Grammy Adds 3,800+ New Members, Showcasing Latin Music’s Rise

[apollorowling 480]

Debí tirar más fotos, it's a GREAT ALBUM 👻 I'm from Uruguay and almost all country it's dancing 😂

[InTheCloset 20,464]

We can never win

[Ashley 9,732]

It doesn’t mean every voter for the Latin grammys will automatically vote for Bad Bunny, they can still vote for someone else if they think the album is more deserving. I think Gaga still has a good chance.

[Nagini 3,416]

Pop voters may go either Gaga or Bunny. Rap/RnB/hip-hop will be all in on Kendrick, and Bunny will get all of these new Latin academy votes. The Grammys have expanded hip-hop considerably in the past few years I believe, so Gaga will need to court votes from Jazz/Rock or some other group to win. What do you think @andy232000 I hope all those years of making jazz music pays off and this group shows out for her...

Looking at Beyonce's win last year, she was up against a bunch of mediocre white girls (Sabrina, Taylor, Chappell, Charli) and Billie with pop voters probably splitting across all four. There was no competitive rap/hip-hop/R&B album other than Andre 3000 which likely didn't receive many votes at all. So she probably captured all of hip-hop/RnB/probably country and undoubtably a bunch of pop votes as well. I think once the nominations are revealed this week, we'll have a better idea as to whether she has a strong shot at winning looking at the overall composition. 

If she's the only pop girl nominated, this is great news. No Sabrina, Jon Baptiste, no country album, and no Brandy Carlile (previous Grammy CEO literally accused her of cheating with nomination reviews lmao, why tf is she even allowed back). If we have Tyler added in, maybe another rap album, and The Weekend included, this is all great news as votes will split between all of these guys. 

[Mr S 8,742]

43 minutes ago, Nagini said:

 

, and no Brandy Carlile (previous Grammy CEO literally accused her of cheating with nomination reviews lmao, why tf is she even allowed back). 

What happened?

[SpadesToStart 3,570]

My hot take for the day: any award that compares a sung music album with a rap/hiphop album is ridiculous. And I don’t say that to put down rap/hip hop as an art form. They’re both auditory mediums but they’re fundamentally different things. It’s like if an award lumped the best theatrical plays, TV shows, and movies for the year into a single category simply because they’re all visual mediums for storytelling that use scripts and actors.

[SevenWonder 4,448]

Sucks for Gaga. She really gets screwed a lot by things outside of her control, doesn't she?

Oh well. 

[James Gibson 3,546]

Just a side note. Bad Bunny never won a GF award at Latin Grammys so it's not guaranteed all of those Latin voters will check him. Just like not necessarily every rap voter will vote for Kendrick or pop for Gaga. Voters are not monolithic and there can be a lot in play when voting for an award. Who knows if those who vote at Latin Grammy have some preference for english speaker artists who are not eligible for the former award.

We can't directly measure the impact of these addition beforehands, but will be a nice experiment.

And let's stop acting as if it was a smear campaign against Gaga. She is one of the big contenders but was never the frontrunner for AOTY, Kendrick has been upfront all year. And like some people said, maybe this could help her since she's so beloved in latin language speaking countries and Kendrick not as much.

[Ladle Ghoulash 28,517]

2 hours ago, Nagini said:

Pop voters may go either Gaga or Bunny. Rap/RnB/hip-hop will be all in on Kendrick, and Bunny will get all of these new Latin academy votes. The Grammys have expanded hip-hop considerably in the past few years I believe, so Gaga will need to court votes from Jazz/Rock or some other group to win. What do you think @andy232000 I hope all those years of making jazz music pays off and this group shows out for her...

Looking at Beyonce's win last year, she was up against a bunch of mediocre white girls (Sabrina, Taylor, Chappell, Charli) and Billie with pop voters probably splitting across all four. There was no competitive rap/hip-hop/R&B album other than Andre 3000 which likely didn't receive many votes at all. So she probably captured all of hip-hop/RnB/probably country and undoubtably a bunch of pop votes as well. I think once the nominations are revealed this week, we'll have a better idea as to whether she has a strong shot at winning looking at the overall composition. 

