Beyoncé wasn’t snubbed, she’s being pigeonholed

 Earlier this month, the 65th annual Grammy awards took place in Los Angeles and saw former member of One Direction and now successful solo artist, Harry Styles win Album of the Year for his third album Harry’s House.

After he won there was immediate debate online about whether Beyoncé’s sixth album Renaissance was snubbed for the award.


This argument was fuelled by fans who noted Beyoncé has never won the Album of the Year Grammy despite her influential albums Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016) being nominated in this category.

In my opinion Beyoncé isn’t being snubbed by the Recording Academy, she is being pigeonholed.

Although Beyoncé is the most decorated female artist in Grammy history, many of her wins have come in the R&B categories including, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), which to me is clearly a pop song.

Adding to this, in the summer when Renaissance lead single Break My Soul came out, I was surprised to see it featured on Amazon Music’s R&B Rotation playlist despite its clear house and club influences, shown most obviously with the sample of Robin S’s beloved club song Show Me Love.

If Beyoncé wasn’t black would either of those songs have been considered R&B?



This is a clearly an industry wide issue and has been discussed before.

In 2019, when the Tyler, The Creator won Best Rap Album for his album IGOR he shared his disappointment that his album was even considered for the rap category:

‘"It sucks that whenever we — and I mean guys that look like me — do anything that's genre-bending or that's anything they always put it in a rap or urban category. I don't like that 'urban' word — it's just a politically correct way to say the n-word to me," he said.’

Still with the issue being openly discussed and uproar there seems to be no meaningful change coming anytime soon.

If Beyoncé, who is one of the most hardworking, innovative and well-loved artists of this generation, can’t break out of the box imposed on black artists, it’s difficult to hopeful for future musicians.

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