Only one woman is in the running for the Grammy Awards’ most coveted title, Best Album of the Year.
And yet, her voice will not be heard on stage.
Not because she’s got some other… important internationally-acclaimed music awards ceremony to be at. Or the flu.
No, New Zealand singer Lorde is orchestrating her own silent protest.
Because rather than being given the opportunity to perform from her album Melodrama – as is Grammys tradition for the nominees of Best Album of the Year – Variety is reporting she was only asked to sing as part of a group tribute to the late Tom Petty.
(Not just that, but the song she was asked to contribute to was American Girl… Which, well, doesn’t make the most sense for a Kiwi.)
The fellow nominees in the best album category are Childish Gambino, Bruno Mars, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.
And, you guessed it: they’re all performing from their respective records, with 21-year-old Lorde watching from the audience.
Click through the gallery to check out all the Grammy Awards red carpet fashion. Post continues after gallery.
Neither the event organisers nor Lorde herself have commented on the issue.
But the singer’s mother shared a very telling tweet, highlighting one particular sentence in The New York Times.
this says it all –@nytimes January 26, 2018 pic.twitter.com/R3YdHwieXf
— Sonja Yelich (@sonjayelich1) January 26, 2018
“Of the 899 people to be nominated for Grammy awards in the past six years, only nine per cent were women,” it reads.
So while the Grammys should this year get props for its racial diversity – you only need to look at the fact there are four black artists in the running for Album of the Year – we need to call this one like it is: snubbing Lorde was the wrong move.
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