The 2024 Grammys Were A Win For The LGBTQ Community

by daniela mireles (she/her)

The Grammy Awards hosted by the Recording Academy are often called “The Super Bowl” by all music fans. It’s the one day a year where everyone is an absolute mess after seeing the snubs and the wins from that night. And tonight was no different. No matter who loses or wins, Twitter will still be destroyed by this prestigious award show.

This year’s nominations were announced on November 10, 2023. The artist with the most nominations this year was SZA, with her album “SOS” that dropped in December 2022. This album’s lead single, “Kill Bill” went viral and even peaked at No.1 in the Billboard Top Charts. Following SZA’s seven nominations, Phoebe Bridgers and Victoria Monet earned seven nominations as well, making them the most nominated artists of this event as well.

In the past few years, fans have noticed that this years’ nominations featured plenty of LGBTQ artists, such as Boygenius, Victoria Monet, SZA, Brandy Clark, Allison Russell and Troye Sivan and more. The actual awards took place February 4th, 2024, and it is safe to say queer women dominated this year’s Grammys. Out of the major categories, best new artist, record of the year and song of the year queer women won them. From Victoria Monet’s emotional Best New Artist win to Tracy Chapman finally getting the recognition that was long overdue for “fast car”.

Boygenius, the popular group made up of queer’s stars Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers arrived at the event wearing stunning matching silk tuxedos made by Thome Browne. They won three awards yesterday, “Best Rock Performance” and “Best Rock Song” for their song “Not Strong Enough” and “Best Alternative Music Album” for their album “The Record”. Furthermore, Phoebe Bridgers, shared a grammy with fellow album of the year nominee, SZA, for best pop duo performance for their song “Ghost in the Machine” which was released in December 2022 alongside SZA’s album “SOS”. Phoebe Bridgers was the artist with the most wins last night with 4 Grammys.  

BOYGENIUS (PHOEBE BRIDGERS, LUCY DACUS, JULIEN BAKER) | COURTESY OF RICHARD SHOTWELL

Three of the winners for the Big Four categories were queer women. Miley Cyrus record of the year win with “Flowers”, Victoria Monet’s best new artist win and Billie Eilish’s song of the year award for “What Was I Made For?”. It was the first time in Grammy history that three LGBTQ artists took awards in the main categories. Not only did Victoria take home one of the big four categories award, she also won best R&B album for her critically praised album Jaguar II. Americana categories were won by LGBTQ stars like Allison Russell for her performance in “Eve was Black”, Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile both won for best Americana performance for “Dear Insecurity”.

These were Victoria’s first set of Grammys, with 15 years into her career, in her teary and emotional acceptance speech, she described herself as a plant and the music industry as soil, she then started saying how she felt like her roots were underneath the ground, being unseen for so long until that very moment, where she said she was “spouting finally above ground.” She shared some advice for those who are afraid to pursue their dreams: “I just want to say to anyone who has a dream, I want you to look at this as an example.”

LGBTQ+ icon Kylie Minogue won her first Grammy in twenty years for best pop dance recording, for her song “Padam Padam''. She sent a heartfelt message to her queer fan base and thanked them for their endless support over the years, and thanked them for being by her side saying “I would say thank you for being with me for such a long time now, through thick and thin, we ride the highs, we ride the lows and the in-betweens, and to know that we’ve got each other's backs, this feels like the beginning of the next era.”

Representation for queer artists in the Grammys has been rising over the last few years, with the Recording Academy starting their Academy Proud initiative to help support and amplify LGBTQ+ voices and have queer demonstrations not only in the Recording Academy but in the music industry.

This year’s Grammys stand as a historic milestone in the music industry, marked by a celebration of diversity, inclusion and the celebration of talent over barriers. The representation for the winning queer women across various genres of music signals a change for the industry’s acknowledgement of diverse voices. It is clear that this year not only was their immense talent recognized, but also embraced a new era where authenticity regardless of your identity and sexuality is placed at the forefront of musical excellence. This year was a reminder that the music industry is paving a way where all voices are heard and celebrated.