This is a direct quote from a music manager, who has been in the music industry for 15+ years and was a voter in a pool of music industry execs that determine the winners of the Grammys. When this quote was released massive criticism was hurled at various voters as well as the Grammys. Many people blamed the Grammys for being biased against albums not in English and against POC. Unlike other non-English artists, Bad Bunny hasn’t changed his style or language to fit white American-centered cultural music norms. This makes him adored even more by Latin America but obviously not by the Grammy voters.
My immediate thought was “does he live under a rock?” Bad Bunny has been dominating the global music chart for years. In fact, he was the most streamed artist on Spotify for the last three years. OH, AND the album he was nominated for, Un Verano Sin Ti, has stayed in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 a year after its release and is the second Spanish language album to ever top that chart, the first being his other album “El Ultimo Tor Del Mundo.” “He didn’t just put out a Spanish album, he put out the top-selling album in the world,” Leila Cobo, Billboard’s chief content officer of Latin, told NBC News. Many artists in the music industry don’t come close to the records he’s set. Yet he still lost to Harry Styles and his album Harry’s House. Don’t get me wrong, Harry’s album was great but it didn’t even compare to Bad Bunny’s. Ok sure maybe Bad Bunny won the Grammy for best Musica Urbana Album and has won other Grammys in the past but a Latino artist winning album of the year with a Spanish-speaking album would be revolutionary and well-deserved.
I could sit here all day and rant to you about how the Grammys have always been racist and favor white artists, especially men, but that isn’t going to change the fact that a Spanish language album has never won best album of the year and we as the Latinx community are furious. So what needs to change? Easy. The people who make up the committee of voters for Grammys have to become more diverse in age, race, and culture. A huge obstacle preventing Bad Bunny from winning best album was that most voters are over 40 and his music targets younger generations. And of course, there is the problem that most of the voters are white when his music is mainly praised and listened to by Latinx/Hispanic people. All I’m saying is that the voters have to be multicultural and racially balanced for the Grammys to be a fair competition rather than a popularity contest.
If you don’t know who Bad Bunny is don’t feel bad. And if you are one of the people who doesn’t like his music don’t feel bad about that either. Music taste varies from person to person and I assure you you aren’t being racist by not listening to him. But if you want to give his music a try I recommend starting off with his newest album, obviously, specifically Me Porto Benito, Un Verano Sin Ti, Callaita, and Moscow Mule. Though you really can’t go wrong with any of the 23 songs on this album. I also recommend listing to MIA which features Drake. This song originally introduced me to Bad Bunny and I’ve been hooked ever since.