There are too many award shows today revolving around music and Hollywood – and they don’t matter.
Many fans of artists and actors don’t watch award shows including the Grammys or the Oscars because the awards are given out based on the opinions of a few judges.
The Oscars only accept votes from academy members who have seen the list of movies in a category.
The Grammys rely on the votes of academy members as well, according to The Recording Academy.
In addition, the cruel underrepresentation in award shows is criminal.
During the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, a new category called Best Global Music Performance was created in an attempt to advance the representation of nominated artists reserved for performers who display non-European, indigenous traditions.
That’s all good and progressive.
However, the majority of artists who were nominated for this category were already nominated for Best Global Album – the only other award given to global artists.
Only one of the five artists was not already nominated for Best Global Music Album, making the Grammys inclusive efforts of expanding the global categories mean little in the long run.
If that wasn’t enough to make people question the Grammys’ equity, it is bad enough that all five nominations forBest Global Music Album were predominantly English songs.
Why should international artists be crammed into these two categories, when American artists such as Kendrick Lamar receive nearly a dozen nominations during a single ceremony?
What’s the point of giving an artist who has won several Grammys one more?
How is one more Grammy going to benefit them besides having dedicated fans telling their friends, “I told you so!”?
White artists and actors are not the only people in the industry making significant contributions.
Something I never saw coming was the nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance in 2021.
Justin Bieber’s “Yummy” was nominated for the category while The Weeknd had zero nominations that same year.
Did the world forget he released “After Hours,” a tonal shift in The Weeknd’s music, including “Blinding Lights,” one of the biggest records of all time?
Bieber said the word “yummy” 46 times and somehow secured a nomination at the 2021 Grammys, alongside Doja Cat’s catchy hit “Say So,” Dua Lipa’s disco inspired “Don’t Start Now” and Harry Styles’s sweet track “Watermelon Sugar.”
Make that make sense.
Shifting over to the world of acting, first it needs to be established that there has been a history of inaccuracies with representation in the Golden Globes.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a non-profit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the entertainment industry and founded the Golden Globe Awards, was boycotted during the 2022 ceremony because of several controversies, according to a Jan. 9 NPR article.
Issues included the association not having any Black members, accepting bribery from networks and organizations who wanted a spot on the nominations and notoriously not nominating Black actors.
The association has claimed to have made big changes to their staffing and administration.
But why did it take so long?
"We are working to correct past wrongs, past transgressions, but we are really feeling like we're in a position to take pride in some of that work. But most importantly, we aren't done," Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Chief Diversity Officer Neil Phillips told NPR.
The Golden Globes have been around since the 1940s and the association has just owned up to their wrongdoings.
How could an award show accurately represent the best actors and actresses when their own board has limited diversity?
Brendan Fraser, a wonderful actor who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his lead role in “The Whale,” made a clear announcement he would not be attending the ceremony.
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” Fraser told GQ magazine in a Nov. 16, 2022 interview. “No, I will not participate.”
And don’t even get me started on the Oscars.
Last year, all I could hear about was Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
Was that really the most exciting thing to happen at an award ceremony where hundreds of society's favorite celebrities came together to celebrate the stars in their field?
Not to mention, Megan Thee Stallion butchering the most anticipated performance of the evening, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the animated film “Encanto.”
Original cast members appeared on stage to sing the hip shaker of a song that is “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” only to have Megan Thee Stallion come out and start rapping about the Oscars.
I sure as hell didn’t ask for that. No one would ask for that.
To add onto the list of mistakes the Oscars made last year, there were reportedly eight categories cut from the live ceremony.
Isn’t that the point of the award show, to see the awards being presented?
People cannot celebrate their favorite actor or actress having one of the biggest moments of their life when no one can see it.
And how can we forget the 2017 Best Picture winner “Moonlight?”
I was ecstatic when the film won the award because the film broke boundaries and represented the LGBTQ+ community and the Black community. But the golden moment flew fast when the announcer mistakenly read that “La la land” won the award.
It is these moments of controversy that have made award shows what they now are.
Similar to how people tune into the Super Bowl for the famous commercials, families sit at home watching award shows waiting for announcers to slip up or celebrities to make a fool of themselves.
America has latched onto these moments of cringe and awkwardness.
Because of this, we miss the whole purpose of award ceremonies in the first place: representation and recognition for an amazing performance.
When an award at any ceremony is given, it increases the popularity and chance for that artist to experience new opportunities, whether that be a new collaboration on a project, or a new role that breaks boundaries.
But when the same artist wins an award to add to their shelf of accomplishments to catch dust, what do they gain?
Another chance to make a fool of themselves on live television for people to talk about, because that’s what is important to society today. If we want to support our favorite artists and actors as fans, we need to share their music, art and talents with our communities where our vote matters.
