The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards: Who Deserved Album of the Year?

Sunday night, I sat down to watch the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards not knowing what to expect, but it sure wasn’t what actually happened. 

The show started off promising, with hostess Alicia Keys giving a monologue to honor the late Kobe Bryant. After the hostess was finished, Lizzo gave the opening performance and dedicated it to Kobe Bryant, just like many other performers throughout the night. The heartfelt tributes to the late basketball star were definitely the most honorable moments of the night. 

Aside from stunning opening performances, the Grammy Awards are notorious for their controversies. The phrase “Grammy Awards” goes hand in hand with the word “snubs”, and this year, the Recording Academy did not disappoint. For the 62nd annual award show, artists like the one and only Ariana Grande were snubbed.

Her first award to come up was Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, since her song “Boyfriend” with Social House was nominated. Unfortunately, she didn’t win because it went to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s song “Old Town Road”. I was absolutely dumbfounded because this song beat not only Ariana Grande, but the Jonas Brothers’ “Suckers” too! This song got its fame off of TikTok and isn’t even much of a song, so it’s just a slap in the face to the other accomplished artists in the category. 

As per usual, the most important awards of the night came up last. Ariana Grande was nominated for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for her album Thank U, Next and her song “7 Rings”. Somehow, she lost in both categories to Billie Eilish.

Eilish is a very talented, down-to-earth person who is more accomplished than I’ll ever be, but I think she won a couple more awards than she deserved. She went home with Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Pop Vocal Album. 

Eilish definitely deserved to win Song of the Year and Best New Artist, since she grew like crazy this year and “Bad Guy” was all everyone was listening to for a while. Personally, I don’t think her music can be called pop, so I don’t understand why she was even nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, much less how she won. Plus, the teenager was up against artists like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Ed Sheeran, yet she still took the award home. 

Most of all, though, I am confused by Album of the Year. Eilish is very talented and hardworking, but Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next is an album about overcoming struggles and quite possibly her most popular album of her career. It’s an empowering album people listen to to get pumped up, while Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is about depression and is an album we listen to when we’re sad. I can guarantee you it’s not the album I would choose to get myself ready for something big. 

This isn’t the first time the Annual Grammy Awards have disappointed me and it probably isn’t the last, but all I can do is hope for better outcomes next year.