By Nick LevineOptions correspondent
![Getty Images Beyonce](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0h955t3.jpg.webp)
As her husband Jay-Z referenced in his speech on Sunday evening, regardless of successful 32 Grammys, Beyoncé has by no means received the coveted prize for album of the 12 months.
At Sunday evening’s Grammy Awards, Jay-Z highlighted a shocking slight hidden within the Recording Academy’s current voting report. Regardless of successful 32 Grammys throughout her outstanding profession – greater than every other artist – Beyoncé has by no means taken dwelling probably the most prestigious prize of all: for album of the 12 months. “Even by your individual metrics, that does not work,” Jay-Z stated as he accepted the Dr Dre international impression award. “Take into consideration that. Essentially the most Grammys, by no means received album of the 12 months. That does not work.”
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When the digicam panned to Beyoncé, she didn’t reply visibly to her husband’s feedback, however there have been just a few cheers of help from the viewers at LA’s Crypto.com Enviornment. On X, the person @MJFINESSELOVER posted: “Jay-Z is 100% right. The truth that Beyoncé has by no means received album of the 12 months… is shameful.” One other person, @spicebae, wrote: “We simply must go forward and applaud Jay-Z for saying what everybody’s been fascinated with the nominations and Beyoncé by no means successful album of the 12 months.”
This enduring snub turns into much more egregious while you think about that Beyoncé has been nominated for album of the 12 months on 5 separate events: first in 2010 for I Am… Sasha Fierce, then a 12 months later as a featured artist on Woman Gaga‘s The Fame Monster. Every of Beyoncé’s subsequent three nominations on this class – for the agenda-setting feminist missive Beyoncé in 2015, the genre-melding idea album Lemonade in 2017 and the heady dance opus Renaissance in 2023 – may have been transformed into deserving wins.
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![Getty Images Jay-Z, shown on stage with Blue Ivy Carter, used his speech to ask why Beyoncé hadn't received the Grammys' album of the year award (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0h956kv.jpg.webp)
Lemonade particularly regarded like a sure-fire album of the 12 months winner. It explored the emotional impression of Jay-Z’s rumoured infidelity by way of the prism of generational ache and racial inequality, making it culturally pertinent in addition to musically achieved. Throughout 12 tracks, Beyoncé effortlessly blended genres together with reggae, rock, hip-hop, soul, funk, nation and electronica. She additionally made a surprising accompanying visible album. When Adele received as an alternative that 12 months for her blockbuster third album 25, the British singer stated in her acceptance speech: “I can not probably settle for this award. And I am very humbled and I am very grateful and gracious. However my artist of my life is Beyoncé. And this album to me, the Lemonade album, is simply so monumental.”
Although it’s by no means useful (or honest) to match feminine artists too carefully, it’s inescapable that Jay-Z’s feedback got here on the identical evening that Taylor Swift received album of the 12 months for the fourth time. Her comparatively low-key tenth studio album, Midnights, overrode sturdy competitors from SZA, Olivia Rodrigo and Lana Del Rey, amongst others. Since 2000, a number of different feminine artists have received album of the 12 months – Norah Jones, Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks), Alison Krauss (collectively with Robert Plant), Kacey Musgraves, Billie Eilish and Adele (twice). However, as @MJFINESSELOVER famous in her viral tweet, the final time a black girl triumphed on this class got here in 1999, when Lauryn Hill received with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Is a few sort of racial bias guilty for Beyoncé being shut out? It undoubtedly feels uncomfortable that simply certainly one of her 32 Grammy wins has are available in a so-called “large 4” class (to make use of the colloquial time period that teams the extremely coveted trophies for album of the 12 months, report of the 12 months, tune of the 12 months and finest new artist). Beyoncé’s sole large 4 triumph got here in 2010 when Single Girls (Put a Ring on It) was named tune of the 12 months.
Her different wins have been in style classes, together with a report 5 for finest R&B tune. Any Grammy triumph is an indication of widespread business recognition, however as Jay-Z identified, one thing about Beyoncé by no means successful album of the 12 months simply would not add up. Over the past decade particularly, she has made music that outlined the respective genres she has labored in – from R&B and rap to bounce/electronica. However she has additionally made albums that transcended these genres to grow to be pop cultural touchstones. For that motive, she is nicely overdue for an album of the 12 months win. Fortunately, her creativity stays so undimmed that the Grammys ought to get many extra makes an attempt sooner or later to proper this oversight.
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