The last time Charli XCX was nominated for a Grammy, it was not only ten years ago (at the end of 2014), but also as a featured artist on someone else’s song. And of, all people, that Grammy-nominated artist was Iggy Azalea. The two awards for which the unlikely duo was nominated (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Record of the Year) came thanks to “Fancy,” an unabashed “white girl wasted” sort of anthem.
At that same 2015 Grammy Awards, Azalea was also nominated for Best Rap Album and Best New Artist. No awards were won by either that year (and, let’s be real, Azalea winning for Best Rap Album would have been a travesty). While it makes plenty of sense that Azalea has never been nominated for anything since, it makes no sense at all that Charli XCX was never again able to receive acknowledgement (particularly on a solo level) for her glaring contributions to the music industry—until now.
The album that the Recording Academy has been unable to ignore is, of course, Brat. Not only a “cultural reset,” as some like to say of anything monumental, the album has transcended well past the “Brat summer” timeline and into the fall (now rebranded to “Brat autumn”) thanks in part to XCX’s remix version of the record, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (featuring a song that has also been nominated for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical, “von dutch”—the Addison Rae and A. G. Cook edition).
Hence, for the Recording Academy to even think of attempting to snub such an indelible moment in “the culture,” well, it would have resulted in even more backlash than the kind exhibited by Jay-Z getting up onstage to beg the Academy to give his wife Album of the Year at the 2024 edition of the awards ceremony. This done before Beyoncé announced the release of her “country” album, Cowboy Carter (which is why she was then inexplicably wearing a cowboy getup and sporting particularly bleached-looking skin). Clearly, Jay-Z was laying the groundwork, setting up the Recording Academy to look like (even bigger) assholes if they didn’t nominate and award her for whatever album she might release next.
But what Jay-Z (or even Beyoncé, for that matter) couldn’t have anticipated was the impact Brat was going to have on the year 2024. Not just in pop culture, but even in politics (though Kamala Harris wielding the signature Brat green backdrop and font for “kamala hq” ultimately did little to help with the campaign). And for the Grammys to snub her for Album of the Year would be a far graver error—especially if it was all for the sake of giving Bey her “pity win” for an album that had far less clout with the masses. And while XCX has plenty of other categories to win in (including Record of the Year, Best Dance/Electronic Album and even Best Music video [for “360”]), there’s no denying that Album of the Year is the most important, ergo most political. It’s, without a doubt, the category that bows down to the musician who truly had the most influence on both the industry and listeners during a given year. Of course, the Recording Academy is no stranger to getting it wrong (lest one forget, this is also the cabal that also decided Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic should win that award at the 2018 ceremony, favoring him over far more deserving choices like Kendrick Lamar’s Damn and Lorde’s Melodrama).
Thus, if they’re being truly honest with themselves, there is absolutely no repudiating that Brat is the winner of that coveted award. Much to not only Beyoncé’s dismay, but also to Taylor Swift’s—whose album, The Tortured Poets Department, sounds absolutely tired and unfresh compared to Brat. But then, the Recording Academy is known for favoring such selections. And essentially telling people without telling them that it should be considered an honor to even be nominated at all. What’s more, Charli threw some pretty big shade at the Grammy Awards on “Spring Breakers” with the verse, “February 10th and I’m gonna pull up/Hey, Staples Center [tragically, now called the “Crypto.com Arena”], what the fuck is up?/Yeah, I’m parked outside watching all the girls strut/Got the custom on, hit the worst-dressed list/Yeah, you better not slide, not slip, not trip/‘Cause I poured a load of gasoline on the carpet/Lit a cigarette, took a drag, then I just flicked it/Place went boom, boom, boom, boom, clap/And I just laughed when the bodies went splat.”
Elsewhere, she adds that if she were ever to give a thank you speech at such an awards show, there would be no one to thank but herself, painting the picture, “Just put me on the platform, turn the microphone on/There’s no one I wanna thank out there, yeah.” But XCX isn’t the only one nominated who chose to lyrically deride the Recording Academy, with Beyoncé singing on “SWEET * HONEY * BUCKIIN,” “AOTY, I ain’t win/I ain’t stuntin’ ‘bout them/Take that shit on the chin.” The key player in this category who has never “rebelled” against the Recording Academy in song format is Taylor Swift (though Billie Eilish is also another strong contender who hasn’t “rebelled” in that way either). Which is perhaps why she recently set a Grammy Award record by being the only artist to win Album of the Year four times (specifically, with Fearless, 1989, Folklore and Midnights).
So no, Charli doesn’t quite yet have it in the bag with the Establishment. And, fittingly, on the remix of “Sympathy is a knife” (on which Swift is rumored to be the inspiration for the original version) featuring Ariana Grande, XCX laments, “It’s a knife when you’re finally on top/‘Cause logically the next step is they wanna see you fall.” And while being nominated so heavily at the Grammys is part of being on top (at last), losing is, unfortunately, still considered a fall (and fail) by most. But, knowing XCX, she’ll take such a loss as a further sign that she’s not really Establishment material. Though she seems to have lost sight of that lately with her inflated Brat ego (and various corporate campaign deals).
[…] […]