The Surprising 2018 Grammy Nominations
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The Surprising 2018 Grammy Nominations

Some were surprisingly chosen while other's were brutally snubbed

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The Surprising 2018 Grammy Nominations
Miguel Á. Padriñán

Last week was one of the biggest weeks for anyone involved within the music industry or anyone who is a follower of music. Grammy nominations were announced and fans have some very strong feelings about who was chosen and more prominently, who wasn’t. There were a handful of artists who I, along with many others, felt were surprisingly overly compensated for and others that were snubbed of a rightful spot within the nominations.

One thing that surprised me was the dominance that Jay-Z held, sweeping the floor with a total of eight nominations. I am in no way saying that Jay-Z doesn’t deserve these nominations, being a music veteran himself, especially when it comes to the Grammy’s. However, what surprised me the most was that his song “The Story of O.J.” got nominated for Record of the Year, such a widespread category, when this particular song wasn’t even a single. This is not me criticizing the song but rather pointing out that typically Record of the Year nominations are songs that almost everyone immediately recognizes. Most of these are the hits that you would hear on the radio.

Another person that I found to be an unexpected Grammy favorite was Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino. Undoubtedly, his hit “Redbone” took over the nominations, being chosen for Record of the Year and two other categories. It has been almost a year since his album Awaken, My Love! has been released so the odds of him receiving high ratings after such a long period of times were pretty slim. However, he still managed to snag a spot in the Album of the Year nominations. Personally, I don’t think this album was Glover’s best but I understand the hype and respect the decisions made. I just feel there were other stronger contenders that were slightly more deserving of a nomination. But, we will get to that later.

Something that was prominent with this year’s nominations was the “hip-hop takeover” as some are calling it. Hip-hop has a very large representation this year across the board. Not only are we talking about Jay-Z and Childish Gambino but also Kendrick Lamar, Logic, Big Sean and many others. I definitely think for the first time in a while, rap is sufficiently taking over the Grammy’s and getting the representation it deserves as an art form.

Now, I do want to talk about some of the “snubs” that I feel a lot of my personal favorite artists got handed. While there was a significant amount of hip-hop representation this year, that means the amount of pop/rock nominees were minimized.

One artist that I thought got jipped out of several nominations was Ed Sheeran. I was surprised to see that his third album Divide, did not receive a spot in Album of the Year category. Based on iTunes and Spotify ratings, Sheeran seemed to almost be guaranteed a spot but apparently fell short of the cut. Also, his single “Shape of You” was robbed of many of the major category nominations. Personally, I think this was the biggest snub of all the Grammy nominations.

Along with Ed Sheeran, I think some other big names that weren’t given their fair share was Harry Styles’ self-titled album or Niall Horan’s Flicker. The One Direction alumni are obviously in a special circumstance because these were their first solo albums, however, I think these two, very popular albums were jipped of nominations. However, I do understand where Horan’s fell short because his album was released at the end of the nomination period which leads me to believe he may be a 2019 contender. On the other hand, there was a lot of hype throughout the music world and from many different artists that gave up Styles’ album a lot of praise and yet in the end, he didn’t receive a single nomination. Even his single “Sign of the Times” which knocked Sheeran’s “Shape of You” out of the number one spot after being there for weeks, didn’t get any recognition.

Lastly, I think Lady Gaga and Demi Lovato were two women that also did not get the recognition they deserved. Demi Lovato’s album Tell Me You Love Me, was what I believe to be some of her best work. She is one of the most talented singers in the industry, especially when it comes to live performances and I was a little bit upset to see the lack of appreciation for her music. The same goes for Lady Gaga. Her newest album Joanne is unlike anything she has ever done before and I feel was robbed of some nominations that she rightfully deserved.

Although these were just my opinions, if you go onto Twitter or follow the Grammy’s on social media, you can definitely see that I am not the only person who has these feelings. I am eager to see who will ultimately take home each award and what is to come during the Grammy’s in 2019.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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