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Introduction
According to New York Times, “nonwhite artists, female artists, and artists who come from the worlds of hip-hop and R&B are consistently marginalized, honored in genre categories but shut out in the four major categories.” Despite this controversy, several Black artists have broken barriers at the Grammys and continue to inspire others. This timeline documents some of these important moments and demonstrates the lack of recognition marginalized artists get, along with celebrating their success. -
Disclosure
This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of Black and marginalized winners and so not all awards won by these artists are featured here. This provides a good collection of Black artists who have won one of the Big Four Awards throughout history. Follow the links in the descriptions to listen to the songs/albums on YouTube. -
First Grammy Awards
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Emma Fitzgerald became the first Black woman to win a Grammy
At the first ever Grammy awards, Ella Fitzgerald won two awards and made history as the first black woman to win a Grammy. She won for Best Female Vocal Performance and Best Jazz Performance. -
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In the 65 year history of the Grammys, only 11 Black Artists have won Album of the Year
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Stevie Wonder wins Album of the Year
On this day, Stevie Wonder was the first Black artist to win album of the year for Innervisions -
Black artists took two of the Big Four awards for the first time
Stevie Wonder won album of the year for Innervisions and
Roberta Flack won record of the year for "Killing me Softly With His Song". -
Stevie Wonder wins Album of the Year again
Stevie Wonder became the second artist ever to win an award in consecutive years after Frank Sinatra did this in the 60s. Wonder won for his album Fulfillingness' First Finale. -
Stevie Wonder wins Album of the Year for a third time
Stevie Wonder remains the only artist in Grammy history to win this award with three consecutive studio albums and is one of just four artists who won album of the year three different times. This time he won for Songs in the Key of Life. -
George Benson wins Record of the Year
Benson won for his song "This Masquerade". -
Michael Jackson wins Album of the Year
On this night, Jackson became the first artist to ever win eight Grammy Awards in one night. This award was won for his album Thriller. -
Lionel Richie wins Album of the Year
Lionel Richie won album of the year for Can't Slow Down. -
Tina Turner wins Record of the Year
Turner won for her song "What's Love Got to Do With It". -
Quincy Jones wins Record of the Year
Jones produced "We Are the World" and won Record of the Year for it -
Sade wins Best New Artist
The band Sade, led by Black British singer Sade Adu, won Best New Artist. -
Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie win Song of the Year
The pair won for writing "We Are the World". -
Tracy Chapman wins Best New Artist
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Bobby McFerrin wins both Record and Song of the Year
McFerrin won both for "Don't Worry Be Happy". -
Quincy Jones wins Album of the Year
Jones won for his album Back on the Block and won five other awards as well. -
Mariah Carey wins Best New Artist
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Natalie Cole wins Album and Record of the Year
Natalie Cole became the first black woman ever to win album of the year for her album Unforgettable...With Love. She also won record of the year for "Unforgettable". -
Whitney Houston wins Album and Record of the Year
Houston won Album of the Year for her soundtrack to The Bodyguard, a film she starred in. She also won Record of the Year for "I Will Always Love You". -
Toni Braxton wins Best New Artist
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Seal wins Record and Song of the Year
Seal won both awards for his song "Kiss From a Rose". -
Hootie & the Blowfish win Best New Artist
The group's lead singer was a Black artist, Darius Rucker. -
Lauryn Hill wins Album of the Year and Best New Artist
On this night, Hill was the first ever hip-hop artist to win Album of the Year with her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She also remains the only female artist in Grammy history to win Album of the Year for an album she was the sole producer of and became the first woman to win five awards in one night. -
Alicia Keys wins Song of the Year and Best New Artist
Keys won Song of the Year for "Fallin". -
Outkast wins Album of the Year
Outkast won for their album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. -
Luther Vandross wins Song of the Year
Vandross won for his song "Dance With My Father". -
Ray Charles wins Album and Record of the Year
Charles was awarded Album of the Year posthumously for Genius Loves Company and Record of the Year for "Here We Go Again". -
Herbie Hancock wins Album of the Year
Hancock won for his album River: The Joni Letters -
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Seventeen nonwhite artists were nominated for Album of the Year, one won.
According to music scholar John Vilanonva, in this ten year period seventeen nonwhite artists were nominated for album of the year, however, the only winner was Herbie Hancock in 2008 which was a collection of covers of songs by white folk artist Joni Mitchell. Vilanova is also quoted saying "this is what systemic racism looks like" after artists of color have continuously won awards not included in the telecast even though white artists borrow heavily from black traditions. -
Beyoncé wins six awards in one night
On this night, Beyoncé became the first woman to win six awards in one night. -
Period: to
Black performers only received 26.7% of top Grammy nominations
From 2012 to 2020, Black performers represented about 38% of all artists on Billboard's signature chart but only received 26.7% of top Grammy nominations. -
Beyoncé loses Album of the Year to Beck
Beyoncé released a surprise album that disrupted the music industry and beat streaming records, but lost to Beck for Album of the Year. -
Macklemore sent apologizing text to Kendrick Lamar
In 2014, rapper Macklemore received multiple awards in rap categories when Kendrick Lamar was favored to win. After his wins, Macklemore sent a text to Lamar saying the following:
"You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing during my speech and I froze. Anyway, you know what it is. Congrats on this year and your music. Appreciate you as an artist and a friend. Much love” -
Beyoncé loses Album of the Year to Adele
During her speech, Adele was playing with her trophy and broke it in half as she explained that she didn't feel she deserved the award. In her opinion, she thought it should have went to Beyoncé for her album Lemonade. -
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Beyoncé protests the awards
With Beyoncé's Album of the Year "snub" in 2016, she protested the awards by not performing and completely skipped the ceremony in 2019 and 2020. Her husband, Jay-Z, skipped these two years as well and has been more vocally criticizing the Grammys. -
Childish Gambino wins Record and Song of the Year
He won both for the song "This is America". -
Period: to
Recording Academy made a major effort to diversify membership
During this three year period, the Recording Academy made a push to diversify membership. Critics of the awards say it's long overdue and it seemed to make a difference. -
H.E.R. wins Song of the Year
She won for her song "I Can't Breathe". -
Megan Thee Stallion wins Best New Artist
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Jon Batiste wins Album of the Year
Jon Batiste won album of the year for We Are -
Samara Joy wins Best New Artist
Samara Joy made history as the 10th Black woman to claim the honor of Best New Artist on this night. -
Lizzo wins Record of the Year
Lizzo won the award for "About Damn Time". -
Beyoncé loses Album of the Year to Harry Styles
Earlier this night, Beyoncé became the winningest artist in the Recording Academy's history, however she still didn't win Album of the Year. Her album Renaissance celebrated Blackness and Queerness and was declared the record of 2022 by many. Harry Styles ended up winning the award for "Harry's House" which is the exactly type of old-fashioned album voters and the Academy like to hear. -
Conclusion
Throughout the history of the Grammy's, there have been many awards given to marginalized communities and many milestones accomplished by Black artists. However, multiple artists have been "snubbed" and the systemic racism the system is built on seems to have led to unequal treatment as genre and radio awards are more often given to Black artists and therefore not televised or as mainstream. -
Bibliography
Follow this link to see the Bibliography used to make this timeline.