We’ve Got A Right To Be Mad About Beyonc Losing ‘Album Of The Year’

No. Those who expressed their disappointment in Beyonc losing the Album of the Year Award at Sunday Nights Grammy Awards were not overreacting.

Yes, there are ostensibly more important things going on in the world than a multi-millionaire superstar losing one award on a night where she won two others, but its possible and even necessary to care about more than one thing at a time.

And this is worth talking about.

On a night that opened with a very political message from Jennifer Lopez who quoted Toni Morrison and said that at this particular point in history, our voices are needed more than ever, Beyonc losing Album of the Year, the most important award of the night, felt like a much bigger loss than the usual award show snub.

Adeles 25 is a good album. It was an immensely successful album. After five years outside of the limelight, Adele came back with a highly anticipated record that sold over 8 million copies in the United States alonein 2016. Lemonade sold only 1.5 million.

If the criteria for Grammy wins was based solely on records sold, then maybe Adeles win for Album of the Year would make more sense, maybe it would be easier to accept. But even Adele herselfsaid on stage that she couldnt possibly accept this award,(though she did) and that The Lemonade album is just so monumental.

Shes right. Again, 25 was a good album! But Lemonade, whether you enjoyed it or not, was a cultural event, a moment in which Beyonc put all her personal, spiritual, and artistic cards on the table. It was a cohesive body of work that, as Beyonc described it in her only acceptance speech of the night (for Contemporary Album) gave voice to the pain, and strength, of black women.

Lemonade said something and meant something to so many people, especially young women of color who saw themselves reflected in the stories and tableaux crafted by Beyonc and her team (both in video and in song). Arguably the most popular black singer in the world had not only churned out a stellar piece of work, shes also chosen for that work to beblack as hell,specificallyblack,unavoidably black.

Because of Lemonade, phrases like Becky with the good hair and Jackson Five nostrils and hot sauce in my bag entered the mainstream lexicon. While others tried to claim them, dismantle them, and rework them for their own use, they still remained to intrinsically ours, so intrinsically black. That was huge. That was amoment.

Lauryn Hill was the last black woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys. That was in 1999. Since then, Beyonc has become the most-nominated woman ever at the show,with a whopping 62 nominations. Of the three times shes been nominated for Album of The Year, shes lost out to Taylor Swift, Beck, and now Adele. AsAdele said to the pressSunday night, What the fuck does [Beyonc] have to do to win Album of the Year?

The disappointment and even the outrage flooding Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of Beys snub should really come as no surprise. The Grammys have a long legacy of using important and popular black artists like Beyonc, Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar to boost ratings while failing to give them the big noms and awards of the night. But, damn.

If even Beyonccant get the top award of the night for a record likeLemonade, after turning in an incredible performance (while pregnant with twins, no less), what exactly does that say about the black experience in America? Seriously? Yes, Beyonc is the winner of many awards. Shes rich and successful and has definitely benefited in the past from her light skin and bleached locks. Its interesting how, now that shes incorporated her blackness and her politics more explicitly in her music, no longer here to just grind and sing catchy love songs to the masses, the systemic realities of being a proudly black woman in a white-dominated industry have come to light.

Whats important to remember is that Beyonc is an artist. And thats whats so frustrating about Americas love of black culture. So often, black entertainment is sought after and greedily consumed, but its delegitimized as art because of its inherent blackness. Look at the histories of black musical art forms like jazz and hip-hop, cultural phenomenons that were looked on as nothing but fads until they were validated by white audiences and artists who consumed and regurgitated them for the mainstream.

Thats why Lemonade has meant so much to so many black people who needed (and continue to need) an album like this to exist.Its nice that Adele saidsomethingin that moment up on stage. Though some chafed at her mention of what Lemonade meant not only to her but to her black friends, the albums significance as a specifically powerful blackcultural moment should have been acknowledged, and celebrated. Its sad that it wasnt the Recording Artists Academy that thought that was worth celebrating.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

The post We’ve Got A Right To Be Mad About Beyonc Losing ‘Album Of The Year’ appeared first on CelebrityVirals.com.

source http://www.celebrityvirals.com/weve-got-a-right-to-be-mad-about-beyonc-losing-album-of-the-year/