Female acts, rap songs win big at the Grammy Awards

Glover is a genius. Good to see him honoured.

Upset: Kacey Musgraves’ Album Of The Year win - Country music, considering that superstars like Post Malone, Drake, and everybody on the Black Panther soundtrack was also nominated, it would be fair if people didn’t expect Musgraves to pull this one out over the household names she was up against.

Winner: Lady Gaga - Gaga has bared her soul in her creative endeavors over the past few years, so this recognition has to feel cathartic for her.

Upset: “This Is America” for Record and Song Of The Year - “This Is America” is a strong song with memorable lyrics and a thoughtful message about the state of current affairs.

Winner: Childish Gambino - “This Is America” achieved a lot during this year’s awards, with wins for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance, and Best Music Video.

Loser: Post Malone - In a way, Malone was actually sort of a winner, in that in his first year nominated for Grammys, he was in contention for four of them. Of all the Record Of The Year nominees, “Rockstar” was easily the most streamed song, with over 1.4 billion Spotify plays. Malone is one of the more likable stars that has emerged in a while so it’s a bit of a downer that he didn’t take home any hardware

Loser: Kanye West - At a time in Kanye’s career that a lot of fans have lost some faith in him for one reason or another, he really could have used a win.

Upset: “God’s Plan” beating “Sicko Mode” for Best Rap Song - Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” coming away with no wins is a shame. If there was only one innovative hip-hop song last year, it was “Sicko Mode,” a multi-part rap suite that was a streaming hit despite its unconventional structure and relatively long runtime.

Loser: The Grammys after getting roasted by Drake - When he took the stage this year after winning Best Rap Song, he didn’t pull any punches despite being on the Grammys stage, and essentially said that the Grammys don’t matter much because music is “an opinion-based sport.”

Winner: St. Vincent - There wasn’t exactly a flood of indie rock representation in the nominations this year, but despite that, If anybody can make sure both indie and rock don’t feel out of place in pop culture, it’s St. Vincent.

Loser: Taylor Swift - It wasn’t that long ago that Swift seemed invincible, but this year’s award results show it’s possible that she’s a mortal being like the rest of us. Her previous album, 1989, was named Album Of The Year, but Reputation wasn’t even nominated for it. Her only nomination this year was for Pop Vocal Album, and Ariana Grande’s Sweetener earned that title.

Loser: The lack of Ariana Grande - Grande has over 53 million monthly listeners on Spotify, which is more than anybody else in the world. Therefore, it’s an absolute shame that she wasn’t a part of the broadcast, or even in the building. This was completely avoidable: It seems all that's really needed to make this happen was to give her some artistic freedom, which seems like an easy concession to make.

Some more:

Winners: Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, and host Alicia Keys - For the awesome performance

Winner: Brandi Carlile - Carlile’s name may have looked out of place alongside the other folks up for consideration in the major categories, but there’s no mistaking that she is the very best at what she does. She swept the Americana and roots-specific categories she was nominated in, and even if she didn’t get any major category wins, her nominations, as an artist who doesn’t perform in a chart-topping genre, were an honor on their own.

Winners: Latino music artists - Hardly a presence in previous Grammys, but a strong presence this year.

https://uproxx.com/music/grammys-2019-winners-losers-upsets/