With Adele and Beyoncé as Frontrunners, Are the 2023 Grammys Headed Toward an Awkward Rerun of 2017?
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Remember how aggrieved people got when Adele beat Beyoncé for album of the year at the Grammys in 2017? People, like for instance, Adele, who said that “the artist of my life is Beyoncé” and “the ‘Lemonade’ album was just so monumental… A piece of me died inside. I felt like it was her time to win. What the fuck does she have to do to win album of the year?” The victor navigated the space between pride and embarrassment in the moment of her acceptance speeches and backstage press conferences as best she could. It’s not a position she’d likely be especially eager to find herself in again. Yet she well could, with the front-runners for the top 2023 Grammys essentially boiling down to… Beyoncé and Adele. And, yes, plenty of third-party candidates to be named at a later date. But for all practical intents and purposes, a little over five months out from the February 2023 telecast date, it is looking like déjà vu all over again, with a list of truly serious contenders for the top prize that runs the gamut from A to B.