In 1991, Milli Vanilli became the first and still only act to be stripped of a Best New Artist Grammy. Now, more than three decades later, Fab Morvan has been nominated for Best Audiobook and may finally get the last laugh by winning that elusive Grammy. It would make for a fascinating acceptance speech if it makes TV (which it probably won't).
Never mind the fact that Rob and Fab themselves took all of the punishment (everyone involved with making their record from their manager on down received zero flack) for doing the same crimes that several other top dance acts were guilty of (Technotronic, C&C Music Factory, Black Box, and many others used studio ringers). The Grammys have never had an abundance of credibility when it comes to the Best New Artist award.
Looking over the past few decades of winners and nominees, the first thing you notice is a distinct lack of, let's call them, the biggest selling, most successful, generation-spanning artists of all time. The first Best New Artist award was given in 1960. Since then (i.e. excluding artists such as Elvis Presley who got an earlier start), the reputedly biggest selling artists ever are Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Elton John, Queen, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Rihanna, Pink Floyd, Eminem, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and AC/DC. Out of those fifteen acts, only two won the award (Beatles and Mariah Carey), and four others were nominated (Elton, Zep, Taylor, and Ed Sheeran). And no, neither Destiny's Child or The Jackson 5 were nominated. If the purpose of the award is to identify the next wave of blockbuster acts, then it has failed.
It took several years for the Grammys to figure out what this award was supposed to represent. Nominations in the 60's were a veritable mish mash of jazz artists, folk groups, comedians (Bob Newhart won in 1961), singer/actors, blue-eyed soul acts, novelty acts and the occasional welcome surprise (Miriam Makeba nominated in 1961!). From 1960-1965, I couldn't tell you a thing about half of the nominees. Over the next fifteen years, most of the nominees were major hitmakers of their day, with legitimate claims to long-lasting stardom. And almost every act was white. Most years had one token black nominee, with the exception of 1975, which had two (Graham Central Station and Johnny Bristol). But they had to expand the nomination group from five to six in order to do it. Natalie Cole in 1976 was the only African-American winner of the award during that time period. The next person of colour to win was Sade in 1986.
After some thirty years of white/rock/blue-eyed soul/lounge singer dominance, 1990 was the most diverse group of nominees in the award's history to that point: Milli Vanilli, Neneh Cherry, Indigo Girls, Tone Loc, and Soul II Soul. Part of the resentment toward Milli Vanilli was based on the perception that their popularity was more likely to be a fad, as opposed to the other four more serious, career-oriented artists. It's almost as if people believed that justice was done when their award was revoked because they didn't deserve to win it anyway. I like the other four artists very much, but their time in the upper reaches of the charts didn't last beyond 1995 or so. In 1990, Milli Vanilli were unquestionably the hottest act of the bunch. This can't be disputed -- they had five US top five hits from their debut album, including three #1's. There have been far more indefensible choices since then:
1992. As a direct reaction to the Milli Vanilli scandal, Marc Cohn won over Boys II Men, C+C Music Factory, Color Me Badd, and Seal. Even at the time, it was widely known that C+C Music Factory (and many similar dance-oriented acts of the day) were lip synching as well and using ringers in the studio. At least Marc Cohn was a friendly white act who could be trusted not to engage in that. Or something. No offense to Marc Cohn and his perfectly acceptable MOR hit "Walking In Memphis", but this was a horrible choice.
2011. Esperanza Spalding won over Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and the Machine, and Mumford and Sons. From 1997-2011, female artists and female-fronted acts won the Best New Artist award in twelve of the fifteen years. Maybe it was a given that a female artist would win, given the voter's tendencies. Male artists won for the next four years, but since 2016, only one male artist has gone home with the award. A remarkable run of dominance for female acts. But Spalding beat four acts that would rack up several dozen #1 songs and albums between them, and tour stadiums around the world multiple times over. Strange.
2014. A travesty so unforgivable that they should lecture on it in university ethics classes. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, a flash in the pan rap act led by a demented anti-Semite, won the Best New Artist award over James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Kacey Musgraves, and Ed Sheeran. This was indefensible at the time and looks about a billion times worse in the years since. Any time a smiley white rapper scores a hit song out of nowhere, don't worry, Grammy comes running! I'm feeling nauseous just writing about this.
