Beyoncé (Photo credit: Bang Media)
The Beyhive was buzzing furiously on Monday, Feb. 6, because they believe that Beyoncé was robbed of the Album of the Year (AOTY) award at the 2023 Grammys, which took place the night before. And, after viewing the words of some of the Recording Academy voters, there are legitimate reasons for their righteous indignation.
Despite the fact that Beyoncé won four more trophies at the 2023 Grammys to become the all-time winningest artist in the awards’ history, the hive is humming that she has yet to bag an AOTY award in four tries.
Most specifically, Queen Bey’s disciples took offense with some of the voters’ rationale for their votes. Through their own statements (albeit anonymously), some voters shed light on who they voted for, why they voted the way they did, and their confession to Variety magazine that they didn’t listen to a lot of the music – and, most egregiously, didn’t even know who many of the nominees were.
Here are a few examples of statements that Bey fans found inexcusable and indefensible:
Voter No. 2 told Variety that, “I felt very strongly that Lizzo has changed this culture a lot. ‘About Damn Time’ was a great track that everyone responded to. I also look at who’s been there and go, ‘OK, Adele, Beyoncé — they always win; it’s the same people over and over again.’ So I went for Lizzo.”
Voter No. 4, who is 70 years old and admitted that he’s not in touch with a lot of today’s music, actually said this: “I try to be ecumenical, but there’s a significant percentage of the music I’ve never heard. It’s a lot of work to listen to all of it. I guess I’m a bad voter because I didn’t do my diligence. But that’s my right … With AOTY: With Beyoncé, the fact that every time she does something new, it’s a big event and everyone’s supposed to quake in their shoes — it’s a little too portentous.”
Voter No. 5 added this on why she did not vote for Beyoncé’s Rennaissance for AOTY: “I didn’t vote for either Adele or Beyoncé in any of the top categories. I love Beyoncé’s album and have been a fan of Adele, but I feel that they have already won a lot of Grammys.”
Using a sports analogy, this would be tantamount to denying Michael Jordan his sixth NBA title because he’d already won five or banning Tom Brady from the Super Bowl because he’s already been to 10 NFL championships.
Fans sound off on social media for what they see as implicit bias against Queen Bey.
This is all I needed to see, read to confirm that the Grammy voting is STEPPED in misogynoir. “Portentous?!” Beyonce isn’t trying to impress nobody especially not a pretentious voter who can’t even reveal their true identity. https://t.co/dH41s4UvgL
— Kirstin L. Cheers (@kayeyerah) February 6, 2023
Such a joke. This Grammy voter admitted they didn’t even listen to all the nominated albums and shows a CLEAR bias against Beyoncé and Adele. @RecordingAcad how is that fair? So lame. https://t.co/89EIx0l2LT
— dyra Banks (@HausofDyra) February 6, 2023
That Grammy’s voter was really mad at Beyoncé for turning album release into event …isn’t it what an album is supposed to be? Especially in a music climate that favors quick viral hits instead of cohesive body of work ?
— Carine ✨️ Karma is a God (@CarineK) February 6, 2023
