Lorde was very clearly snubbed at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
Not in terms of nominations; the singer was actually up for Album of the Year, arguably the highest honor of the entire ceremony.
But that’s the entire problem.
Confused? Allow us to explain…
Lorde was the only female to be nominated for Album of the Year at this year’s ceremony, as she was joined in the category by Childish Gambino, JAY-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Bruno Mars.
Impressive feat, right? Absolutely.
However, it was somewhat marred by the strange fact that Lorde was the only member of this illustrious group NOT to be asked to perform at the Grammys.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Lorde was approached by producers to take part in a Tom Petty tribute performance at one point during the event…
… but she declined out of protest.
It’s hard to blame her, isn’t it?
What possible reason would the Grammy Awards have for asking only men to take the stage?
Aside from the obvious reason of sexism, that is?
This oversight was made even more obvious (and unfortunate) by the ongoing #MeToo movement and the ongoing focus on how men are treated differently than women in the entertainment industry.
Late last week, a few days prior to the Grammys, Lorde’s mother sent out a cryptic message that clearly related to this snub.
Highlighting a portion of a New York Times article about gender equality in the music industry, she wrote “This says it all.”
CBS viewers subsequently tweeted their outrage on Sunday as they watched other artists and host James Corden soak up airtime in place of Lorde.
Following the show, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow even responded to a question from the press about Lorde’s absence from the roster of performances.
This was not an oversight that went unnoticed.
“We can’t have a performance from every nominee,” he said without addressing any singer by name or indicating whether Lorde was invited to perform.
He added:
“We have to create [a show] that has balance… and what you saw was our best judgment on how to do that.”
As you can see above, however, this answer didn’t sit well with viewers.
Especially in light of Sting, who isn’t exactly relevant these days in the music game, being featured in two separate segments for some reason.
They found time for that, but not any time to recognize Lorde?!?
Not cool, Grammys. Not cool at all.
At least we’ll always have Lorde’s memorable VMAs performance to replay over and over.
But still: this was very lame.
