Every winter, the Grammy Awards are the source of stan wars, upsets, and celebrations, and this year is no different.
The prestigious Album of the Year award sparked much discourse last week. Nominees include Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Beyoncé, and Chappell Roan, but notably, not Ariana Grande.
If you know anything about music stan culture, you can probably guess that these nominations generated heated discussions online.
Fans react to Ariana Grande Grammys snub
Ariana Grande fans, known as Arianators, took up the bulk of the conversation on X.
Many expressed their anger at the Recording Academy for not nominating her album Eternal Sunshine for Album of the Year, a nomination they believe it rightly deserved. “SHE WAS ROBBED!” wrote one fan. “@RecordingAcad YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE JOKE,” wrote another.
Some fans directed their anger at other artists for taking Grande’s spot. One fan described Taylor Swift’s recent album as “the tortured sh*t department,” another called Sabrina Carpenter’s album Short n’ Sweet “short n shit,” and others took aim at Charli XCX.
One fan suggested Swift is engaging in “payola” in order to secure her nominations, implying that Grande’s album deserves a spot in the category based on merit alone. Many argued that the album should have received a nomination because it’s “the only album to have multiple singles go #1 this year,” as a fan put it.
Noise about the other nominated albums fell along expected stan lines. Swifties expressed their excitement about the singer’s six nominations this year, including her record-breaking turn as the first woman to be nominated for Album of the Year seven times. Others were less than thrilled about Swift’s Grammy dominance. “As a nation we cannot handle another album of the year going to miss swift,” an X user wrote.
Charli XCX fans celebrate ‘Brat’ Grammys nomination
Charli XCX fans were over the moon about their fave finally getting recognized by the academy. “Charli XCX going from decade-long marginalized gay niche pet project to Album of the Year Grammy Nominee is the pop story of the year,” wrote DJ Louie XIV, summarizing many fans’ feelings about Charli’s massive year and how vindicating her success is.
Others noted that the album should win because of the huge cultural impact it had this year. “brat achieved the rare album trifecta of success, acclaim AND cultural impact. this IS the correct aoty winner. get it right for once,” one fan wrote.
Beyoncè fans were much more tempered in their enthusiasm. Though Cowboy Carter was nominated for Album of the Year—making her the most-nominated artist in Grammy history— many of her fans have lost any faith in the institution giving her the accolades she deserves. “we have to stop falling for this shit. they nominate her and then pay her (close to) dust,” one fan wrote. “this is not something to celebrate!” they went on.
Do the Grammys matter anymore?
Though the nature of most of these posts is dictated by which artists these users ride for the hardest, the arguments stans are making reflect broader ideas about what the Grammys do or should mean.
Charli XCX fans believe Brat deserves to win because it was the album that defined the summer (and even influenced politics). Ariana Grande fans believe her album deserves a nomination because of its chart success and critical acclaim. Others have become wary of the story the Grammys always seems to tell—mainly as it concerns Swift’s wins and Beyoncé’s losses.
Such discussions beg the question: should an album win because of its sales, its cultural impact, or some other metric of greatness? Though many fans have their own opinions on the matter, the Grammy voting process—long a point of controversy—illuminates at least some of these queries.
While the awards are supposedly voted on by a jury of a musician’s peers, members of the voting body are not always knowledgeable about all the nominated albums and may just vote for what they are most familiar with (this is where popularity comes in).
In addition, the nominations and the winners for each category are reviewed by a covert committee whose members—and intentions—are kept secret. Some have said these committees are rife with the possibility of corruption.
Considering these annual, predictable disputes, one might suggest we disavow the awards ceremony altogether. But there’s clearly still a draw here for music fans, who can’t help but react to these headlines despite their critiques of the institution and its perceived biases.
Fans want their faves to succeed, and the Grammys promise that recognition—alongside a healthy dose of drama. For now, the stans remain trapped in the Grammys’ grip.
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