The queen of pop broke records – though not for the big gongs, again. But if the Recording Academy has a history of unexpected choices, this year’s wins for Styles, Bonnie Raitt and Lizzo had substance behind them
Anyone looking for controversy about the winners of this year’s Grammy awards is likely to alight on the subject of Beyoncé: you could try and make a case that one of the big gongs should have gone to Kendrick Lamar, but Mr Morale & the Big Steppers – a brilliant album, but a knotty, complex one, which furthermore achieved a fraction of the sales of its predecessor Damn – was probably never in with a chance. Without wishing to cast shade on those doughtily toiling away in the areas covered by the best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media and best new age ambient or chant album categories, the Grammys are ultimately about four awards: album of the year, record of the year, song of the year and best new artist.
As a solo artist, Beyoncé has only ever won one of them once – song of the year in 2010 for Single Ladies – which seems a fairly inexplicable state of affairs: you don’t need to be a rabid member of the Bey Hive to know that she’s had an immense cultural and commercial impact over the last 20 years. That nothing changed this year, making her an eight-time unsuccessful nominee in the record of the year category, is doubtless going to raise some thorny questions and provoke outrage – she had to make do with best dance/electronic recording and best dance/electronic music album, and with becoming the artist who’s won the most Grammys ever, presumably enough to stop her withdrawing from the awards in future as the Weeknd and Drake have done in recent years.