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Astoundingly, the entire K-pop genre got the cold shoulder at the 2024 Grammy Awards — who else is getting snubbed?
The list of nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards was strangely lacking in any K-pop act — despite another banner year for career highs for artists out of Seoul. Fans of the genre are far from surprised, but that doesn’t stop them from being disappointed, particularly with the diversity on display in the music submitted for consideration. Even the solo work of BTS — the only K-pop act to have ever secured a Grammy nom — has gone overlooked.
K-pop acts in over 40 categories were submitted for consideration, such as music from Seventeen, Stray Kids, Tomorrow X Together, Fifty Fifty, and each of the seven members of BTS — including Jungkook’s “Seven” and Jimin’s “Like Crazy.” But there were several other surprising snubs in the list of nominations outside of K-pop, and many of them in country music.
Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs are two of the biggest names in country music, but the genre remains largely unrepresented in the Grammy nominations. Outside of Wallen’s hit “Last Night,” which is up for Best Country Song — an award given to the songwriters, which Wallen is not — he received zero nods, despite a hit Billboard chart-topping album.
Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” is nominated for Best Country Solo Performance — the only nod for a song that just won Single of the Year at the CMAs on November 8. Even Lainey Wilson’s phenomenal CMA wins only saw her with a single nom at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
Pink, whose career spans over 20 years, received zero nominations for a Grammy this year, despite her hit track “Trustfall” from the album of the same name proving her continued staying power in pop music mainstream. Similarly, Sam Smith’s fourth studio album, the soulful dancehall-disco offering “Gloria,” was shut out of any 2024 nominations, despite Smith’s five prior Grammy wins.
DJ and producer Metro Boomin is up for Producer of the Year — a prestigious award, to be sure. But his work with artists like 21 Savage, Travis Scott, Drake, John Legend, Chris Brown, Gunna, and The Weeknd over the past year (and on his album “Heroes & Villains”) led many to believe he would have received more than just a single nomination.
Even Drake, an artist who normally dominates the Grammy scene, only wound up with four nominations. That seems odd, considering the success of his 21 Savage collaboration “Her Loss.” But having withdrawn his name from Grammy consideration in 2022, and opting not to submit his album “Honestly, Nevermind” in 2023, the Recording Academy might have been less inspired to nominate him for more categories.
That said, it’s hard to be too upset about four nominations, especially ones as impressive as Best Melodic Rap Performance, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Album. It’s just substantially fewer than we’re used to seeing for Drake, who’s used to boasting over five; his record for Grammy nominations in a single ceremony is eight.
