Last Sunday was the 59th annual Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that celebrates the year's best in music.
Like every awards show in recent memory, the night was filled with politics ranging from Katy Perry's first live performance of her new hit single "Chained to the Rhythm" to indie/rock artist Joy Villa's dress which had President Trump's campaign slogan 'Make America Great Again' plastered from top to bottom.
Aside from these political statements, the night's biggest controversy took place in the ceremony's finale when Adele's album 25 received the night's top honor for 'Album of the Year'. In any other year there would have been no controversy, except this year 25 was going head-to-head with Beyonce's album Lemonade, which was the first ever visual album, where each track was accompanied with a music video, and houses themes of adultery, forgiveness and of course reconciliation.
Going into the Grammy's the show was labeled "Adele vs. Beyonce" as the two were going head-to-head in four categories, including 'Album of the Year', 'Record of the Year', 'Song of the Year' and 'Best Pop Solo Performance'.
'Record', 'Song' and 'Best Pop Solo Performance' went to Adele and for obvious reasons. "Hello" was without a doubt the best song of the year and as good and motivating as "Formation" was, it didn't stand a chance.
"Hello" was moving not only for the lyrics, but obviously for the vocals accompanied with it, which is what separates Adele from the rest of her peers in modern music. Beyonce is also a fantastic vocalist, and proved it Sunday night for her 'flawless' (see what I did there?) performance of Love Drought & Sandcastles, but Adele is Adele and she's going to win every award regarding vocal performance; that's a given and the rest of the world needs to get used to it.
The real contest between the two came down to 'Album of the Year'.
Beyonce was considered by many critics to be the front-runner. Rolling Stone ranked Lemonade as the year's best album and Pitchfork ranked it third behind sister Solange's A Seat at the Table and Frank Ocean's Blond, with the latter albums being ineligible for the award due to their release dates.
Lemonade was praised for being Beyonce's most vulnerable work to date. For once, her audience didn't see Beyonce being Beyonce, but instead saw her as the victim; someone whose husband has cheated on her and is struggling to put the pieces back together. This album showed that even Beyonce's life isn't all platinum records and sold-out concerts. She bleeds red like the rest of us and showcased that through her music, utilizing various different genres, while also maintaining cultural relevance to real-world issues African-American women experience.
25 was equally celebrated for it's vulnerability as the album surrounds loss and heartbreak, while also the celebrating motherhood as indicated by the final track "Sweetest Devotion". The one criticism Adele received for her album, though, is that it was dubbed 21's older sister; 21 being Adele's last studio album which received 'Album of the Year' at the 2012 Grammy Awards.
Having won AOTY previously in addition to having received four Grammy's that evening one could make the argument that she probably didn't need to win AOTY versus Beyonce who has an 0-2 record in the category, getting upset by Beck two years ago and Taylor Swift seven years ago.
This was Beyonce's chance to finally capture the crown for the greatest achievement of her career. Unfortunately, though, the Recording Academy didn't feel it was her time and felt that 25 was the crowning achievement of the past year.
What does all of this mean?
Nothing.
Adele is still Adele and Beyonce is still Beyonce. Beyonce still has almost 100 million followers on every social media and Adele's album is still the top-selling album of 2015 & 2016. They didn't lose one fan and they probably both gained the same amount of new fans.
The coolest part of the whole night, though, was Adele's acceptance speech for AOTY, in which she honored her 'competitor' by stating that Lemonade was "so monumental and so well thought out and so beautiful and soul bearing". Beyonce responded by shedding a few tears (looking all like Beyonce and stuff) while mouthing the words "I love you".
How refreshing that the award show dubbed "Adele vs. Beyonce" wasn't actually that at all, but instead it was a night where two of pop music's biggest names showed their complete admiration for one another.
Why is this relevant?
Because America got the opportunity to see two very different people of different races, who come from completely different backgrounds, make different kind of music and approach life very differently love and respect one another for who they are; people.
