Do the Grammy Awards Have a Diversity Problem?

The annual Grammy Awards are always full of surprises, and this year the nominees for the 2021 ceremony are no different. Most notably, this year’s Album of the Year category has become a hot topic of controversy on social media – fans have spoken out about the lack of diversity in this and many of the other major categories, with artists such as The Weeknd, Burnaboy, and BTS being side-lined, despite the unanimous cultural and commercial success of their music.

The Weeknd took to twitter to express his feelings of confusion; despite his single “Blinding Lights” breaking Billboard records for the most weeks at Number One, he was given zero nominations this year. Drake also stood in solidarity, arguing Black artists such as Lil Baby, Pop Smoke, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Popcaan and “too many missing names to even name” had been unfairly snubbed by the Recording Academy.

The tale of racial inequality at the Grammys is one we are, sadly, all too familiar with. Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp A Butterfly was easily one of the most powerful, progressive and culturally significant albums released that year. It was surprising to many that the album lost out on the coveted award to Taylor Swift’s 1989 – a great album in its own right, but nothing more than a comfortable selection of homogeneous, disposable, sing-along anthems. A similar situation unfolded in 2017 when Beyoncé lost out on the award to Adele, who famously broke her Grammy in half to share it. Beyoncé’s loss, particularly on her Lemonade album, spoke volumes to the Black community. The album was not only significant in its discussion of police brutality, racism, classism, black culture and feminism, but it was also personal, eclectic, and far more musically complex than anything she had previously produced.

Not only are Black artists losing out on prestigious awards, but they are being limited to smaller, more ‘racialised’ categories as well. Tyler, the Creator spoke out against the Recording Academy following his ‘Best Rap Album’ win for his 2019 project, Igor. Tyler commented on the fact that whenever black artists do anything remotely genre-bending, they are put in the ‘urban/rap’ category. He argued that it felt like a backhanded compliment, adding “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word [when it comes to music]. To me, it’s just a politically correct way to say the N-word. Why can’t we just be in pop?”.

The Grammys have been called out on numerous occasions through the years for being too white, too male and too old. From the awards’ beginning in 1957, only ten black artists have won the Album of the Year prize. While of course everyone is entitled to their opinion over what they consider to be the best music of the year, people look to the Grammys to showcase the best of the best, and when Black artists – who have been critically acclaimed by publications and the general public – are being underrepresented, it’s no wonder people speak out against it. Especially this year, following the political climate generated by the Black Lives Matter movement, the Academy had the opportunity to drive change in an industry that has historically failed to give Black artists the recognition they deserve – but they slept on it.

For a list of the best albums of the year according to The Urban Journal, head over to our carefully-curated selection.