No, Bieber Did Not Win a Grammy

When Lady Gaga rolled up to the red carpet of the Grammy’s last Sunday in an egg, none of the 26.7 million viewers, the biggest television audience for the music awards since 2000, could have predicted that something more shocking would happen. No, I’m not referring to Niki Minaj’s leopard print…hair, or Christina Aguilera falling over during the Aretha Franklin tribute, or even Ricky Martin’s tin soldier pants.

What I’m talking about are the winners of the coveted, prestigious music awards. Many were shocked to see non-Pop artists taking home trophies, with Arcade Fire, Lady Antebellum, and Miranda Lambert recognized many times; however, the big shocker came with the Best New Artist category was announced. No, Bieber did not win the Grammy; Esperanza Spalding did. The reaction is appalling.

According to the Academy, the Best New Artist category awards “a new artist who releases, during the eligibility year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist.” While Spalding’s first album was released in 2006, she was the chosen one in a category populated by Spalding, Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & The Machine, and Mumford & Sons.

Apparently fans were not only shocked that their luscious locks Bieber didn’t nab the prize, they were brutally outraged as well. Before looking at how crazed fans got, let’s analyze that Bieber, no matter how many 11 year old girls are obsessed with him, wasn’t the best bet for the award. A look at history shows Nsync, Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block and the Jonas Brothers never won this award either.

The Washington Post gathered videos of Bieber fans expressing their despair and these are only the icing on the hate cake Beieber fans cooked up for Spalding.

#esparanzaspalding quickly claimed the twittersphere with enough material to cook up a Top 10 Death Threat List for Spalding and two tweets, each retweeted over 1000 times, including one from @DudeItsTrue account: "That awkward moment when Esperanza Spalding wins 'Best New Artist' and NOBODY knows who the heck she is. #dudeitstrue" and one that references “Mean Girls” @BieberDigits: and the best new artist award goes to .... Esperanza Spalding" *awkward silence* "SHE DOESN'T EVEN GO HERE!” I don’t think Spalding has much to worry about from these broken hearted 11 year old girls though considering they “cruelly” changed her middle name to "Quesadilla" and one tweeter misspelled her threat demanding she "Go die in a whole."

The Biebs was politically correct about it all and said, “I’m not going to lie — I was disappointed. But, you know, I’m gonna come back [next year] and we’ll take a few home.”

I’m no Recording Academy, but, in my humble opinion, if Esperanza Spalding didn’t win, someone else, other than Bieber, would have. Hype and good PR will never buy a Grammy.

Now, how will Gaga get the spotlight back?