If she's the only pop girl nominated, this is great news. No Sabrina, Jon Baptiste, no country album, and no Brandy Carlile (previous Grammy CEO literally accused her of cheating with nomination reviews lmao, why tf is she even allowed back). If we have Tyler added in, maybe another rap album, and The Weekend included, this is all great news as votes will split between all of these guys. 

Chappell ain’t mediocre, how DARE u

[Plastic Flower 5,301]

Idk why fans are collapsing  Gaga is not a General Field darling, let alone the #1 threat for AOTY. Everyone is setting up themselves for disappointment.

[Nagini 3,416]

2 hours ago, SpadesToStart said:

My hot take for the day: any award that compares a sung music album with a rap/hiphop album is ridiculous. And I don’t say that to put down rap/hip hop as an art form. They’re both auditory mediums but they’re fundamentally different things. It’s like if an award lumped the best theatrical plays, TV shows, and movies for the year into a single category simply because they’re all visual mediums for storytelling that use scripts and actors.

I feel the same, though I think GNX is a weak album 

[Nagini 3,416]

3 hours ago, Mr S said:

What happened?

Previous Grammy CEO basically exposed the nomination review committees stating that people in those committees legit add their songs to the nomination list even if they didnt make the final 10. Brandy is one of them. These committees have since been abolished (and likely explains why we didn't see ASIB or After Hours/Blinding Lights in AOTY and SOTY/ROTY, among other shocking snubs). 

Edited Tuesday at 09:53 PM by Nagini

[Nagini 3,416]

1 hour ago, Plastic Flower said:

Idk why fans are collapsing  Gaga is not a General Field darling, let alone the #1 threat for AOTY. Everyone is setting up themselves for disappointment.

1 hour ago, James Gibson said:

Just a side note. Bad Bunny never won a GF award at Latin Grammys so it's not guaranteed all of those Latin voters will check him. Just like not necessarily every rap voter will vote for Kendrick or pop for Gaga. Voters are not monolithic and there can be a lot in play when voting for an award. Who knows if those who vote at Latin Grammy have some preference for english speaker artists who are not eligible for the former award.

We can't directly measure the impact of these addition beforehands, but will be a nice experiment.

And let's stop acting as if it was a smear campaign against Gaga. She is one of the big contenders but was never the frontrunner for AOTY, Kendrick has been upfront all year. And like some people said, maybe this could help her since she's so beloved in latin language speaking countries and Kendrick not as much.

 I hear you guys but y'all have no faith in Gags. I guarantee she was runner-up for AOTY for TF, TFM, and BTW. And since then, she candidly has not released anything that was AOTY material until Mayhem (Joanne/Chromatica didn't cut it quality-wise). Shallow and DWAS did not peak until after the new year (and voting happens in the month of December), and she also did not submit Bad Romance, BTW, or TEOG for general field categories. She likely would've taken home something in the GF for Bad Romance at the very least. 

People respect her in the academy, but you don't get an automatic nomination off your name alone unless you're Taylor Swift or Beyonce, or any one of those artists that have engineered the public to praise/acclaim. This time the album is top notch and she has two hit songs off the record. Had Debra been even bigger in the U.S. (alongside another single like GOE/VIY), I think she chances would be very strong but alas we're hoping she made enough noise this year for voters to remember all that she did. 

 

[andy232000 12,475]

5 hours ago, Nagini said:

Pop voters may go either Gaga or Bunny. Rap/RnB/hip-hop will be all in on Kendrick, and Bunny will get all of these new Latin academy votes. The Grammys have expanded hip-hop considerably in the past few years I believe, so Gaga will need to court votes from Jazz/Rock or some other group to win. What do you think @andy232000 I hope all those years of making jazz music pays off and this group shows out for her...

Looking at Beyonce's win last year, she was up against a bunch of mediocre white girls (Sabrina, Taylor, Chappell, Charli) and Billie with pop voters probably splitting across all four. There was no competitive rap/hip-hop/R&B album other than Andre 3000 which likely didn't receive many votes at all. So she probably captured all of hip-hop/RnB/probably country and undoubtably a bunch of pop votes as well. I think once the nominations are revealed this week, we'll have a better idea as to whether she has a strong shot at winning looking at the overall composition. 

