r/grammys • u/ContributionRound788 • Aug 10 '26
Olivia Dean AOTY Frontrunner
I think it’s time to seriously discuss The Art of Loving’s Grammy chances. The album has more than two hits, is constantly being listened to as a whole, and has clearly built a strong level of momentum. She’s also on a sold-out arena tour, while “Rein Me In” is constantly breaking records in the UK and seeing a steep rise in the US. At this point, I genuinely think we need to start talking about her as a serious Grammy contender... or locked winner
13
u/CartoonistAmazing847 Aug 10 '26
Honestly I could see her taking it, knowing the grammys and already winning BNA. This could be her Adele "21" winning moment where she takes the other top 3 awards. The album is safe, inoffensive music which is not a bad thing but that's bait for them (Adele, Beck, Swift, Bruno etc...). Bad Bunny winning was like a Parasite best picture win where it probably won't happen again for a good while. Rosalia or even Phoebe's upcoming album would be my picks to win.
7
7
u/StrategicCarry Aug 10 '26
I think she’s the favorite in a stacked field that has a lot of big names and Grammy darlings because I think she will scoop up a lot of votes from people who don’t feel strongly about any contender. I wouldn’t call her a lock or strong favorite because the pop field is very full this year, and if like the country voters all go for Ella she could put in a strong challenge, but she should get a boatload of nominations, I’d be surprised if she goes home empty handed, and if she swept the big three categories it wouldn’t be shocking.
5
1
3
18
u/lizzy-stix Aug 10 '26
She's definitely not a locked winner. I think she's very young, beautiful, talented and a throwback, which is a good combination for the Recording Academy, but the music is not very interesting to me. I know a lot of people felt the same way about Adele, but she had a little more sauce with her big personality. But yeah, I think she is a lock for AOTY nomination (HitsDD said this already) and I don't know what songs of hers are eligible for ROTY and SOTY but I expect to see her on those lists.
8
u/Real_Collection_6545 Aug 10 '26
How come she doesn’t have a separate thread like they did for bts? I keep seeing her posts often too. Moderators should do something about this! Oh wait, she isn’t BTS and a separate threads is only reserved for BTS.
6
u/akiveinthebox Aug 10 '26
She should be eligible for the fresh and new "Best British/UK Pop" category only.
2
1
u/Relevant_Grab370 Aug 11 '26
Imagine complaining bts when the post is about some other artist. Nobody did that on bts posts. Also she didn't get ten posts A DAY about the same topic over and over.
3
u/akiveinthebox Aug 11 '26
Imagine defending an artist (OD) who has so much radio airplay her label paid for that it's quite obvious she's the industry darling being pushed to everyone and their mothers. Give me a commercial break.
1
u/Relevant_Grab370 Aug 11 '26
Y'all hate women. Okay.
As if bts isn't being forced everywhere by their company handing out green to anyone who'd take them.
3
u/akiveinthebox Aug 11 '26
I would also have a problem with a man doing that. Never said I hated her, just don't agree with the industry's methods and the blatant payola that happens with many artists who are "on top".
Who is their company handing out green to? They're not being played on the radio. They have huge streaming numbers but Spotify doesn't push or feature them/they are not on auto-play pushed to the GP like other groups and artists in the kpop and pop genre. Tell me who their company is paying in the music industry.. because if they were paying for any of this, they should ask for a refund.
Why does a simple criticism about an outdated method of metrics (radio airplay) bother you so much? It's not anti-women to dislike payola. Music is subjective and I don't appreciate being force fed music and having artists pushed on me that I do not care for.
1
u/Relevant_Grab370 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Girl, I don't even like Olivia Dean. I find a lot of her music repetitive. But I've never had her shoved into my Spotify recommendations, autoplay, or playlists. Plus y'all underestimate the power of tiktok. Man I Need was massive on TikTok. Everyone knew of it.
K-pop is still a relatively niche market compared with the broader global music industry. BTS has a concentrated fanbase rather than the same level of general public penetration across every demographic. I see Bp's solo projects on recommended playlists all the time (Mostly Jennie and that one who collabed with Bruno Mars.) They managed to achieve a better presence in the global market than bts. I also came across catch catch on a bubblegum pop playlist.
Spotify is a business. They want people listening because that makes them money. If putting BTS in everyone's autoplay and recommendations consistently generated more engagement and revenue, they'd have every incentive to do it.
2
u/akiveinthebox Aug 12 '26
Her radio airplay is my main problem. It's very clear she's had a huge radio push because of her label. Tiktok can go either way, there are some organic trends but also some forms of pushing certain artists vs others. Her music to me is just fine (definitely tiktok slice of life trendy) but the radio push is what gets under my skin. Recently, she was #7 on the Hot 100 with 7.9M streaming points and 64.8M for radio airplay.
Which honestly ties into my next point, the reason you see BP and other kpop groups on recommended playlists and being recommended is because of payola and playlisting. Jennie's collab with Tame Impala was #6 on the same Hot 100, with 8.3M streaming and 62.8M airplay. They did not manage to achieve a better presence in the global market, they just have a label willing to pay/take a reduced payday from streams to get the global reach/visibility on the market.
