Though Beyoncé’s Renaissance was unanimously acclaimed and commercially successful, if it wins album of the year at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 5 — as many observers (including me) expect — it will be at least in part because her previous studio album, Lemonade, was passed over in that category.
If you watched the 59th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, 2017, you doubtless remember the moment when Adele’s 25 prevailed over Lemonade. In her acceptance speech, a highly emotional Adele all but handed the Grammy to Beyoncé, who was standing in the front row with her husband, Jay-Z, as the audience rose to its feet to celebrate Adele’s win. Adele’s speech stands as one of the most selfless and gracious in awards show history.
After some introductory thanks, Adele addressed the issue of competing with a friend and an artist she greatly admires. “I can’t possibly accept this award and I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful and gracious, but my artist of my life is Beyoncé and this album to me – the Lemonade album – was so monumental.”
Addressing the singer directly, she continued: “Beyoncé, it was just so monumental and so well thought-out and so beautiful and soul-baring and we all got to see another side to you that you don’t always let us see, and we appreciate that. And all us artists here, we f–king adore you. You are our light. And the way that you make me and my friends feel – the way you make my Black friends feel – is empowering. And you make them stand up for themselves and I love you. I always have and I always will.”
While no one questions Adele’s talent, some wondered if it was fair that Adele won a second award in that category before Beyoncé won it even once. (I Am…Sasha Fierce had lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless; Beyoncé had lost to Beck’s Morning Phase.)
Of course, it isn’t Adele’s “fault” that she won. Still, an impression remains that Beyoncé was wronged – and that Grammy voters have a chance to make it right this year.
Renaissance wouldn’t be the first album to win album of the year at least in part as a “make-up” award for a previous album or albums that had not been so awarded. Take a look at this list, shown in reverse chronological order. (All years shown are the Grammy year of record.)
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Beck, ‘Morning Phase’
Image Credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Year: 2014
Notes: Two earlier Beck albums, Odelay (1996) and Midnite Vultures (2000), were nominated for album of the year, but lost to Celine Dion’s Falling Into You and Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature, respectively, so Beck was overdue for a win by the time of Morning Phase. Still, many were disappointed that Beyoncé didn’t win for her self-titled album. In the dramatic photo above, Kanye West approached the stage, as if he was going to inject himself into Beck’s moment of triumph as had had with Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs. Ye stopped short of doing that, but he made his displeasure known.
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Herbie Hancock, ‘River: The Joni Letters’
Year: 2007
Notes: This was a make-up for both Hancock, the lead artist on this tribute album, and Joni Mitchell, the subject of the tribute. None of Hancock’s previous albums had been nominated for album of the year, and only one of Mitchell’s albums had (her 1974 critical and commercial smash Court and Spark). Two Hancock albums – Maiden Voyage (1965) and Head Hunters (1974) have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame – which frequently functions as a second chance for the Grammys to do right by important records. Three Mitchell albums have been so honored: Clouds (1969), Blue, widely hailed as her peak achievement (1971) and Court and Spark.
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Ray Charles, ‘Genius Loves Company’
Year: 2004
Notes: Charles had been nominated for two more highly regarded albums: Genius + Soul = Jazz (1961) and the groundbreaking Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962). The later album, which topped the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks, challenged the idea of racial restrictions in country music years before Charley Pride had released a single record. Both of those albums have been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, as has The Genius of Ray Charles (1960). Genius Loves Company won because Charles hadn’t won before in the category and because this was the voters’ last chance to honor him. He died in June 2004, about 10 weeks before the album’s release.
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Steely Dan, ‘Two Against Nature’
Image Credit: HECTOR MATA/AFP via GI Year: 2000
Notes: Two Against Nature won for two main reasons. Many Grammy voters simply couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Eminem’s more commercially successful and critically acclaimed The Marshall Mathers LP, because of lyrics they regarded as misogynistic and/or homophobic. Also, Steely Dan was overdue for album of the year. The group, which had been widely admired for nearly two decades at that point, had never won album of the year. They been nominated for Aja in 1977 (there was no competing that year with Fleetwood Mac’s blockbuster Rumours) and Gaucho in 1981 (which lost to John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s similarly unbeatable Double Fantasy). Aja was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003. In the photo above, Donald Fagen hoists his award.
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Santana, ‘Supernatural’
Year: 1999
Notes: Santana had never previously received an album of the year nomination, even for the groundbreaking Santana (1969)and Abraxas (1970). Both of those albums have been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Santana also won because of this album’s cross-generational reach. Leader Carlos Santana, who was (gasp) 52 on Grammy night, connected with younger fans thanks to collabs with Rob Thomas, Lauryn Hill, Everlast, Eagle Eyed Cherry and others.
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Bob Dylan, ‘Time Out of Mind’
Image Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via GI Year: 1997
Notes: Incredibly, Dylan had never previously been nominated for album of the year as a lead artist. His only previous nod in this category was as a featured artist on George Harrison & Friends’ The Concert for Bangla Desh, the 1972 winner. Four of Dylan’s earlier albums have been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, including, remarkably, three consecutive studio releases from 1965-66 – Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. (Blood on the Tracks (1975) is the fourth.)
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Eric Clapton, ‘Unplugged’
Year: 1992
Notes: Like Dylan, Clapton had never previously been nominated for album of the year as a lead artist. As with Dylan, his only previous nod in the category was as a featured artist on The Concert for Bangla Desh. Among album he had been a part of that were passed over for nods: Cream’s Disraeli Gears (1968) and Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970), both of which have since been voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Another factor in play at the 1992 Grammys: a wave of sympathy and support after Clapton turned the pain of losing his son into poetry with “Tears in Heaven.”
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John Lennon & Yoko Ono, ‘Double Fantasy’
Year: 1981
Notes: This album won for two main reasons – a wave of sympathy following Lennon’s murder in December 1980 and a sense that Lennon’s post-Beatles work had been under-recognized. And so it had been: Lennon had not been nominated in any categories for any of his previous post-Beatles releases, including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970) and Imagine(1971). The title track from Imagine was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Billy Joel, ‘52nd Street’
Year: 1979
Notes: Joel’s previous album, The Stranger, was even more of a classic than 52nd Street. The Stranger wasn’t nominated for album of the year. It was released on Sept. 29, 1977 – one day before the end of the 1977 eligibility year. That’s way too late for an artist who was still building at that point. (The Stranger is the album that made him a star, but it took more than one day to do it.) “Just the Way You Are,” the biggest hit from The Stranger, won 1978 Grammys for record and song of the year, but the album was no longer eligible. The Stranger was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. 52nd Street has yet to be so honored.
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Frank Sinatra, ‘Come Dance With Me!’
Year: 1959
Notes: The previous year, Sinatra had two of the five album of the year nominees, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and Come Fly With Me. They likely split Sinatra’s vote, allowing Henry Mancini’s The Music from Peter Gunn TV soundtrack to win. (The rules have since been changed so that an artist can not be nominated with two albums on which he/she is the sole lead artist in the same year.) Sinatra won in 1959 for an album that isn’t considered as much of a classic as either of his 1958 nominees. …Only the Lonely was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Come Fly With Me followed suit in 2004. Come Dance With Me! has yet to be so honored.