2019 Grammy Snubs: Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, & More

One of the music industry's biggest nights of the year is the Grammys, which many watch not only to see the fashion and hear the performances, but also, of course, to see who will take home the biggest prizes. Each year, however, there are bound to be disappointments when it comes to award nominations and winners. So far the 2019 Grammy snubs include Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and more.

In the past, the awards event has been accused of not keeping up with the times. As E! News reported, this year's show will go on without a number of super-big industry names having all that much to do with it.

Swift received only one nomination, Best Pop Vocal Album, for Reputation... and the star will be in London anyway, and unable to attend.

Ed Sheeran, winner of that same prize last year, skipped the 2018 ceremonies entirely, USA Today reported, possibly as a result of his album being shut out of the "major" categories, such as Album of the Year and Song of the Year. Swift also skipped last year's ceremony, where she was nominated for two awards.

As Rolling Stone reported, the snubs just kept coming this year.

Travis Scott's Astroworld, for example, which includes a broad number of musical influences from Stevie Wonder to John Mayer, has sold 1 million, the music mag reported... and is only nominated for three awards, all in the "Rap" category, the Grammys website confirmed.

This year, Ariana Grande's Sweetener is up for one Grammy, sure, E! News noted. But one nomination for an album that's been huge is interesting, and the singer is not performing tonight.

Grande hasn't been shy about tweeting that behind the scenes, things have been strange. "I’ve kept my mouth shut but now you’re lying about me," Grande tweeted. "I can pull together a performance over night and you know that, Ken. It was when my creativity and self-expression was stifled by you, that I decided not to attend. I hope the show is exactly what you want it to be and more."

Rolling Stone noted the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys, has long been accused of being too slow to acknowledge the evolution of the music industry, such as the growing importance of Latin music and popularity of Reggaeton.

Additionally, Drake, for one, has spoken out about his beliefs that the Grammys alienate black artists such as himself, and has boycotted the event in the past, USA Today added.

Rolling Stone added that the omission of The Greatest Showman from such categories as Album of the Year and Song of the Year is also interesting, given that it sold 1.7 million copies by the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, Carrie Underwood's extremely popular album, Cry Pretty, a winner of multiple trophies, including a County Music Award, was shut out of the Grammy nomination process, People confirmed.

Meanwhile, yet another Grammy controversy (is this starting to sound familiar?) involves the Queen herself, Beyoncé.

Fans simmered in the past over the perceived slight of the star's Lemonade and the Recording Academy ignoring her collaboration with Jay-Z, Everything Is Love, won't help much, USA Today noted in a different article.

Writing for Refinery29, Sesali Bowen argued that Beyoncé's plight is symptomatic of the Recording Academy's lack of understanding of a female artist of color. Which brings me to one of the Grammys' most famous snubs of all: an overall dis to women artists.

For example, Lorde was not asked to perform last year, while her male counterparts in the Album of the Year category reportedly all were, Vulture reported.

This perception of the Grammys as one giant Boys' Club hasn't been helped along by exiting Recording Academy president Neil Portnow making comments about how the lack of women in the Grammy process is the fault of female artists — remarks Portnow then tried to qualify, as Variety reported.

"Sunday night, I was asked a question about the lack of female artist representation in certain categories of this year’s Grammy Awards," Portnow said in a statement. "Regrettably, I used two words, ‘step up,’ that, when taken out of context, do not convey my beliefs and the point I was trying to make."

Luckily, Billboard added that the Academy invited 900 new music creators into its voting ranks... all of them either female, people of color, or under age 39.

Hopefully, this year's awards ceremony will really celebrate the past year in music in a more inclusive way, and give viewers a sense of the variety of styles and songs that today's top musical artists offer. That's certainly what fans deserve.