The 64th annual grammys took place on April 3 of this year, and although it went relatively well, there was still some controversy about this event. 

There were many deserving artists and their songs who were nominated for these awards, but some specific choices sparked controversy among the show’s viewers. Despite this, there were still a lot of other awards handed out that included the award for album of the year going to “We Are” by Jon Batiste, who actually won the most nominations this grammy season, reaching a grand total of 11. Olivia Rodrigo won both best new artist, along with best pop solo performance for her song “Drivers License.” Olivia even won a third award for best pop vocal album for “Sour”. Of course, there were many other awards given out that evening, but the one section that earned itself a lot of attention through its nominees was Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The artists nominated for this award were “I Get A Kick Out Of You” by Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, “Lonely” by Justin Bieber & Benny blanco, “Butter” by BTS, “Higher Power” by Coldplay and “Kiss Me More” – by Doja Cat and featuring SZA. The winner was, “Kiss me More” and although they are very talented and deserve the award, many were upset with the choices. The K-pop group BTS has been trending on the charts recently and been nominated for best duo/group performance two years in a row. Yet, they still haven’t been given the actual award, and a lot of fans were hoping this would be the year, especially with how much attention the show gave to BTS. Many were also shocked because some awards went to artists with, well, a checkered past. The hashtag, “Scammys” began to trend on Twitter during the 2021 Grammys, and has now been brought back in 2022. A lot of fans and others accused the Grammy’s of not letting BTS win because of their ethnicity, and although it hasn’t been proven, it certainly seems to be heading in that direction. Another reason people felt that it was unfair was simply because of the sheer number of records the band has broken. They’ve broken a total of 13 Guinness Records in only a year, which adds up to 25 different awards across various categories. In addition to this, there were even arguments about how the show was organized. It seemed like they had purposely delayed the announcement of who was to win this specific portion of the event to receive a huge amount of views from fans. It looks like they succeeded in getting the views, gaining 8.93 million viewers, a little more than last year which was 8.8 million. Before the awards for this section of the Grammy, the K-pop group gave a James Bond inspired performance, which included one of the members whispering something to Olivia Rodrigo in the audience, and another member flying in from the ceiling. Then the group did their iconic, “Butter” choreography while dodging lasers from the stage.  Regardless of all the controversy, there were a few very sweet events that took place. 

These included Lady Gaga paying tribute to Tony Bennett saying, “I love you Tony, we miss you.” Tony Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but was still able to make a virtual appearance in the show beforehand. The Grammy’s also showed support towards the people in Ukraine, when Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky appeared virtually and said, “Fill the silence with your music. Fill it today to tell our story.” His moving speech was followed by a performance by John Legend alongside Ukrainian musicians Siuzanna Iglidan and Mika Newton. 

Now, although these beautiful moments took place, there was an overall negative view of this year’s Grammys, and for good reason too. So many talented and deserving artists are denied an award for trivial reasons. Isabelle Bett, a 7th grader from Rio Norte says, “I honestly don’t really like the Grammys. They completely forget to award the underrated groups, and others who deserve it.” Hopefully this changes some time in the future, but for now,  #Scammys.