Mayhem is Gaga’s best shot at AOTY

[Nycboy 1,117]

I’m feeling like Mayhem is Gaga’s best shot at winning AOTY, possibly ever, and it might be the closest she ever comes to it!

Sure, Mayhem doesn’t contain Poker Face or Bad Romance, and it doesn’t have BTW sales. But The Fame lost to Taylor’s Fearless, you could argue that TFM wasn’t a complete “album” and BTW lost to 21 by Adele. Love For Sale was never going to win as a jazz album, and that nomination alone proves how much the Grammys love Gaga. Her prior nominations all had a fairly logical reason for losing the award. This year, her competition is relatively low. There is no Taylor, Adele, Beyoncé or even Billie, Olivia or Harry in her way. There is also no critically acclaimed “cultural-phenomenon” type album in her way like Brat or Future Nostalgia. What are the chances of that? A scenario as low-competition as this year might not ever happen again.

Now, let’s talk about the actual album. Yes the singles could have performed better, and VIY and HBDUWM should have been hits, but the quality of the album is impeccable. Mayhem has not aged a day. I feel like the album hits a nice balance of commercially successful + critically acclaimed. It contains one of the biggest songs of all time (DWAS - which already has a Grammy!) as well as one of Gaga’s best songs of all time (Abracadabra). Abracadabra itself is at once nostalgic and forward thinking for Gaga, a mic drop moment. And overall, the album showcases Gaga’s diverse talents from power anthems (VIY) to rock (PC), electro grunge (GOE) and disco, etc. It plays it safe at times (DWAS), but also flexes and gets experimental at other times (Killah), without alienating the listener. It’s not as shocking and as wild as BTW (what many consider her magnum opus), but I also think Mayhem is almost like a more refined and better edited version of that album. It is a love letter to music and to her career.

Timing wise, we now see Gaga 17+ years into her career, and highly respected as an artist. Critics are no longer trying to “figure her out” like they were earlier in her career. Her standing as an artist is more secure than it has ever been, something that kind of developed after ASIB and got stronger with Mayhem. People no longer associate Gaga with “being weird” but instead they associate her with TALENT. 

In terms of Gaga’s future, who knows what it will look like. Will she take a break and start a family? Will her next album be a rock inspired album? Will her relevance slightly decline (which is normal)? Will newer pop stars threaten her status as a pop queen? Whatever the future holds, I feel like MAYHEM will remain one of, if not, her strongest bid for AOTY. 

LET’S GO GAGA!

[Zaskar 3,964]

Now consider her chances against Bad Bunny and Kendrick

Edited 1 hour ago by Zaskar

[palma 8,262]

I feel like the academy couldn't really grasp how big ASIB would've become... I think that one could've won if nominated - or if the movie was released in Spring instead of Fall. MAYHEM does look like it's closest she's ever got, but knowing how the academy works, I'm not betting on it to avoid disappointment (but lbr she's the strongest nominee).

[RAMROD 110,270]

I hope she is nominated and finally wins it 

[TheARTPOPball 665]

I think as far as relevance goes. She has proven even when the GP doesn't have their eyes on her, the actual music industry always does and i don’t see her ever lacking in influence and relevance amongst the industry.

i do think we will see Gaga take album of the year this year.

[Psyduck 1,594]

They let Cowboy Carter won so is there any reason MAYHEM should not win AOTY?

[Louvre 3,877]

I agree that this is her best shot. TF and TFM had amazing chances tho. TFM should have won - I love arcade fire and the suburbs but that win has aged horribly. 

Kendrick is her only competition here. I think Kendrick is great but him winning AOTY would be very disappointing. Kendrick has a handful of past albums that were cultural moments that should have won AOTY - DAMN, TPAB, GKMC, black panther soundtrack. Kendrick's album is not a cultural moment, he is a cultural moment. And he was already awarded for his moment last year when he won ROTY and SOTY. It would not feel right to see him win. Outside of him I really do not think there is obvious competition, but you never know. Maybe a Jon Batiste will come out of nowhere and piss all of us off. 

MAYHEM deserves to win for a few reasons. The album rocks and has amazing critical reception. Everyone agrees that this is Gaga at her best as a writer, producer, and vocalist. Gaga has created multiple cultural moments with Gagachella, copacabana, Abra. Gaga is long overdue for an AOTY win - this will be her 5th nomination and still no win. 

Its time for the Grammys to do whats right. She is already campaigning extremely hard. 

[HeavyCapiLover 3,753]

I think it'll be either Mayhem or kendrick's album (forgot the name oop). I also think this is gaga's best shot for AOTY so far, she has a long career, was already nominated in that same category many times, the competion is pretty low and the grammys seem to like her a lot.

Also, I dont think that bad bunny has a chance of winning, even though he deserves and just got the super bowl, plus he's gonna win AOTY for latin grammys for sure.

So we only need to worry about kendrick, and it's not his best album.

[Louvre 3,877]

8 minutes ago, palma said:

I feel like the academy couldn't really grasp how big ASIB would've become... I think that one could've won if nominated - or if the movie was released in Spring instead of Fall. MAYHEM does look like it's closest she's ever got, but knowing how the academy works, I'm not betting on it to avoid disappointment (but lbr she's the strongest nominee).

ASIB was released after the cutoff - so when shallow was nominated for SOTY and ROTY the soundtrack was not eligible because it was released a week later. So ASIB could have been nominated and it would have been the following year after the huge cultural moment. I think the grammys saw it as old at that point and didn't have enough passion to nominate it. The following year it won best soundtrack, best song for visual media, and gaga got a SOTY nomination for ARUTW

[thisboyisamonster 926]

I think a few experts have suggested now that Gaga is probably gonna win

[Killa 17,703]

I feel like Gaga can do better and It can translate into the audience. Shes young

[elsamars 2,512]

It seriously doesn’t matter. She can live without it. We can live without it. Having AOTY win or not does not matter. 

[Gagaism 12,038]

I mean, BTW was a good shot too, it just wouldn’t have any chance against a love songs kinda album like 21 plus her appeal wasn’t really clear for everybody as an artist at that time so I think that also would make a lot of difference for older people who are, or at least used to be majority voters at the Grammys. 

And now, yes, Mayhem is the best shot especially when it comes to timing and the way she became a super respected act in the industry now.

Edited 32 minutes ago by Gagaism