The 67th GRAMMY Awards are well underway– coming onto a screen near you on Feb. 2. Music’s biggest night is set to be one for the industry’s biggest musicians. For starters, pop stars, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are making their GRAMMYs debut this year with both singers going head to head for Best New Artist. But for me, what I have my eyes peeled for are for the GRAMMY vets who may be making a comeback this year– one being Ariana Grande, whose history with the Recording Academy runs deep, and it gets messy.
Ariana’s first GRAMMYs nomination was in 2014 for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Bang Bang” with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj and Best Pop Vocal Album for her sophomore album, My Everything. Grande left the 57th GRAMMYs empty handed– but still graced the stage to perform “Just a Little Bit of Your Heart.”
Two years later, Ariana earned herself two more nominations for Best Pop Solo Performance with “Dangerous Woman” and Best Pop Vocal Album with Dangerous Woman the album at the 59th GRAMMYs. Again, Grande did not take home any awards this night– however, she did take home the unofficial award for Worst Joke Ever whilst introducing a performance by The Weeknd and saying, “How did this next performer land his 7 nominations tonight, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year, well, ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the pun of the century… he earned it”; as a nod to his hit single.
Grande reappeared on the Recording Academy’s radar in 2019 by earning two nominations– Best Pop Vocal Album with her fourth studio album, Sweetener and Best Pop Solo Performance with her hit single, God Is a Woman. But this is where the drama begins.
During this year, Ariana has earned a series of accolades. For starters, in Feb. 2019, Grande released her fifth studio album, Thank U, Next which has hits like “7 rings” which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100– making it Grande’s second number one hit. So you think this would earn a performance on the GRAMMYs stage? Here’s where you’re wrong.
According to Variety, Ariana refused to not only perform but attend the award show after a disagreement with GRAMMY producer, Ken Ehrlich who reportedly tried to control which song’s Grande could perform. Grande allegedly wanted to perform a medley with “7 rings” in which the producers of the show wanted to choose the second song, causing Ariana to pull out from performing all together.
If you can imagine (or recall) this caused a lot of discourse surrounding why Ariana pulled out. So, Ariana took to her now-deleted X account, formerly known as Twitter, to call out Ehrlich and the GRAMMYs production team.
Despite this, Ariana took home her first (and long overdue) GRAMMY for Best Pop Vocal Album.Grande celebrated from home, and by sharing on social media what would’ve been her gown for the award show.
The following year was a big year for Grande as she earned a total of five nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album for Thank U, Next, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Boyfriend” featuring SocialHouse, Best Pop Solo Performance for “7 rings”, Record of the Year for “7 rings” and Album of the Year for Thank U, Next– Album of the Year being the biggest category of the entire show.
Grande also secured a performance slot at the 62nd GRAMMYs– performing a medley of “Imagine”, “My Favorite Things”, “7 rings”, and “Thank u, Next.”
Despite this, Ariana took home zero awards that night, which prompted fans to call out how “disrespectful” the GRAMMYs were to Grande. Some even allege that the award show “used her for views.”
Following this debacle, Ariana earned one more GRAMMY the following year for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with “Rain on Me” with Lady Gaga.
She then earned three more nominations at the 64th GRAMMYs with Best Pop Vocal Album with her sixth studio album, Positions, Best Pop Solo Performance with “Positions” and Album of the Year for Planet Her (Deluxe) by Doja Cat– in which Grande was a feature on. Grande did not take any awards home that night, neither did she attend the award show.
Recently, Ariana Grande reemerged in the GRAMMY scene for the upcoming 67th show with a meek three nominations: Best Dance Pop Recording with “yes,and?”, Best Pop Duo Performance for “the boy is mine” remix featuring Brandy and Monica, and Best Pop Vocal Album for her seventh studio album, eternal sunshine.
Fans grew upset with these results as Grande received no nominations in the “big” categories and no nominations for single, “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Currently, the results of these nominations remain unknown– but Ariana’s response, or lack thereof, speaks volumes as to why the GRAMMYs aren’t worth her time anymore. Her uninterest in the awards showed after she was recently nominated for an Oscar. When asked about the GRAMMYs in comparison, Ariana says “um… Next Question.”
With 18 total nominations and only two GRAMMY wins, IMO, The GRAMMYS do not deserve Ariana. Ariana has proved herself for over a decade in her career with numerous chart-topping hits, accolades galore, and talent beyond measure.
With the amount of snubs she’s endured over the past 11 years, it truly doesn’t matter if she wins a GRAMMY or not.