Harry Styles Wins Album of the Year at the Grammys: Did He Deserve It?

Source: Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

‘This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.’

These were the words of Harry Styles upon accepting the award for Album of the Year at the Grammys a couple of weeks ago, in what was largely regarded as more of a disappointment, not a surprise. His BRIT Award win I can accept – the competition there was far less competitive – but against the likes of Lizzo, Adele and, of course, Beyoncé at the Grammys? Styles came up short in my eyes.

His speech did little to help this sentiment – like many of the Hollywood award shows, the Grammys have a history of rewarding white male mediocrity over more genre-bending, seminal works. Who is Styles referring to when he says, ‘people like me’? Because it surely can’t be white men. British working class northerners I can accept, but in the context of the ceremony, it came off as shallow. At least he partially made up for this at the BRITs, by name-dropping all of the female artists who had missed out on a nomination in the all-male Artist of the Year category.

Now, full disclosure, I am a huge Beyoncé fan. I’m not at all surprised at the Grammys choosing to overlook her for Album of the Year for the fourth time - by broadcasting the Best Dance Album category in the main show for the first time ever, the producers made sure Beyoncé would still be recognised for her record-breaking achievement of winning the most Grammys ever while still getting away with snubbing her in the general field categories. She may have now won 32 Grammys, but only 1 of them has been one of the main awards – Song of the Year for Single Ladies in 2010.

Despite constant critical acclaim, the pattern of Beyoncé consistently losing these awards is emblematic of the unfairly high standard Black people, especially Black women, are held to, not just in music, but the wider entertainment industry. We saw this with Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler missing out on Best Actress nominations at the Oscars this year, in favour of the likes of Ana de Armas’ genuinely offensive portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in ‘Blonde’.

If we are talking albums, Renaissance’s eclectic, joyous sound and homage to queer culture tops Harry’s House any day of the week for me - especially when compared with Styles’ accusations of queerbaiting that have followed him since his debut as a solo artist. Even his outfit on the Grammys red carpet - a plaid rainbow jumpsuit resembling Elmer the Elephant - caused a stir on social media. When this is put up against Beyoncé’s genuine respect for the community, whom she thanked in her acceptance speech, it makes her loss hurt more.

All of this is not to say that Harry’s House is a bad album! As It Was and Late Night Talking were both on heavy rotation for me this summer – at least until Renaissance came out – and I cannot deny Styles’ commercial success. As It Was became the longest-running US number one by a UK act (15 weeks) and was the UK’s best-selling single of 2022. I could’ve gotten behind it winning Record of the Year. (No offence Lizzo!) But Renaissance’s Album of the Year loss stings – almost more than BEYONCÉ’s and Lemonade’s losses – and will do for some time.