The Grammys took place last night, and already there are debates on if some of the awards went to the right artists.
Discussions on who should’ve won a category are nothing new, but this year with so many big names and great albums nominated, the discussions are definitely more interesting. The most debated categories are always Album of the Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Rap Album.
Album of The Year is a tricky category to debate. The category includes albums from many different genres, often pop and hip hop, and could go to anyone. This year with artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Clipse, Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar, and Bad Bunny nominated, the discussions on who most deserved a Grammy were amplified. Each artist nominated this year already has massive fanbases, with the exception of up-and-comer Leon Thomas, and many of them produced their best works last year. The award ultimately went to Bad Bunny, the favorite to win Album of The Year before the show even started, but the favorite to win by critics isn’t always the favorite to win by fans.
You can make a case for any artist nominated to win the Grammy for Album of The Year, but ultimately it is hard to deny Bad Bunny was the most deserving. The year Bad Bunny had last year, compared to years previous, was especially great. He was announced as the musical artist for this year’s Super Bowl, topped Spotify’s most-streamed list, had a very successful world tour, and is the most well-known and respected latin artist in the world as of 2026. When you compare that to any other artist nominated it is hard to not give him the Grammy.
The case for Rap Album of The Year is a little different however. The category went to Kendrick Lamar for his album “GNX”, but many wonder if he truly deserved it. Many online critics and music reviewers saw the album as the weakest in his discography and a made-for-radio pop album riding the coattails of the Drake beef from 2024. The most prominent names many debate for winning the Grammy are Tyler, The Creator and Clipse. Tyler, The Creator’s album “Chromakopia” was a deep and personal album, with a few radio hits. “Chromakopia” marked a change in Tyler’s music with deep introspective vocals, versatile instrumentals, and deals with heavy themes like anxiety or relationships. “Let God Sort ‘Em Out” by Clipse had a strong campaign to win the Grammys too. With high production quality and instrumentals done by Pharrell Williams and the return of Clipse as a group, it is a strong album detailing their own personal struggles. Clipse is a duo made up of Pusha T and his brother Malice and was a huge force in the 2000s rap scene, and are now seen as legends in the space. Their reasons for the Rap Album of The Year is one: their great production and beats, the songwriting and lyricism by both Pusha T and Malice, and the personality this album brought to the rap scene this past year.
Song of The Year conversations are a less competitive scene for fans, at least compared to Album of The Year and Rap Album of The Year. Billie Eilish ended up winning the category with her song “WILDFLOWER”, which came out in May of 2024 and raises the question of if the song was even eligible for this year’s Grammy Awards. The long and short of it is: yes, the song was eligible. Although it was released with her album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” in 2024, it became available as a single in February 2025, and that means it then became eligible. All the songs nominated had a strong chance to win, but “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Golden” from K-Pop Demon Hunters, “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and “APT.” by Bruno Mars and Rose had particularly strong cases to win. All of these songs were massive on sites like Youtube and TikTok last year, but “Golden” for sure takes the cake for the most-used in videos last year. “Golden” was everywhere with its catchy lyrics and poppy instrumentals; it was hard to escape. However, while “Golden” was dominating TikTok and other shortform video platforms, “Manchild”, “APT.” were dominating pop charts. “Manchild” brought a strong 80’s vibe with it and catchy pop lyrics. “APT.” had an easy to follow rhythm with a basic drum loop and bass line, but brought its set of catchy earworm lyrics meant to get the song stuck in your head. “Luther” still had a presence on pop charts, but it found its main audience in the rap world and Spotify. Kendrick is a rap darling at this point and any song he does with SZA is instantly one of his biggest hits. The song brought SZA’s always on-point vocals and Kendrick’s elite rapping ability and mixed them together perfectly.\
The cases were strong for anyone to win a Grammy, that’s why the Grammy’s are fun and always make waves in the music scene. Everyone has favorites to win, of course, and it’s easy to think the Grammys are rigged or unfair after that artist loses, but most of the time you can at least see the Grammys point of view.
Sadly, most of the time, the Grammys play out more like a popularity contest than an award to recognize true musical artistry in front of an artist’s peers. That doesn’t always mean the artist who won made a bad song or album, it usually just means fans or critics see a different song or album as superior in one way or another. But at the end of the day, music is subjective. It is art, and saying one song or album is superior is a highly subjective task and should not be taken as fact. This isn’t the first nor the last time people will argue over Grammy Awards, but maybe it can be one where people finally learn not to take it too seriously.
