This year’s Grammy Awards show was dominated by women, as many won their first-ever Grammy award, and others made history, initiating a shift in the music industry. This past Sunday, millions tuned in to watch the 66th Annual Grammy Award show, where artists, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, won in the two most prestigious categories: Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Their successes were met with very strong reactions from viewers.
Within the award categories, such as Pop Solo Performance, Pop Vocal Performance, Song and Album of the Year, women made up a vast majority of the nominees. Even in categories in which women were not the majority, they still won the Grammy. Billie Eilish delivered a shocked speech, while accepting her award for Record of the Year, and after already having won Best Song Written for Visual Media earlier in the night. KAROL G celebrated her first time holding a Grammy (and first time being at the Grammys) after winning Best Música Urbana Album for her album Mañana Será Bonito. Guatemalan singer, Gaby Moreno, won Best Latin Pop Album against Maluma. SZA delivered an emotional response to one of her wins, running on stage to accept the award for Best R&B song. She won a total of three Grammy’s throughout the evening in categories across the board. Boygenius left the Grammys with three wins: Best Alternative Music Album (for the record), Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance (for Not Strong Enough). Miley Cyrus won her first (and second) Grammy last Sunday for Flowers in the categories: Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Winner of the Grammy for Best New Artist, Victoria Monet claimed “[her] award was a 15 year pursuit” proving the dedication, time and effort women have had to make in order to finally be recognized by critics. Another unforgettable moment came when Taylor Swift broke her own record by winning Album of the Year for Midnights, making her the first artist ever to win a Grammy in this category four times.
However, as social media posts on TikTok and X (formally Twitter) revealed, these results produced many mixed opinions and reactions from viewers and even fellow music artists.
About how many women were nominated and won at the Grammys this year, Senior Vittoria Bianchini said, “I was actually extremely surprised, because I feel like in the music industry women are really unseen… and I was honestly really surprised, because I thought male presence was going to be more common.” On the contrary, when asked whether she is in support of Taylor Swift’s accomplishments she said, “I don’t think Taylor Swift is that great of an artist…looking at it from the bigger picture, she’s just like any other artist, and I think that that title could have been given to someone more deserving.”
Junior Vanessa Lynn had a significantly different opinion. She said, “Personally, I think Taylor Swift is fully deserving of all of her wins, and I am in full support of her becoming the first artist to win all four Album of the Year awards. I’m a fan of hers, myself, and think each album that has [a Grammy] has one for a good reason.”
There was also much debate about the fact that Lana Del Ray was nominated for five different Grammy categories but won zero awards. Senior Jacob Lopez Fernandez said, “As a raving Lana Del Ray fan, I felt tremendously sad that she didn’t win anything. I think it shows the deteriorating taste of the Grammys over the years.”
Although controversy surrounds every award show, perhaps especially this one, adverse opinions don’t take away from the accomplishments attained by winning artists. Each and every artist showed up and showed out, but after decades of women not receiving enough recognition within the music industry, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards allowed them to finally celebrate years of hard work.
