By relegating Beyoncé to smaller awards, the Recording Academy failed to acknowledge the artist that pushes it to be higher
The sixty fifth Grammys was collaborative, witty, tear-jerking, and surprisingly touching for a music awards present typically outlined by its incapability to get with the instances — which is why Beyonce’s insulting snub for Album of the Yr felt all of the extra surprising and like an indictment on the Recording Academy itself. Why is music’s largest night time so averse to giving Black girls their due?
Renaissance, Beyoncé’s seventh album, was a seductive membership banger with heady lyricism and deep tributes to the queer group. In a Rolling Stone overview, author Mankaprr Conteh wrote that the album “traverses eras of dance music to conjure the superhuman confidence and deeply human connection of an evening out. The thematic triumph of the auteur’s seventh album is that this union of the extraordinary and the earthly throughout it, a duality that lives on the dancefloors Renaissance was impressed by—and in all of us,” she added. “Renaissance channels the vitality and the vanity of the membership into an indication of self-love.”
On a technical stage, Renaissance succeeded as each a dance traditional and an iconic piece of music historical past. That a lot was evident when Beyoncé took dwelling the award for Greatest Dance/Digital Music Album, made historical past as essentially the most Grammy award-winning artist of all time, and nonetheless discovered time to thank the queer group for inventing the style. However even along with her wins throughout the ceremony, Beyoncé’s lack of recognition for Album of the Yr proves that the Recording Academy nonetheless lacks a elementary understanding of the artists that push it to raised.
We’ve been right here earlier than. Beyoncé has stood in a cheering crowd whereas Beck (2015), Adele (2017), and now Harry Kinds (2023) took an award that she had earned. However on an evening when Black artists’ contribution to music historical past was highlighted so properly, Beyoncé’s snub feels particularly infuriating. Black artists have outlined each style of music. However music’s largest night time has outlined itself by its refusal to award Black artistry the reward it’s due. Beyoncé deserved higher. All of us did.
Associated: The place to Discover Beyonce “Renaissance Tour” Tickets On-line