Beyoncé's Album of the Year snub fits into the Grammys' long history of overlooking Black women
. In his acceptance speech, he said that he was very grateful for the award, and that “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” This remark prompted many to ask what meant by “people like [me,]” given his privilege as a white, cisgender man and the irony of how infrequently this kind of win happens to, well, people like Beyoncé.
The Recording Academy’s repeated awarding of other artists over Beyoncé has not taken place in a vacuum. Only three Black women have won Album of the Year in the ceremony’s 65-year history, the last time being when Lauryn Hill won forin 1992 and Whitney Houston won for the soundtrack toin 1994. Throughout the history of the awards, there have been other upsets with Black women nominated for Album of the Year. TLC’sin 2006; and Janelle Monáe’sin 2019.