Taylor Swift will not appear on the Grammy Awards this Sunday, not as a presenter or nominee.
I actually told you this in November when she was snubbed for Album of the Year for “Lover,” the best selling ‘record’ of 2019. “Lover” was also well reviewed and should have been among the finalists. But mysteriously it was not.
This was similar to Justin Timberlake’s snub several years ago for his “20/20” album. The best selling record of the year, with lots of good reviews and hit singles, “20/20” should have been a nominee. But it was ignored by the secret committee, whatever that is. Timberlake also passed on attending that year’s show.
The Swift situation is especially heightened right now because of accusations of voting irregularities by ousted Grammy CEO Deborah Dugan. Dugan has made some wild and weird allegations in her EEOC filing and in television interviews. But the voting problems are not so off base.
The lack of transparency in Grammy voting has long been a point of contention. But Dugan’s conspiracy theories don’t completely add up. Take the Timberlake episode. The former NSync star’s lawyer is Joel Katz, also the attorney for the Recording Academy. So he certainly didn’t influence the voting against Timberlake. The question is, who did? Where and how are these voting decisions made?
For Swift, her rebuke from the Grammys almost certainly involved her public outrage over losing the rights to her master recordings to Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta. She raged against the machine, and the machine punished her. Swift’s absence from the Grammys will be felt enormously. We’ll see what impact it has on the ratings on Monday morning.
