Beyoncé is adored as Queen in the four corners of the world, but she has a clear frustration. Although she is the most successful artist at the Grammys – no less than 32 trophies – she is still on the verge of the biggest awards at the Academy of Music: she only won Best Song of the Year in 2008, for Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), but was never recognized as Best Album. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift joined the select group of artists who won no less than FOUR Grammys for Best Album, placing her on the same level as Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon.

Taylor and Beyoncé are friends, so it’s not to discount arguably the most important artist of the moment, as she is the first woman to break this record at the Grammys. But this rivalry has been the target of awkward moments since Kanye West took the stage in 2009, interrupting the young (and lesser known) Taylor Swift to say today in the classic words ““Hey, Taylor, I’m so happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” (Taylor had won in the category with You Belong to Me).

Fifteen years later, it was the turn of Jay-Z, the singer’s husband, to make a similar outburst. “She has more Grammys than anyone and has never won Album of the Year. So even by her own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about it. Most Grammys; she never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work,” he vented. In a rare opportunity, the broadcast avoided showing Taylor’s reaction.

Now the pressure has increased and the question will be around the music industry until the Queen receives the honor that her fans consider to be the one she deserves: Best Album, Best Artist, and not Best within the restricted R&B category. Michael Jackson went through the same frustration until he released Thriller. Beyoncé’s time has come.

At the Recording Academy, the four most relevant awards are ‘Song of the Year’, ‘Recording of the Year’, ‘Breakthrough Artist’ and ‘Album of the Year’. There are other niche categories, pop is the one that navigates among them all and for this reason, when Taylor broke the limit of country music and moved on to something more ‘broad’, it was that she became an icon.

The real drama is that it is not a Grammy, or 32 or 50 thousand that will define Beyoncé’s relevance in pop culture, just as an Oscar does not guarantee that one actor is better than another. At 32, the singer already defines herself as incomparable, not even Taylor – with her 14 – is close to threatening that crown. What Jay-Z complained about is that it’s missing some diamonds.

Where does Beyoncé differ from Michael Jackson?

Michael died with 14 Grammys, 8 of which were for the album Thriller. Some argue that by including rock and pop in his music, Michael would have “whitened” his work, which was the only way to win awards, and apparently this is the resistance to Beyoncé, who did not do the same. The proof, as her husband pointed out, is pure mathematics: she was nominated 88 times, and won 32 Grammys but only one of them in one of the four main categories, competing with classics such as I Am… Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé, Lemonade, and Renaissance, were all praised as innovative and popular in sales. None of them at the feet of Thriller, perhaps? I’m sure many disagree. After all, Queen Bey lost to Fearless, by Taylor Swift, Morning Phase, by Beck, 25, by Adele, and Harry’s House, by Harry Styles. Although incredible, the albums have white artists in common and are proof that 40 years after Michael Jackson, little has changed in the music scene. The last black woman to win the Grammy for Album of the Year was Lauryn Hill, in 1999, with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and only in 2022 Jon Batiste was the first black artist to win “Album of the Year” in 14 years.

Given this scenario, the niched categories appear more like segregation. And, unfortunately, it puts Taylor Swift back on an unwanted privileged stage, shading her talent and effort. Nobody wants one artist against another, but that there really are barriers is also clear. The main thing is to break them without compromising your Art. And here is the main challenge for Beyoncé.

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