At last night’s Grammys, 18-year-old singer Billie Eilish was the clear winner, becoming the youngest person ever to win ‘Best Album’ and the first person since Christopher Cross in 1981 to win ‘Song of the year’, ‘Record of the Year’, ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Best New Artist’ in one night. However, Billie Eilish has been wildly popular since the release of her EP ‘don’t smile at me’ in 2017 – making the ‘Best New Artist’ award a confusing win. It seems that the Grammys have only just noticed her – making her a new artist to them.
This example, along with the countless snubs, lack of diversity and controversies surrounding hosts of various award ceremonie seem to be leading to a general mistrust of these prizes – and a disbelief in their winners. Due to evident prejudices in these industries in recent years, it also seems to be leading to a fixed construction of nominees, making sure to avoid scandal and disagreement, rather than a celebration of real talent.
Personally, many of my peers and I were disappointed with this year’s BRITs nominations for example, and felt we saw the same names pop up quite a few times whilst many of our favourite artists were snubbed.
I am in no way stating that the winners of these awards (for example Billie Eilish) do not deserve these accolades, I simply believe it does not matter to the public. Billie Eilish’ main demographic are teenagers – and they already know about her and her talent (and have done for years). I believe that they are rapidly becoming a party for already successful celebrities to attend and congratulate each other on their accomplishments, while the true talents are watching at home.
By Dani Dodman
