Grimes Calls Out the Moment She Knew the Grammys Were ‘So Irrelevant’

Count Grimes among the many people who believe the Grammys are “so irrelevant.”

Rather than voicing her frustration over who won and who didn’t on Sunday night, though, Grimes’ criticism stemmed from the organization’s supposed behind-the-scenes politics. The Art Angels musician called out the Recording Academy on an Instagram post from Charli XCX, who was (semi-sarcastically) lamenting the fact that she wasn’t nominated for a Grammy this year. “People don’t wanna see hot evil girls thrive,” Charli wrote.

“The Grammies are so irrelevant I wouldn’t even sweat it,” Grimes, who has never been nominated for a Grammy, responded in a comment under Charli’s post.

“I stopped even clocking them in any capacity when I Was on the producer of the year board and they quite literally would not allow me to nominate anyone who wasn’t on a pre fabricated list that was exceptionally boring,” she continued. “I was one of 3 women and the only person under 40 for sure. It’s literally not a relevant thing. I tried to nominate Sophie and was told that wasn’t allowed.”

Interestingly, Sophie was one of the artists Kim Petras paid tribute to in her acceptance speech during Sunday’s ceremony. While accepting the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her “Unholy” collaboration with Sam Smith, Petras name-dropped the late transgender electronic musician, who worked with both Petras and Charli XCX before dying tragically in 2021.

Kim Petras Honors Trans Musicians With Historic Grammy Win

Of course, Grimes is far from the first artist to call out the Recording Academy and its allegedly shady nominations practices. The Weeknd, who notably does not submit his music for Grammy consideration anymore, tweeted after his egregious 2020 snubs, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…” Then there was Zayn, who vented about a voting process that he said “allows favoritism, racism, and networking politics” to influence things. And Halsey previously called out the organization’s “elusive process,” saying, “It can often be about behind the scenes private performances, knowing the right people, campaigning through the grapevine, with the right handshake and ‘bribes’ that can be just ambiguous enough to pass as ‘not bribes.’”

To its credit, the Recording Academy did take steps in 2021 to overhaul the voting process by eliminating its controversial “secret committees,” composed of anonymous voters who decided the nominations in key genres. That practice was first brought to the public’s attention by former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan, who said in 2020 following her ouster, “The Grammy voting process is ripe with corruption.”

Oh, well… Charli XCX will still be hot, Grammy or no Grammy.

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