By Robert Moran
To look back at Grammys history is to induce comedy. You scroll through the accolades and laugh at the confounding wrong turns, a litany of album of the year prizes to inconsequential nonsense like the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack (it beat Outkast’s Stankonia in 2002) or Mumford & Sons’ Babel (it beat Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange in 2013) or Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic (it beat Kendrick Lamar’s Damn in 2018, that year’s Pulitzer winner, for crying out loud).
The Recording Academy, forever the most conservative of awards voters, has a long tradition of buckling under the weight of forward-thinking momentum. Regardless of what’s happening in the culture, their view of what constitutes objectively good music remains stubbornly narrow: give them classic songcraft, organic instrumentation and deep sincerity, or stay home (nearly a decade after #GrammysSoWhite, paleness still seems to help, too.)
Breakout pop stars Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are all vying for prizes in the Grammys’ top categories on Monday, including record of the year, song of the year, and album of the year.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald
It’s what makes the Grammys such a hilariously infuriating watch. You go into each ceremony thinking they’ve surely learned from mistakes of the past, that their considerations have broadened and evolved, that surely they won’t pick the safest, most boring option around as the year’s representative into the musical canon – and then they give album of the year to Jon Batiste’s We Are (2022) or Harry Styles’ Harry’s House (2023).
This year’s Grammys has the potential to upend some of the staleness thanks to pop’s new breakout superstars: Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan.
For months, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter – with its black reclamation of country music from the genre’s conservative gatekeepers – felt like the subversive pick, a clear chance to celebrate the Grammys’ most-winning artist who’s long been overlooked for the top prize. By mid-2024 youth had stormed the musical landscape, making even Beyoncé seem like an industry crony.
By any metric, Charli XCX’s Brat was the zeitgeist’s defining album over the past year, painting the world slime green and getting name-checked in a presidential campaign. Although she’s been an acclaimed artist since her 2013 debut True Romance, she’s never won a Grammy (it should be a source of pride, but here we are).
That the Grammys haven’t honoured a dance album in the major categories since Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories in 2014 is an annoying omen, and even then, voters were probably placated by the album’s heavy debt to Nile Rodgers and ’70s funk (the Grammys love nothing more than when new artists make stuff that sounds old). It’s hard to see them getting behind the grinding, churning, dystopian production of PC Music’s AG Cook, even if an entire generation did.
Carpenter is also vying for her first Grammy win, six albums into her career. While her breakthrough Short n’ Sweet is classic pop songwriting through and through (largely overseen by proven industry hitmaker Amy Allen), it’s all undercut by Carpenter’s outlandish sexpot persona. To a Grammy voter, a cheeky wink-wink is akin to blasphemy, a holy desecration of the glory of music. “There’s no fun in music!” they scream, like Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own. Sabrina Carpenter’s probably leaving with nothing.
Roan, who once claimed the only Grammy she ever wanted to win was “for album packaging” (they didn’t even nominate her), is the most intriguing chance from pop’s new school. Her belter’s voice and intricate songwriting should be catnip for Grammys voters (“songwriting teacher reacts to Good Luck, Babe!” is a whole YouTube genre, after all), but her outspoken personality and very queer subject matter might scare off the wing that insisted on a record of the year nod for The Beatles (yes, in 2025).
Another thing going against Roan in the top categories – ironically, the same thing that will surely see her win the best new artist prize – is her freshness: although she’s done this for a decade (even getting dropped by a major label in the process), The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is her debut album, and the Grammys tilt heavily towards proven quantities. With Grammys darlings Billie Eilish (Hit Me Hard and Soft: admittedly her best and most revealing, yet) and Taylor Swift (The Tortured Poets Department: not as bad as we all said, but still) also nominated in the major categories, it’s possible we’ll just get the same ol’ story.
Depressing, but at least we’ll have something new to laugh about in a decade’s time.
The 67th Annual Grammy Awards will air live on Stan on Monday from 12pm.