Rubberneck

AVA PEABODY Opinions Editor

The 2023 Grammy Awards were held on Sunday, Feb. 5, bringing the country together to celebrate some of the biggest names in music. Some of the key takeaways from the night were Harry Styles winning album of the year for “Harry’s House” and Beyoncé becoming the most celebrated musician in history after winning her 32nd Grammy Award. Although the Recording Academy strives to recognize the most talented artists year after year across multiple genres, it is almost impossible to include all of the groundbreaking music released. As the opinions editors of The Fordham Observer, we consider ourselves more than qualified to weigh in and let the Recording Academy musicians and industry experts know where they’ve gone wrong in the past. We congratulate all of the immensely talented winners and nominees of the 2023 Grammy Awards, but we also urge the Recording Academy to recognize some of the less decorated names in music.

Best New Artist: MattyBRaps (2014)

The best new artist category honors artists who have made “a breakthrough into the public consciousness and impacted the musical landscape.” As Olivia Rodrigo pointed out at this year’s ceremony, this award has gone to artists like the Beatles and Billie Eilish. It is difficult to imagine any more glaring omission from this category than child star and innovative hip-hop artist Matty-

BRaps. At the height of his career in 2014, Matty lost this award to a comparably controversial white rapper — Macklemore — and what a mistake that has turned out to be. Have you even heard of or from Macklemore recently? MattyBRaps, well-versed in capitalizing on moments of virality, would not have fumbled such an honor. He could be one of the greatest, forcing Ticketmaster to testify before Congress as a result of his popularity, if not for this snub.

Best Rock Performance: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ Glee Cast (2009)

In the 2009 Midwest Regional Show Choir Championship, an unlikely group of outcasts and popular kids came together to sing their hearts out in a touching performance that concluded the first season of Fox’s hit musical series, “Glee.” Viewers eagerly waited to see if their favorite characters would fall in love and whether or not the William McKinley High School New Directions would be able to place at the competition.

Rightfully, the New Directions came in last, and the group that truly deserved to win the championship — Vocal Adrenaline — prevailed. Vocal Adrenaline offered a chilling rendition of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” that demonstrated the group’s talents across a variety of musical styles. Though regarded as “villains” by some show fans, nobody deserved to win regionals more than Vocal Adrenaline, and no one deserves a Grammy more than this gifted group.

Best Pop Solo Performance:

‘Stars are Blind,’ Paris Hilton (2006)

If this award had existed at the time “Stars are Blind” was treated like a sin itself. There are few actions that we can realistically expect the pope to take, but there could be more inclusive language when discussing centuries of oppression faced by the LGBTQ+ community.

The Catholic Church cannot expect its LGBTQ+ followers to feel accepted if its doctrine requires them to forgo love and continues to debate if their existence should be criminalized. There is a very rigid purpose for sex in Catholic doctrine: the production of children. So, it is probably too far of a reach to hope for a kind of acceptance where LGBTQ+ Catholics could have life path options aside from celibacy. The statement that people should not be killed for whom they love might be as radical as Francis will get, and due to centuries of tradition, that might be all we can expect.

On the subject of LGBTQ+ identities, there are not any actions from the Catholic Church that I can support. As someone who is not (and was not raised) Catholic, I don’t believe that being gay is a sin. And regardless of that, I do not