When Billie Eilish took to the Grammys stage to accept one of the top awards of the night, the scene might have felt a bit like déjà vu. The 19-year-old was honored with the coveted Record of the Year Grammy for “Everything I Wanted," but in her acceptance speech, she couldn't stop talking about Megan Thee Stallion, who she felt was more deserving of the award.
“This is really embarrassing for me," a contrite-looking Eilish said. "Megan, girl, I was gonna write a speech about how you deserve this, but then I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re gonna choose me.’ I was like, ‘It’s hers.’ You deserve this. You had a year that I think is untoppable. You are a queen. I want to cry thinking about how much I love you. You’re so beautiful. You’re so talented. You deserve everything in the world. I think about you constantly. I root for you always. You deserve this, honestly. Genuinely. This goes to her. Can we just cheer for Megan Thee Stallion?”
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As people in the crowd cheered, and Megan blushed behind her mask, many couldn't help but draw a direct parallel to 2017, when Adele swept the 2017 Grammys, but during her Album of the Year acceptance speech praised Beyoncé's Lemonade instead. She said she couldn't fathom accepting the award because Beyoncé was the "artist of her life," and Lemonade was "so monumental."
billie saying megan deserved the award like how adele did to beyoncé pic.twitter.com/Odt2rRprv4
— mia (@cypherwoon) March 15, 2021
The pattern doesn't stop there. Many also recalled 2014, when rapper Macklemore Instagrammed a text he sent to rapper Kendrick Lamar, saying Lamar should've swept the Grammys that year instead.
billie eilish said... pic.twitter.com/k5WDpv8tZm
— f.k.a. ottergawd (@charlesxholmes) March 15, 2021
Macklemore to Kendrick, Adele to Beyoncé, Billie to Megan: the trend, it continues!
— Elamin Abdelmahmoud (@elamin88) March 15, 2021
Nobody:
— Tris (@trisquire) March 15, 2021
Billie/Adele: This beautiful Black woman deserved this award so much more than I did. I love this Black woman so much and the way she makes my Black friends feel. Please clap for this Black woman and not me. Thank you so much Grammys for awarding me ✨ pic.twitter.com/rx2zdBYizj
Macklemore, Adele and Billie Eilish have all done the “I won but a Black artist deserved this” speech and even when they right, it’s embarrassing for everyone involved! #GRAMMYs
— Kathleen Newman-Bremang (@KathleenNB) March 15, 2021
Some applauded Eilish for, well, let's just say it — speaking the truth about Megan's snub, and complimented the show of woman camaraderie that ran throughout the evening. However, many others couldn't help but point out that at a certain point, this isn't cute anymore. It's a blatant reminder of how the Recording Academy continues to talk the talk but never gives BIPOC artists, and particularly Black women, their due. In fact, as one Twitter user pointed out, a Black woman hasn’t won Record of the year since 1994.
Case in point: The Grammys loved to give BIPOC artists and women the stage for performances throughout the night to up their viewership (we won't even get into how dirty they did BTS), but failed to nominate the many Black women who ruled R&B this past year.
If the artists know who is most deserving of the win, and the audience knows who is most deserving of the win... then it seems that a certain awards body *cough* just needs to catch up.