Holding onto nine nominations is the record-breaking artist Beyoncé with Black Parade, which released on June 19th this year celebrating black culture. Following swiftly is Taylor Swift, garnering six nominations with her widely successful charismatic indie-folk album Folklore as Dua Lipa earns six nominations with Future Nostalgia, a throwback to ’80s retro pop.
Despite the fact that the women in the industry produced record selling music during the pandemic and were recognized in the nominations. Certain artists were snubbed, prominently—The Weeknd, whose album After Hours was recognized as the biggest-selling album of 2020 in the US.
The Weeknd even shared his disappointment for not being considered in the list as he said, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans, and the industry transparency…”.
The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) November 25, 2020
Meanwhile, pop artist Justin Bieber who received three nominations for Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Duo Performance, and Best Pop Vocal Album, criticized the Grammys for not recognizing his album Changes as an R&B record.
In a statement released on Instagram, he expressed, “It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me. I grew up admiring R&B music and wished to make a project that would embody that sound.”
The Grammys recording academy Chair and Interim President/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded to the criticism noting that they intend to “respect the artist’s wishes” and how “art is subjective.”
He further shared:
“At some point, decisions have to be made as to how to compare different things, and it is a very tough process and one I don’t think we get right every time. We use our best efforts to get people where they wanna be and where they should be and try to evaluate them as best as we can. If he felt that was that type of a record, then, you know… I’ll just leave it at that. We try really hard to make sure people’s art is respected and evaluated in the right category.”
After receiving a nomination under an odd category for ‘best album packaging’ last year, BTS, the globally successful Korean band, earned their first nomination with their joyful summer pop track Dynamite as British artist Harry styles scored three Grammy nominations after being ignored in the pop genre categories when he was his former band One Direction.
The nominees in the top categories for Grammys 2021 are:
Record of the year
• Black Parade – Beyoncé
• Colors – Black Pumas
• Rockstar – DaBaby ft Roddy Ricch
• Say So – Doja Cat
• Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish
• Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa
• Circles – Post Malone
• Savage (Remix) – Megan Thee Stallion ft Beyoncé
Song of the year
• Black Parade – Beyoncé
• The Box – Roddy Ricch
• Cardigan – Taylor Swift
• Circles – Post Malone
• Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish
• Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa
• I Can’t Breathe – H.E.R.
• If The World Was Ending – JP Saxe ft Julia Michaels
Album of the year
• Chilombo – Jhené Aiko
• Black Pumas – Black Pumas
• Everyday Life – Coldplay
• Djesse vol. 3 – Jacob Collier
• Women In Music Pt III – Haim
• Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa
• Hollywood’s Bleeding – Post Malone
• Folklore – Taylor Swift
Best new artist
• Ingrid Andress
• Phoebe Bridgers
• Chika
• Noah Cyrus
• D Smoke
• Doja Cat
• Kaytranada
• Megan Thee Stallion
Comedian Trevor Noah will host the Grammys, to find out who the nominees are in other categories, click here!