It’s nominations season(more or less), and everyone is raving about their favourite artists having their hats thrown in the ring to be in the Greats of Music lineup. As exciting as the performances get, the award show itself is a bit of a disappointment. The Grammys have developed a bit of a reputation for themselves, wherein they seem to favour a few artists not just based on their music, but other factors such as race, gender, etcetera(Read more). They have been struggling to hold their relevance in recent times for the same reason. Well, except for the fans of big artists that win every single year.
So, regardless of whether your favourite artist made it into the nominee list or not, here’s a list of some of music’s greats that have never won a Grammy!
- Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey has been in this business since 2006. It took her nearly five years to make her break in 2011 with her single ‘Video Games’ which was released in her self-titled EP, ‘Lana Del Rey’.
“Lana Del Rey has raised a generation of music lovers and songwriters like me.”
Olivia Rodrigo, three-time Grammy awardee(while presenting Del Rey with the Visionary Award in the Billboard Women in Music Awards)
Out of eight studio albums and two EPs, all eight albums and ‘Paradise’ made it into the top 10 positions of Billboard’s Hot 200. The only EP exempt, was ‘Lana Del Rey’ which was her studio debut, ranking at the 20th position in its time.
“I just think she’s the best we have.”
Taylor Swift, twelve-time Grammy awardee(Speaking about Del Rey’s ‘Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ during the Eras Tour)
Lana Del Rey has received a total of ten Grammy nominations throughout her career(five of which are in 2024). But she has thus far won none of them. That being said, it could never play down the fact that Lana Del Rey has been one of the most influential artists of our time.
- BTS
The industry is no stranger to global K-pop sensation, Bangtan Sonyeondan. BTS has been making evocative music for ten years now. They’ve been given five nominations in the past three years, and they haven’t won any of the categories thus far. A peculiar detail noticed by their fans, ARMY was that the Grammy’s viewership would increase by a huge metric during BTS’ performances – which the show took advantage of too, by the way. They would play a ‘Coming Up Next’ clip for their performance throughout the entire show and screen their performance at the very end.
BTS received their first nomination for their pop single ‘Dynamite’(2021), their first all-English single. Many fans argue that while Dynamite was a great song, the group had other compelling releases that year, like ‘Black Swan’ and ‘ON’ which weren’t put forward for Grammy’s consideration due to them being in Korean. Although, it is untraditional for the Grammys to even recognize artists whose target audience isn’t American; BTS was offered nominations in the past three years due to their relevance to boost the award show’s own relevance as well.
“obviously! bts DESERVED better”
Billie Eilish, seven-time Grammy awardee(In response to an Instagram comment)
BTS is currently on a hiatus from group activities, but the seven members have made an ample amount of solo music in the past year. Each member has put forward at least one song for Grammy award consideration. It is unclear whether the nominations’ basis is popularity or critics, but chartbusters like ‘Seven’ by Jungkook or ‘Like Crazy’ by Jimin could have bagged a nomination through their popularity. Or, ‘On the Street’ by J-Hope (feat. J. Cole), ‘Indigo’, or ‘Wild Flower’ by RM with Youjeen could’ve made it based on critics. However, none of these songs secured nominations. The reason could be the fact that they skipped the 2023 ceremony due to Jin’s enlistment(BTS doesn’t attend events as a group if all seven members aren’t present). And in 2024, all the members would be fulfilling their military enlistment and therefore won’t be attending the show. Not to stir the pot, but it seems like the Grammys didn’t give the well-deserved nominations because the group wasn’t going to be present to increase their viewership(don’t quote me on this though lol).
- Halsey
Halsey debuted in 2014 with an EP titled ‘Room 93’ which actually made it into the Billboard Hot 200 list at the 159th position. Her succeeding album ‘Badlands’(2015) skyrocketed to the second position on the same list. Badlands was also when Halsey started to gain fame. She is a phenomenal songwriter who was nominated for the Grammys a second time under the category ‘Alternate Music Album’ for ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’, her fourth studio album. The album plays in a period fantasy horror film with the same name.
The album is “ahead of its time.” Halsey proclaimed in one of her Instagram stories. A statement we can all agree with! The winner in the category that year was ‘Daddy’s Home’ by St. Vincent, a good contender that actually has marginally lower ratings(only 3%) than Halsey’s album according to Google’s user ratings.
Halsey has always been one of those artists that never made music ‘for the trend’. She has been and will always be one of the musical elites, whether the Recording Academy agrees, or not!
- Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Bridgers gained traction with her 2017 studio album release, ‘Stranger in the Alps’. A critically acclaimed debut on her part.
