The Grammys: a night of controversy and achievement

April 2021 Satire Issue

Samantha Stokes, A mildly obsessed K-Pop stan

The sixty-third Annual Grammys were held in a virtual environment on March 14, with performances by artists like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, Billie Eilish, Post Malone and k-pop group BTS. Some awards set records, while others left watchers feeling outraged about the Recording Academy’s seeming racism and xenophobia.

This awards show was a special night for women, in which five records were set by them. Blue Ivy Carter started out the night with the first record set during the pre show where she became the youngest individual to win a Grammy at only 9-years-old for her performance in her mother Beyonce’s music video for “Brown Skinned Girl.” Beyonce also set and broke two records that night, getting the first all-female win for the Best Rap Performance category with Megan Thee Stallion and breaking the record for the most Grammys won by any Artist, 28 in total. Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande were also record setters for being the first ever all-female win for the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Lastly, Taylor Swift took home the Album of the Year Award for her album “Folklore,” making her the only woman to ever win this award three times.

What was a great night for some, was a night of outrage and confusion for others. Korean boy group BTS and their fans, known as ARMY, were completely let down when their smash hit “Dynamite” did not win the Grammy for Best Duo/Group Performance. ARMYs on Twitter pointed out how this song quite literally “outsold” all other songs nominated by tens of millions of streams and is the only song in the list that is still charting currently. Not only were fans outraged by the group not winning but by the fact that their award, usually one of the most anticipated awards of the night, was moved to the pre show that wasn’t even shown on TV. Twitter users also noted that POC R&B duo Chloe x Halle were also “snubbed” for awards and pushed to the pre show. One Twitter user @moonchile expressed their anger: “the sheer amount of diversity in this preshow…that’s never in the main show…really it’s all the more blatant.” The awards show also promised a performance from BTS at the beginning of the show and continued to announce it as “up next,” when in fact it was the second-to-last performance of the night and was cut off early.  All of those outraged by the Recording Academy’s actions started the hashtag “#scammys” to express their anger and actually trended it worldwide above the “#Grammys” hashtag.

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