compared any specific artist to Beyonce nor did he bring down any other specific artists when speaking about Beyonce’s accolades.
For clarity, it is also not an artist’s fault if they win any category, just as it is not an artist’s fault if they lose in any category.
1. “Think about that: the most Grammys, yet never won album of the year. It doesn’t work.”
Similar to points many, including myself have made before, the Grammy Awards voting processes are extremely biased. Not only has Beyonce, the queen of all Grammy’s, never won Album of the Year, but also only 1 out of her 32 wins have been in the general category (non-genre or audience specific, usually the most popular albums are nominated). Just last year some voters discussed their reasoning for not wanting to give Beyonce a win in the general categories. Comments revealed to Vanity Fair such as, “with Beyoncé, the fact that every time she does something new, it’s a big event and everyone’s supposed to quake in their shoes — it’s a little too portentous,” make it clear that voters believe winners should not be chosen off the popularity of the artist themselves. Meanwhile, as posted to a known site for obtaining Grammy voter’s ballots, Golden Derby, one voter’s ballot for this year’s Grammy’s said about Taylor winning album of the year, “However, I voted for Midnights. Although I did not enjoy it much compared to Taylor’s previous work, she has been the inescapable face of music so how can I deny her music’s biggest award?” While this obviously displays a need for stricter rules on Grammy voting to create a more consistent standard, the hypocrisy and contradictions the Grammy Awards allows its voters to have is extremely telling of their lack of respect for artists of color, and especially Black female artists.
2. “Some of you may go home tonight feeling like you got robbed. Some of you may get robbed. And some of you don’t even belong in the category.”
Before nominations are released, there is yet another voting and nominating committee that decides which music is nominated for every category. And in 2023, the world was extremely shocked when the song “ABCDEFU” was nominated for Song of the Year. For reference, Song of the Year is a songwriters’ award. It is given off the merit of the lyrics and composition of a song, rather than its production or arrangement. Given the lyrics of the song “ABCDEFU” are quite literally that — singing the alphabet with an edgy twist, it was extremely disappointing to find out THAT song was nominated in that category over others such as anything Omar Apollo released.
3. “You gotta keep showing up. Until they give you all the accolades you feel you deserve. Until they call you chairman. Until they call you a genius. Until they call you the greatest of all time”
While this may feel like a call out to artists like Drake or the Weeknd who have publicly renounced the Grammy’s, Jay-Z’s point here was mainly to remind artists to continue having hope. This call to action serves as a tie to the beginning of his speech where he admitted to unsuccessfully boycotting the Grammy’s in response to his disagreement with the program’s choices (not nominating DMX and refusing to present the Rap awards during the main program). A prime example of Jay-Z’s point in this moment was Victoria Monet. Despite her numerous songwriting successes in the past (songs like “7 rings”, or “monopoly” sung by Ariana Grande), Victoria kept attempting to build out her own career and gain true recognition from the Grammy’s. This determination proved successful this year as she took home her first 3 Grammy’s ever.
All in all, Jay-Z’s speech, although short, was very honest to the context of the Grammy’s. It is 2024 and a Black woman has not won Album of the Year since Lauryn Hill won for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999. While the Grammy’s still nominates and often awards artists who do not seemingly deserve it, I appreciate Jay-Z’s sentiment that the only way to bring change is to keep attending. The Grammy’s did not start as a show that awarded non-white music, but when powerful artists like Jay-Z take a stand and openly condemn the show for its “mistakes” as he puts it, it does give me slight hope that the Grammy’s will reform someday.
Onto “Blondie”:
Taylor Swift took home two wins for her album “Midnights” — Best Pop-Vocal Album and Album of the Year. Many people, myself included, take issue with the Grammy’s choice to give her the win for Album of the Year. While people have debated whether SZA’s “SOS” or Olivia Rodrigo’s “GUTS” should have won instead, the point most people agree with is the same — “Midnights” is not Taylor Swift’s best work. To give the Album of the Year the win to “Midnights” over works like SZA’s “SOS” therefore seems to echo the quote stated earlier “Although I did not enjoy it much compared to Taylor’s previous work, she has been the inescapable face of music so how can I deny her music’s biggest award?” While I love “Midnights” as an album and listen to “sweet nothing” probably every day, I can still admit that in comparison to her previous works like “Fearless,” “1989,” or “Folklore,” that previously won her Album of the Year, “Midnights” falls short. To restate, Taylor’s win over SZA does not mean Taylor maliciously stole the award from her, this was entirely in the hands of the Grammy Voting Committee, who I believe chose Taylor because of her popularity as an artist, rather than “Midnights”’s quality as an album.
Celne Dion and Album Announcement:
Now onto the stage moment itself. The issue many people took with Taylor, Celine, and Taylor’s album announcement is that it did not follow the unspoken rules, or etiquette that normal Grammy viewers expect from someone like the ever-classy Taylor Swift. Celine Dion is an icon. If you disagree or feel she is irrelevant, you respectfully, are mistaken. Her voice is extremely powerful and recognizable to millions of people around the world, like Taylor’s. So when Taylor Swift did not loudly acknowledge the honor of receiving the award from the retired and Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) suffering, Celine Dion, seemed odd to say the least. Leading up to the Grammy’s and during the broadcast itself, the Grammy’s had teased that a music icon would be making a special appearance to present the Album of the Year award. This again, knowing the hype around this award presenter, it is admittedly odd that Taylor Swift, someone with immense experience with winning a Grammy and giving winning-speeches, would seemingly forget to mention. On top of that, people were upset that having won her award AFTER Jay-Z’s speech, condemning the Grammy’s voting practices for categories like Album of the Year specifically, Taylor chose to share her upcoming album on stage. While as a fan I loved it, I am not blind to the slight insensitivity it may have appeared to have given most people thought the win was going to either SZA or Olivia Rodrigo — both women of color.
That said, I still think this drama is the internet trying to pick apart Taylor’s actions, not just because of her current power, but mainly because she won and others who were favored to win did not. Artists and actors alike have always used award show winning speeches as platforms to promote new projects or tease new works, making Taylor’s action not new. While I was surprised Taylor did not acknowledge Celine Dion on stage, I do not think someone as iconic and successful as Celine Dion was terribly offended either. And on top of that, the audience did not seem over the moon with Taylor’s album announcement because why would they be? They just lost a Grammy to her? I too would be slightly upset if I was in their position — THEY JUST LOST AT THE GRAMMYS. Overall, none of the “Taylor drama” is that deep, people will get over it and most definitely stream “The Tortured Poets Department” out April 19th.