Since the first Grammys Awards ceremony took place on May 4, 1959, the public has criticized the Recording Academy’s selection of nominees and winners. Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Queen, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, and Katy Perry are all artists who at some point in their career were deemed “snubbed” at the Grammys by their fans. This year’s 63rd Grammys ceremony was no exception Soon after the Grammys closed on the night of March 14th, #TheScammys was trending on Twitter and was used in reference to those that the public felt deserved to win in their nominated categories or even those people thought were being taken advantage of by the Grammys. Here are the three biggest Grammy scams of 2021.

Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers is a female singer-songwriter, who first got famous from her debut album “Motion In The Alps” in 2017, which includes her most popular song, “Motion Sickness” which gained a lot of its popularity from TikTok. In 2020, Bridgers released her second album Punisher which gained immense praise for its unique sound and Bridgers overall musical talent. Bridgers’ song “Kyoto” was vastly loved, many deeming it “The Best Song of 2020.” Bridgers was nominated for multiple Grammys, including Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance, Best Alternative Music Album, and Best Rock Song. Despite all the praise her music received, she did not win any of the awards. In fact, after the ceremony she even posted a picture of herself on Instagram with the caption, “Me holding my Grammys” when she was clearly holding nothing.

It may be surprising to hear that Phoebe Bridgers is actual friends with English singer-songwriter Elton John. She actually joined Elton John on his podcast before the night of the Grammys. While he was congratulating her on the success of her two albums and her Grammy nominations, he did say that he would hit someone if she didn’t win any Grammys. So now I guess the whole world is waiting to see who Sir Elton John is going to hit.

Doja Cat

Doja Cat—real name Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini—is a female singer, rapper, and songwriter who first got popular for her viral song called “MOOO!” in 2018. She really got the status that she is at now after she released her album “Hot Pink” in 2019. Multiple songs from that album went viral on TikTok, including her song “Say So,” which went viral after Tikok creator Haley Sharpe created a dance to the song that went crazy viral on TikTok and pushed the song to the top of the charts. After the amazing year that Doja Cat had, she was nominated for multiple Grammys, specifically for Record of the Year (“Say So”), Best Pop Solo Performance (“Say So”), and Best New Artist. She won none of the awards, which was an enormous shock to everyone. According to the traction that “Say So” and the entirety of Doja Cat’s “Hot Pink” got this year, it seems obvious that she should win a Grammy, but alas, she didn’t.

Many people are comparing Doja’s snubs to what happened to Nicki Minaj in 2012. She had seven songs topping the charts simultaneously that year. She had the best year of almost any female rapper at that point in time, and yet she didn’t win a single Grammy despite her four nominations. To this day, she still has zero Grammys, yet she is seen as the biggest female rapper in the world. Many of Doja Cat’s fans fear that after this year, the music industry is sending her down on a bad path.

BTS 

BTS is a seven-member Korean pop boy-band that has been outrageously popular for the last decade. Some may even say that they are the most popular band in the world, as they are known for their enormous and extremely powerful fan base called the Army. The Army has so much power over the internet, and they were the ones who got #TheScammys trending in the first place. This year, BTS was nominated for one Grammy, which was Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their song “Dynamite” which was released in 2020. Due to the immense popularity of BTS worldwide, many thought they were guaranteed to win. However, the group ended up losing to the song “Rain on Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. 

The fans of BTS are mad about this loss for two major reasons. The first being BTS’s Grammy performance. Many people think that the Grammys didn’t bother to give BTS a Grammy but still had them perform to gain the large viewership of the BTS Army. They even may have pushed their performance towards the end to keep the viewership for the majority of the ceremony. The BTS Army has shown their anger about this on the internet, especially because this is only one of the many times that BTS has been manipulated by the American music industry. The Army is especially angry about this loss in regard to xenophobia. BTS is seen as the largest band in the world by many as of now. They have been around since 2010, they have topped charts countless times, and have the largest amount of fans of any artist. According to atomtickets.com, they are the fastest music group to earn four #1 albums, in less than two years. So, how is it that this is their first Grammy nomination, and they haven’t even won one yet? The answer is that the music industry has always been extremely exclusive to American and English-speaking artists. It’s no coincidence that the first song that got BTS nominated happened to be one of their English songs. BTS, a band that seems to have broken so many major boundaries for over a decade, still can’t seem to win just one Grammy, just because they don’t appear American.

The mess that we call The Grammys has been a mess for a very long time. It’s just that after this year many people are starting to see that a little more. Many people are asking, “Will the Grammy’s change?” Everyone would like to think that this awards ceremony will change its biased ways after seeing the backlash it’s getting, but it is unlikely to happen. Grammys has scammed the biggest artists since the beginning. Along with the recent snubs of the aforementioned artists, Queen, one of the biggest rock bands in the world to this date, didn’t win their first Grammy until over a decade after their lead singer died. The Grammys don’t care whether they give awards to artists who deserve it. The only thing they care about is appealing to artists who fit their quota, and getting audiences to come back again and again, no matter how much backlash they get.