We are at the start of award show season, and with any sort of award comes controversy as to whether it was deservingly granted. Or, more importantly, whether someone got snubbed or not. The Grammys were the first of such award shows to occur, and there were a multitude of questionable choices. Along with that, nominations for future award shows have been rolling in and creating disputes.
The Grammys left a multitude of people upset in a wide variety of categories, the first of which was SZA’s album, SOS, for album of the year. This award was granted to the highly-touted and well-renowned Taylor Swift for her Midnights album. Many argue the fact that SOS stayed atop the Billboard Top 200 chart for 10 weeks despite entering in the arguably less popular genre of R&B compared to Swift’s pop genre. Furthermore, Taylor Swift’s name carries a lot of weight in these decisions, which would have likely put SZA at a further disadvantage. No matter what the decision, there would always have been skeptics wondering if this was the correct decision.
Speaking of Taylor Swift, there were some major snubs in the NFL awards in a year where she has gotten very involved. The NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award (OROY) is one that looks great on a resume and was a tight race this year. CJ Stroud won the award this year, likely for his contribution as the quarterback taking a bottom three team from the previous year with a 3-14-1 record to become the AFC South division champions, as well as the fact he led them to a Wild Card Round victory in the playoffs. Even though playoffs aren’t supposed to be considered, they likely were. However, Puka Nakua arguably got snubbed for this award. As a fifth round draft pick receiver for the Rams, he had little attention after Draft Day but continued to break essentially all rookie receiver records with both receptions and receiving yards records belonging to him now. Many argue that every major award in the NFL is becoming a “quarterback only” award, leaving many other skill position players out to dry.
Award winners aren’t the only ones catching attention during the start of this award season. Many are catching flack for who are gaining nominations to even have the opportunity to win these awards. One such example comes from the highly successful Barbie movie. For the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony, the lead actress Margot Robbie was not nominated for the category of best actress. However, Ryan Gosling was nominated for the category of best supporting actor. Many find it ironic that a movie about exposing a patriarchy only has the male actor nominated for this prestigious award.
There is no way to make everyone happy when it comes to awards. There will always be those who feel like their favorite choice was snubbed and those celebrating a great decision made on the other end. This is only the beginning of what will surely be an entertaining awards season if precedence has anything to show for it. All anyone can do is sit back and enjoy as everything unfolds, then scrutinize every decision.