“Stranger in the Alps alchemizes sorrow into redemptive beauty. It’s never about wallowing, but about slowly moving through it. That difference, played out over some incredible, wise-beyond-her-years songwriting, makes it one of the best albums of the year.[sic]”
Josh Modell, The A.V. Club
(Josh Modell, The A.V. Club – “One of this year’s best debut albums is also one of its saddest”)
Phoebe Bridgers has been the queen of sad-girl music since her debut, and she’s also been a great icon for the queer community. She has a total of eleven nominations in her career. Four for her second solo album titled ‘Punisher’. That was acclaimed among critics as well.
“On her marvelous second album, Phoebe Bridgers defines her songwriting: candid, multi-dimensional, slyly psychedelic, and full of heart. Her music has become a world unto itself[sic].”
Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork
(Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork – “Punisher: Phoebe Bridgers”)
“Eleven expertly rendered, largely downcast songs about broken faith, desperate, occasionally self-destructive love, and tenuous recovery.”
Jonathan Bernstein, The Rolling Stone
(Jonathan Berstein, The Rolling Stone – “Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Punisher’ is a Visionary Emo-Folk Album”)
In 2018, a supergroup named boygenius was formed consisting of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus. The trio had released their debut self-titled extended play in 2018 and proceeded to go on a momentary hiatus that was broken earlier this year with the album, ‘The Record’ which has been at the centre of the whopping six Grammy nominations the group received this year. The album itself received two nominations under the categories, “Best Alternative Music Album” and “Album of the Year”. The songs ‘Not Strong Enough’ and ‘Cool About It’ received three and one nomination(s) respectively. Bridgers also received a nomination under the category ‘Best Pop Duo/Group Performance’ for the song, ‘Ghost in the Machine’ by SZA in which Bridgers had featured.
Phoebe Bridgers has never received a Grammy award before, but she is thriving this season! Maybe she might even get one :D
- Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj is commonly known as the Queen of Rap, and to know that she of all people has never won an award in the show that claims to be recognizing music’s greatest, is blasphemy, to say the least! Barbz has received a colossal number of twelve nominations throughout her career! The only song that repeats twice in this list is ‘Barbie World’ which was made for the Barbie motion soundtrack along with Ice Spice and Aqua. That’s eleven individual art pieces (singles/albums) that were nominated and not a single one won.
Nicki Minaj made history in the 2023 VMAs as the most awarded artist(note how it doesn’t say female artist) under the ‘Best Hip-Hop’ category. A record previously held by herself! Just today, Nicki made history with her new album ‘Pink Friday 2’ which became the female rap album with the highest number of tracks charting in ‘Billboard Hot 100’ history! A record she broke closely after meeting a historic milestone on the ‘Billboard Hot 200’ wherein she is now the highest charting female rapper with three chartbreaker albums. This record was previously held by Foxy Brown(they were tied at two).
She congratulated Nicki on her Instagram stories saying,
“Umm sir! Only Nic could break tha king[‘s] record […] Hella proud. 26 year record is brazy tho. Y’all mean to tell me no b*tch broke that sh*t in my absence! Took twin to set tha bar again![sic]”
Foxy Brown (on her Instagram stories)
Nicki Minaj has persevered against all odds throughout her career, and it’s honestly unbelievable that she was never recognized by ‘Music’s Greatest Night’.
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The Grammy’s have been losing their cultural importance in recent years for not recognizing many chart-toppers. But that being said they have in fact been gaining their relevance in terms of being trolled by the internet. However, representation has been getting better at the award show(after massive criticism received on racial discrimination in 2022). 2023 saw Lizzo take ‘Record of the Year’ home, making her the first black artist to do so in this century. Beyoncė also made history by becoming the most-awarded artist in Grammy history(32 total). But, her fans were heavily disappointed to see her lose the top awards like ‘Album of the Year’(Harry Styles), and ‘Song of the Year’(Bonnie Raitt). 2024 is seeing a lot more queer representation in the nominees featuring, boygenius, Victoria Monét, Miley Cyrus, Brandy Clark, Romy(from xx), and Troye Sivan in varying categories.
“It’s cool, because when you’re saying ‘this class of people,’ or ‘this demographic of folks’ … It’s like, if there’s enough people that fit that category within the organisation, it stops becoming a novelty.[sic]”
Julien Barker, boygenius (told Billboard)
“It would be so sick if the way all queer people were treated got more normal too. Like, we have a friend that, during Pride Month, said, ‘It’s cool to see the rainbow on this Shell gas station sign. Why am I still getting looked at funny as a trans woman walking around?’ Like, it’s cool that there’s more queer people getting nominated for Grammys, but it would also be super cool if more queer people had their full rights and were treated like people.[sic]”
Lucy Dacus, boygenius (told Billboard)
Read the full interview with Billboard here.
And we have to agree with Dacus! Representation of marginalized communities is the first step in normalizing their existence. We hope the nominated artists on this list get their deserved recognition, but even if they don’t – it doesn’t change their obvious elite status as musical artists!