The list of celebrities who have spoken out against the Grammys grows longer every year, to the point where boycotting the award show seems to have become a trend — albeit an understandable one, if we may say so.
Most recently, the Queen of Christmas herself, Mariah Carey, has joined this ever-growing list of critics. Although her feud with the Grammys is making news now, the roots of this grudge stretch back 28 years right to the peak of her career. It all began when Carey was nominated in six categories back in 1996, but walked away empty-handed, understandably severing her ties with North America’s biggest music awards show.
“One year — a huge year for me, career-wise — I had like six nominations with the Daydream album, including ‘One Sweet Day,’ ‘Always Be My Baby,’ and ‘Fantasy,’” she told the LA Times, referring to her fifth studio album, which featured several chart-topping singles — the ones she aforementioned. NPR has even since ranked this album as one of the best created and helmed by a female artist.
Naturally, with such high praise from music critics, many assumed Carey would take home at least one award. In fact, Carey herself believed so as well, but she couldn’t have been more mistaken. “Then I sat there the whole time and didn’t get anything. I was like, ‘This is not fun. But what can I do? Be a sore loser and say, ‘F the Grammys’? Whatever. If they give me more Grammys, I’ll like them more,” she said.
Now, nearly three decades later, fans on X have voiced their support for Carey’s decision to distance herself from the Grammys, accusing the show of using her name for publicity. “No one cares about the scammies, the whole world knows Mariah. Her legacy will live on forever,” one fan posted. Another wrote, “She spent six months at number one on the Hot 100 chart that year. She definitely deserved to win.”
Carey’s case is just one example of the Grammys leveraging celebrity names to glue viewers to the screen. Despite being the biggest music award show in America, countless celebrities have turned their backs on the production. In 2019, Drake became one of the many artists to publicly criticize the Grammys — all while attending the award show.
“All you incredible artists, remember this show isn’t the facts, it’s just the opinion of a group of people [whose] names are kept a secret.”
The list is far longer than you might imagine. Musicians like The Weeknd, Charli XCX, Zayn Malik, Halsey, Tyler, the Creator, Jay-Z, Ariana Grande, and Eminem have all voiced their criticisms of the award show — for various reasons. One of the most frequent complaints is the Grammys’ tendency to invite artists to the event without nominating them or giving them obvious indication that they will actually win — only for the opposite to happen.
The idea that the Grammys selectively offer nominations and awards has been a major point of criticism for artists like Zayn and Eminem, who have openly discussed the show’s biases. “They’re always pitching this hint that you might win Album of the Year, which used to be a big deal. I don’t think it’s a big deal now,” Eminem told Billboard in 2020.
But it isn’t just the celebrities themselves who actively choose to criticize the award show. In 2022, fans of South Korean group BTS began boycotting the Grammys after the production repeatedly nominated the group over the years and invited them to perform — only to schedule their appearances at the end of the show without awarding them.