I do not have the exact numbers, but I would venture a guess that if polls were taken when it comes to which demographics are considered the most powerful concerning race and gender, the racial poll would view white people as the most powerful, and the gender poll would view men as the most powerful—standing on the opposite end of both of those spectrums is a Black woman.
But what if the most powerful person in the world, at least in the entertainment world, were a Black woman?
A woman who demands a $35-45 million purse for a concert at the opening of a hotel. A Black woman with a Netflix special of just her performance at a music festival where dozens of other artists performed. A woman who sparked a vocal challenge with just a few seconds of her singing. Whether you like her music or not, her talent is undeniable, but somehow it was still denied.
Beyoncé was robbed—and her loss was just another glaring example of how the world goes out of its way to humble Black women and, of course, reward a white man instead.
But before you even get your throat coated with “nay,” because you think I’m some delusional Beyoncé stan, I want to correct you right there. Am I delusional? oh, for sure. But a Beyoncé stan, I am not. And while I hate stan culture, I would definitely not be offended were I accused of being in Rihanna’s N-gger Navy. According to my Spotify account, I have more than double the Jay-Z songs saved than I do Beyoncé. Hell, I have Spotify because I do not have Tidal because I did not sign up to see her exclusive content because it is not important to me. But I have seen Beyoncé in concert, and as someone who does concerts, she was absolutely stellar. As someone whose musical tastes don’t really align with her music, I would totally go again. Her concert, hands down, was one of the most entertaining nights of my life. The dopamine was flowing!
There is a reason that she is so well-loved.
The Grammys should have been a reflection of Beyoncé’s contribution to the music industry with her iconic musical adventures because simply calling them albums would not do them justice.
Her loss feels like a sleight of hand or a mere ploy to reward the Black woman, enough to keep us quiet-er, because her talent is clearly undeniable, but to not really give her her flowers.
There is no way someone can say that the most nominated artist of all time, as well as the most winningest, does not, in fact, deserve all of the highest honors as well. You don’t need to be a Beyoncé stan to understand why she deserves such high praise and the recognition of Album of the Year. I literally have never downloaded a song from that album, and I know a few of those songs pretty well, and not just because my besties are, in fact, huge fans (forcing me to listen to her in the car.) Nothing against Harry Styles because “Watermelon Sugar” is kind of a vibe, but I never heard any songs from the album that won (“Watermelon Sugar” was not on this current album). In fact, I do not even know what the name of the album is called. Additionally, Renaissance was an entire movement, spawning the above-mentioned vocal challenges, as well as mass hysteria. Did Harry have construction workers showing what a team build-up to the beat drops looks like, or teachers showing what they really do on teacher workdays and why they love Jim but still had to put him in the back of the TikTok dance? I don’t think so. Hell, did anybody?
Beyoncé’s stardom feels almost aloof to me; she seems like she clearly knows that she and Rihanna are the most famous people in the world. Still, even in her almost untouchable nature, she seems truly dedicated to her fanbase, and she consistently works the hardest to keep them happy—I’m looking at you “no album since 2016,” Fenty! She gives homage to the culture and is always collaborating with young fresh talent to keep her music refreshing, relatable, and album of the year-ish. This isn’t the first time the Grammys have made a mistake, and it won’t be the last, but it very much feels like another attempt to keep Black women humble and keep us from popping our sh-t even when everyone else pops it for us.
What would be the reasoning for Beyoncé losing again that is logical? I cannot seem to find one. Maybe the argument could be made that Beyoncé has won too many Grammys. Someone has got to be the record holder. Is it so bad that with all of our contributions to music that it is a Black woman doing so? The argument for “let somebody else win” becomes void when you consider that Taylor Swift (whose music I do like…I do not care) has won Album of the Year, not twice but thrice, for Fearless, 1989, and Folklore. Adele’s pre ‘lullabies for adults and millennials in crisis-era music has won twice, for the albums 21 and 25.
In fact, the last time a Black woman won Album of the Year was 1999—think about that—Billie Eilish, who has won a Grammy for Album of the Year, was not even born since the last time a Black woman won, and that includes Mariah Carey’s Emancipation of Mimi’s loss to some U2 record that wasn’t even Joshua Tree or that album that Apple forced on us, and the Diary of Alicia Keys, (those are Black women, I don’t care) losing to Ray Charles & Friends.
Harry’s House did actually get more streams than Renaissance, but when have sales actually been the complete indication of whether or not an artist should win? (See Alicia and Mariah.) What Black people lack in population, they make up in nominations. So it is almost impossible to deny the star quality of Black entertainers when they permeate so many categories. Yet we are still not winning as we should.
Whether Beyoncé’s star burns like Allen Iverson’s or Michael Jordan’s, she will still go down in history as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, to ever do it.
Even as someone who is neutral about her, there is no denying that she is the blueprint, so her not winning does not feel genuine. But it does feel purposeful. It is as if they are reluctant to give Beyoncé the AOTY Grammy because, I mean, what’s the most powerful queen in the world without a crown? What’s this world coming to if the highest praise goes to a Black woman?
