On Feb. 2, the 67th Grammy Awards took place, and Beyoncé — one of the most influential artists of the century — took home the coveted Album of the Year Award. While many agree that she should have won the award in previous years for either “Lemonade” or “Renaissance,” there is much more controversy when discussing if her country project “Cowboy Carter” should have taken home the accolade.
Fans of young pop star Billie Eilish were especially upset by Beyoncé’s victory over her album “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” Eilish was nominated for seven awards at this year’s ceremony but walked away empty-handed. Despite the overall wash for the album, many fans were pointedly outraged that “Cowboy Carter” in particular won over “Hit Me Hard and Soft” in the Album of the Year category.
This seems particularly strange — artists such as Sabrina Carpenter also won out over Eilish, yet online outrage was exclusively centered on Beyoncé’s “undeserved” victory. This is linked to the narrow-minded idea that only a specific type of music — pop music — is worthy of a win.
Many took to social media to criticize the Recording Academy’s decision, with one of the main arguments against Beyoncé’s win being that Eilish’s streaming numbers for her respective album were much higher. Other cherry-picked lyrics from each album, making Eilish’s songs seem significantly more poetic than ones from “Cowboy Carter.” The lead single “Texas Hold ‘Em” was particularly mocked.
These arguments are inherently flawed.
In terms of Beyoncé’s win, the reaction of Eilish’s fanbase shows a lack of understanding of her project. As many “Hit Me Hard and Soft” supporters admitted, the majority hadn’t listened to the whole album or researched the deep history behind “Cowboy Carter” before criticizing it. In addition to its unique and expansive approach to the country genre, the album has an even larger purpose which it effectively executes. It delves into the history of Black culture in relation to country music, highlighting the often unknown yet impactful influence of it on the genre.
Although “Cowboy Carter” didn’t match the streaming numbers or have as many hit singles as “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” its cultural significance along with its strong vocals and production made it worthy of the Album of the Year Award.
The reaction to the album’s victory brings up questions about how fanbases should respond in general when their favorite artist doesn’t win.
There is speculation that “Hit Me Hard and Soft” wasn’t even in close range to the amount of votes needed to secure the Album of the Year Award. Many believe that Charli XCX’s dance pop project, “Brat,” was the runner-up. Instead of reacting with attacks towards Beyoncé, fans were relatively quiet about the defeat, celebrating the impact “Brat” had without tearing down “Cowboy Carter.” This is a much more reasonable, healthy response to the Grammy’s results.
Further, it also seems hypocritical for Eilish’s fanbase to bash and question the validity of Beyoncé’s win so harshly because, at the 2020 awards, Eilish had a similar experience. Her debut album “When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?” swept the awards, leaving fans of Lana del Rey’s record “Norman F***ing Rockwell” outraged and confused. In theory, seeing this reaction towards their favorite artist in 2020 should have led Eilish fans to treat other artists in similar situations with more kindness.
It doesn’t make much sense to attack a victorious artist when you feel their achievement is invalid. The Recording Academy ultimately made the decision, so it is misguided to fault the artist for merely accepting an award.
