When Grammy nomination day came in November, people were excited by the lack of white male nominees in major categories. However, another problem emerged during the Grammys telecast: only one woman won in a major category: Alessia Cara, for best new artist. (Though, let’s be honest, it should’ve gone to SZA.)

During the show and into Monday morning, people voiced their frustrations with the awards show on Twitter with the hashtag #GrammysSoMale.

People brought up a host of points to support the hashtag, especially that Album of the Year nominee Lorde was not given her own performance time, while the telecast made time for many non-nominated men to share their craft.

When asked, one Grammys producer said of Lorde’s absence: “These shows are a matter of choices. We have a box and it gets full. She had a great album. There’s no way we can really deal with everybody.”

Several people tweeting #GrammysSoMale also pointed out that this was not about one specific awards show, similar to how #OscarsSoWhite creator April Reign has said her hashtag is about an industry-wide problem.

A recent report from the University of Southern California found that female representation in popular music dropped in 2017, that only about 12% of songwriters are women, only 2% of music producers are women and that only 9% of Grammy nominees since 2013 have been women.

Even though women were mostly shut out from awards, they gave some of the most buzz-worthy moments at the show, including Kesha’s emotional girl power-studded performance of “Praying,” which was the award show’s nod to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.

Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARAS

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock our articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated