Just when you thought you were out of awards season, they pull you back in.
Yes, barely has the Women In Music/MITs/etc hangover faded than we’re calling for 2018’s Music Week Awards entries (please see p8 for full details) and the Grammy Awards nominations are causing widespread bewilderment by snubbing Ed Sheeran from all three big categories.
This is hardly the first time an artist has been snubbed by a major awards ceremony of course, but not even shortlisting the man with both the biggest global album of the year (÷) and 2017’s most ubiquitous song (Shape Of You) seems particularly obtuse.
In fact, Sheeran seemingly misses out as a result of the Academy’s revamp of both voters and voting methods, the effect of which has otherwise been extremely positive.
Hip-hop, Latin and R&B have waited far too long to get their due in the main categories and Kendrick Lamar, Luis Fonsi and Childish Gambino have more than earned their nominations.
Ed Sheeran doesn’t need a Grammy to have his new superstar status ratified, however nice it would be for him – and the UK industry that helped get him there
And anyway, a snub from the awards that once deemed Milli Vanilli worthy of the Best New Artist gong (later rescinded, to be fair) can’t take away from ÷’s multiple other achievements.
Ed Sheeran doesn’t need a Grammy to have his new superstar status ratified, however nice it would be for him – and the UK industry that helped get him there. Nor does it diminish the status of those songs in millions of homes.
Alternatively, maybe Sheeran should look at Eminem for the best course of action. On 2000’s The Real Slim Shady, Marshall Mathers rapped: “You think I give a damn about a Grammy?”
The following year, he won three of them, including Best Rap Solo Performance for that very song.
Here’s hoping Ed is sitting there next to Britney Spears and sweeping the board in 2019…
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