Grammy Snubs: Rosalía, The Weeknd & More
By Hayden Brooks
February 3, 2023
Music’s Biggest Night has caught flack for not getting it exactly right. It just comes with the territory. On Sunday (February 5th), the Recording Academy will host its 65th annual award show and see some of the biggest names of the past year like Bad Bunny, Beyoncé and GloRilla go head-to-head for the coveted prizes.
Ahead of the affair, iHeartRadio thought it might be best to level out expectations and take a look at some of the biggest snubs in recent years because there’s a fair chance that Twitter will be up in arms after the show.
2023
Encanto
Even though Encanto dominated in early 2022, they were looked over for the big four categories this year, being nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media, Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media and Best Song Written For Visual Media for "Bruno".
2023
Morgan Wallen
Morgan Wallen was nominated for two huge awards at the CMA's including entertainer of the year and male vocalist of the year. He was eligible for nominations for his song “Wasted on You”, that has topped charts however, was skipped over in every category.
2023
Rosalia
Despite Rosalia's album 'Motomami' receiving incredible reviews, the artist has been confined to only two categories, Latin Rock and Alternative, and has been excluded from the bigger nominations.
2022
Megan Thee Stallion
Megan Thee Stallion, who won three Grammys last year, released her debut studio album Good News during the eligibility period, but was nominated for only one award this year: Best Rap Performance for her single "Thot Sh**." J Cole, Drake, Nas, Tyler, the Creator, and Kanye West are in the running for Best Rap Album this year.
2022
Machine Gun Kelly
MGK's smash rock crossover album Tickets to My Downfall garnered no Grammy nominations for the upcoming ceremony. When the candidates for this year's Grammy Awards were announced, the singer tweeted, "wtf is wrong with the grammys."
2022
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus has yet to win a Grammy Award. In her entire career, she has only been nominated for one: Best Pop Vocal Album in 2015 for Bangerz. Despite having a star-studded guest list on her seventh studio album, Plastic Hearts, she did not receive any award nominations for 2022. Following the announcement of the nominees, Cyrus tweeted a list of music artists who had never won a Grammy, writing, "in good company."
2021
The Weeknd
Even though The Weeknd’s After Hours LP served as a career highlight for the star, the Recording Academy didn’t honor the campaign with any nominations in 2021. Rumor has it the Grammys shut him out because he opted to offer his loyalty to a performance at last year's Super Bowl instead of the 63rd annual award show.
2021
Halsey
In 2021, the pop star was clear about her feelings towards the Recording Academy in a series of messages after this year's noms were announced. "The Grammys are an elusive process," she wrote on her Instagram Stories. "It can often be about behind the scenes private performances, knowing the right people, campaigning through the grapevine, with the right handshake and 'bribes' that can be just ambiguous enough to pass as 'not bribes.'"
This year, Halsey is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album.
2020
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is a Grammys darling with several wins to her name, but fans were surprised when Lover failed to garner much, well, love in the four big categories in 2020. She also lost Best Pop Vocal Album (Lover), Song of the Year ("Lover") and Best Pop Solo Performance ("You Need to Calm Down") that year.
2020
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande’s career continues to rise, but the Grammys paid the pop chart-topper dust when she showed up to the 2020 ceremony and performed during the broadcast, only to lose out on all of her nominations, including Album of the Year (thank u, next) and Record of the Year ("7 Rings").
2017
Rihanna
For the 2017 ceremony, Rihanna earned a total of eight noms, with six of them being for ANTI and its accompanying singles. Despite being nominated for Record of the Year ("Work" featuring Drake), Bad Gal walked away empty handed that night.
2014
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar has a few Grammys to his name, but his initial 2014 entry to the scene saw him lose out on several honors, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year (Good Kid, M.A.A.D City), Best Rap Album (Good Kid, M.A.A.D City), among others.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry has performed at the Grammys a number of times, but the pop star has never come out victorious in her 10 years of nominations. That said, she's been up for some of the major honors, including Album of the Year (Teenage Dream), Record of the Year ("Firework") and Song of the Year ("Roar").
Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj’s legacy and impact is undoubtable, but the rapper has previously stated that she’s been more or less blacklisted from the Grammys. “It’s about collaboration. it’s about feeling supported. it’s about art and honesty,” she tweeted about her conflict with former Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich. “Not politics. not doing favors or playing games. it’s just a game y’all.. and i’m sorry but that’s not what music is to me.”
Martina McBride
Martina McBride is one of the few female vets in the country genre, but the singer has never won a single award despite her 14 — count them — 14 nominations throughout her career.
Britney Spears
From the beginning of her career, Britney has been nominated in a considerable amount of categories, but the superstar lost Best New Artist in 1999 to Christina Aguilera and only holds one Grammy to her name for “Toxic” (Best Dance Recording). As she once infamously said, the Grammys "can kiss [her] ass."
Drake
Despite being nominated a total of 47 times, Drake has only walked away with four awards from the Recording Academy. Most notably, he's lost out on honors in the Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year categories.