The sixty-fourth Annual Grammy awards were held for the first time in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. New artists made their name known and show stopping performances took the internet by storm. 

Music duo Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak) snagged all four awards they were nominated for, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for their hit “Leave the Door Open.” When accepting their final award of the night, Paak smugly said, “We’re really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point, but in the industry we call that a clean sweep!”

Olivia Rodrigo also took home multiple Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album. She was also one of the first performers of the night, singing her smash hit “Driver’s License.” She was also featured in BTS’s “Butter” performance, where BTS member V played a card trick on her and whispered in her ear. This moment easily became the most talked about moment of the night between the two artists’ committed fandoms.

BTS member V made a splash at the Grammys when he whispered in pop princess Olivia Rodrigo’s ear during his performance. Photo retrieved from The Indian Express.

Though BTS put on a stellar performance, their fandom, called ARMY, was less than satisfied with the Recording Academy’s treatment of the group. BTS was nominated once again for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their hit “Butter,” but were snubbed for yet another year. The award was instead given to Doja Cat and SZA for their collaboration song, “Kiss Me More.”

The K-pop group’s nominated song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 weeks throughout this year, so it was obvious that it was a shoo-in for the award. BTS was also heavily advertised as one of the biggest artists of the night, which led fans to believe that they had the award in the bag. The category they were nominated in was moved to the main show, rather than the pre show that it usually is announced at, making it seem like the group was set up for the win.

Among other artists who were snubbed is Lil Nas X, who lost all five of his award categories. The pop artist had a great year with the release of his chart topping album and song, “Montero.” Twitter was ablaze after the award show when Lil Nas X tweeted, “can’t believe i lost all my grammys. i am now no longer gay!” On his social media, he pointed out how the Recording Academy is known to turn a blind eye to LGBTQIA artists. 

Billie Eilish, another chart topping artist, was nominated seven times and lost all of her categories. All of these artists have had a great year with multiple hit songs, but the Recording Academy has decided to go against the numbers and fans’ words when selecting winners. What does the Recording Academy base their Grammy award decisions on if not listeners’ enjoyment of the music? It seems that the group who chooses the winners are not in touch with today’s biggest artists and the likes of the public.