SOS, Taylor Swift Just Won Album of the Year Again

Taylor Swift (alongside Taylor Swift’s skinny little side braid, Lana Del Rey, and Minion Man) won Album of the Year at the 2024 Grammys for Midnights. That makes Swift the winning-est musician in in the category with her fourth win. By now, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Swift would break the record. She’s a Grammys favorite, and somehow still at the peak of her career, even though that career began in 2008. Still, if you hear grumbling in the win’s aftermath, it might have to do with the sentiment of “That album? Really?” Midnights is not, to put it lightly, the most acclaimed album of Swift’s career. Even with Swift’s blockbuster year, it didn’t seem like Midnights had the caché of the Eras Tour (the tour or the film). It was just another cog in the wheel of Swift. One of her biggest hits of the year, “Cruel Summer,” didn’t even come off of Midnights.

But what should have won Album of the Year, then, you ask? Name names! Well, namely, SZA’s SOS. SZA won multiple awards this year, including: Best Progressive R&B Album, Best R&B Song for “Snooze,” and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, alongside Phoebe Bridgers, for “Ghost in the Machine.” But the Grammys have a history of preferring to reward Black women in the “down the line” categories, as opposed to one of the four general awards — and SZA deserved recognition in the overall fields for SOS. That album was, for starters, one of the most beloved albums of the year (despite coming out in 2022), featuring hits including “Kill Bill” and “Good Days.”

And, while we’re at it, maybe it’s a good time to look at some optics. With her record-breaking win, Taylor Swift has now won Album of the Year more times than all Black women combined have. The previous Black women to win were Natalie Cole in 1992, Whitney Houston in 1994, and Lauryn Hill in 1999 — a list that, Jay-Z would like you to note, does not include Beyoncé. Not giving a Black woman album of the year? Again? Snooze.