If she's the only pop girl nominated, this is great news. No Sabrina, Jon Baptiste, no country album, and no Brandy Carlile (previous Grammy CEO literally accused her of cheating with nomination reviews lmao, why tf is she even allowed back). If we have Tyler added in, maybe another rap album, and The Weekend included, this is all great news as votes will split between all of these guys. 

I wouldnt be so sure about Kendrick getting all the RnB votes. The Weeknd will be nominated for sure after the whole PR stunt they pulled off last ceremony, and while The Weeknd is in the pop categories, we all know that voters dont feel that way about him. Its the reason he was snubbed with After Hours. His music is not pop enough and trails more into that mix of Rnb, trap and pop. I also have a sneaking suspision Justin Bieber might snatch a AOTY nom, and his album is also heavily RnB. Tyler The Creator wouldnt surprise me either in AOTY too cause the academy has been very insistent in recognizing hip hop more, so multiple nominees are possible. So even there Kendrick might just not capture the 100% of what we think. 

As for Gaga, I personally think the pop voter will consolidate with her. I simply don't see a legitimate pop voter going for another pick like Sabrina over Gaga AT ALL, and I don't see another strong Pop Record being nominated. Tate McRae, Miley and Addison are absolutely NOT getting in AOTY. There's simply no one else to vote for other than The Weeknd in pop, and I already mentioned what I think. The question is if that will be enough. As for the jazz and EDM voters, yes I do think they will help unless a niche genre album like EUSEXUA or Lauffys album get in AOTY. I think all those years of genre bending Gaga has done will come in handy here.

I also don't see pop voters going for Bad Bunny unless they want to be intentionally political. But then I also think that Americans are deeply xenophobic, even in the music industry. Im sure the inclusion of the entire Latin American Grammys into the voting pool might have caused some internal friction. These are the same people who managed to get the Academy to create separate "contemporary" categories for Country and RnB, after a black woman won them. Same story for "Pop Dance" category; created to stop pop stars from overshadowing EDM artists. Some committees are very protective of their space.

And Bad Bunny is very much still a non-english album. The level of impact that Debí Tirar Más Fotos can achieve only happens when you're not American IMO. Plus, someone on twitter told me he is not all that respected in the Latin Academy, although I have no idea about that.

I do think its interesting that Bad Bunny actually lost the latin AOTY with "Un Verano Sin Ti", against Rosalía, but then Rosalía was snubbed from the American Grammys and Bad Bunny WAS nominated as the first latin artist ever in AOTY. If the Latin Academy didnt award him back then with his arguably same-level of a monstrous album, what could that tell us? I wonder if Bad Bunny is often included into the American award mix because of his global stardom and not because the Latin Academy is actually pushing for him as hard as we think. Rosalía beat him with a highly experimental album while also being a much smaller act. Maybe im just coping, but then maybe that tells us that Americans just put Bad Bunny into the mix without really knowing better cause its the artist they know. Like how Shakira won the Best Pop Latin album at the Grammys this year but lost AOTY in the actual Latin Grammys. And the actual AOTY winner wasnt even nominated in the American Grammys. Americans just pick the most famous act and run the story while the actual latinos might think another way. 

Finally, like I have said in other posts, I doubt the Grammys made the decision to extend the invites to all Latin voting members without analyzing the impact this would have. If Pop music has historically had a larger voting pool, thus giving pop artists an advantage, it would make no sense to add a bunch of Latinos to the point of imbalance because then the Latin artists would have an advantage. And the numebrs confirm this. We know now that the voting pool grew to 16K. 10% of that (1600) identified as experts in the latin genre (not uniquely tho, so this voters could also be experts in pop). and out of the newly 2900 added, not all are latins. In the end that rough 1600 probably grew to 2600-3000 members at most, out of 16k. Its a noticable increase, but not enough to overtake the field. 

Sorry for the long ass post, but i had a lot to say about this 

Edited Tuesday at 10:59 PM by andy232000

[Morphine Prince 107,339]

DTMF is my AOTY,  and Kendrick's album is amazing

Until probably Rosalia releases this week but she won't be eligible for the  2026 Grammy.