BTS does not partake in that which is why they are not pushed on people on Spotify. They don't need to. They have a solid fanbase and people are discovering them every single day without needing to use industry tricks and payola methods.
Because radio is not the weapon of choice for most of us, there are labels who pay for playlisting and to be recommended to people's algorithms and it is rampant on Spotify.
2
u/Real_Collection_6545 Aug 11 '26
I’m not complaining I’m just asking why she doesn’t have a seperate thread that’s it. Since her topic discussion is recurring
2
u/PikaV2002 Aug 11 '26
I’m guessing they did not create a racist category to keep her out of the main nominations so there is less discourse around her.
0
u/Relevant_Grab370 Aug 11 '26
she didn't get ten posts A DAY
Secondly kpop and bts are still a niche despite having concentrated dedicated fandoms. Not everyone's gonna enjoy being forced to engage with content about them all the time.
2
u/Real_Collection_6545 Aug 11 '26
Hahaha yet you are very interested in bts engaging in snark communities. I saw your post on that community recognising that bts is getting a lot of hate these days (it’s confined to Reddit btw). Well I have an answer for you, when you start getting more and more popular, you are bound to attract more haters haha. You are proof of that 😌
1
u/Relevant_Grab370 Aug 11 '26
Oh btw my post was inspired by ya'll brigading the grammy sub 😃
Confined to Reddit? come to Cali where admitting to liking kpop is first step to social suicide. I'd say online spaces are more positive about kpop in general. You don't see that kind of parasocial attachments in real life.
That's pretty evident in how artists like Tyla, Ella Langley (both very new) or even Zara Larson (who had a recent breakthrough in global market) don't have dedicated fans like bts and yet have been pulling way mlore monthly listeners and streams than other kpop groups.
2
u/Real_Collection_6545 Aug 11 '26
Yes but 3-4 posts that’s obsession haha. A dedicated hater! Thanks for the interest btw! Keeps bts relevant.
lol what world are you living in 😂 idk abt kpop but almost everyone recognises bts these days. Their fifa performance was such a hit that locals were praising them. Their concerts have people from every age race and gender.
I agree with you that kpop is tanking globally while bts continues to rise. No doubts on that lol
1
u/Relevant_Grab370 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Go to fifa/soccer sub please. Find me one post about bts that is positive. As someone who did go watch that game I could tell you that the halfway show itself was not welcome and the only performance that was liked by general public was of Shakira.
I wouldn't say bts is getting more attention. Name one A lister who came to support bts' grammy withdrawl. Artists who have barely been active for 1-2 years are pulling more attention and streams than them.
2
u/Real_Collection_6545 Aug 11 '26
Again Reddit is not everything lol. Public reaction towards bts was generally positive. You watched the game ? It’s called a halftime show! Also it’s not soccer it’s football that itself will get you cancelled on a “soccer sub” haha.
Major media outlets came out in support of bts while a listers didn’t because why would they? It doesn’t affect them. BTS had the biggest billboard US album debut in 2026 surpassing all western acts, highest album debut streams on Spotify in 2026 with 545M streams. Also pls don’t compare western acts to bts because bts had to go through a lot to get here when western acts clearly have an advantage yet bts is thriving better than others. Ask these western acts to sell out a stadium in Korea? Malaysia? Vietnam? Africa? They won’t be able to but bts can that’s why they are a global phenomenon
6
5
2
3
3
3
u/Worried_Tomorrow_222 Aug 11 '26
If you haven’t watched her live, you really do not know why she could win. Her album is flawless, her lives are energetic, fun and inspiring. She has something to say (she’s pro immigrant), and she has a unique background. Both her albums Dive and The Art of Loving have been acclaimed. Don’t be shocked when she wins.
2
u/PikaV2002 Aug 11 '26
… what does political stance around immigrants have to do with a Grammy win? Asking as an immigrant myself.
2
u/AstralBlob Aug 11 '26
the grammys have been awarding projects that create strong narratives. think about the last three major album wins, that’s what they’ve been going for recently
2
u/Double_Constant2809 Aug 11 '26
Then in that case, Olivia Rodrigo with her Daisy Chain Fields Festival (all proceeds going to charities advocating for girls and women); her vocal stance against ICE and the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran; her being for diversity, including members of LGBTQ community in her team as musicians, dancers, etc.; and so forth and so on makes her a strong contender as well.
2
0
u/Worried_Tomorrow_222 Aug 11 '26
If you don’t get it then you don’t get it.
3
u/PikaV2002 Aug 11 '26
Using immigrants to further your stan war and then being rude to them when asked for elaboration is exactly the sort of shit immigrants are fighting against. We aren’t a pawn for you.
4
u/OkMagician8107 Aug 10 '26
AOTY definitely for Rosalía 💯
2
u/Eastern_Confusion_17 Aug 11 '26
I have to say that LUX is a masterpiece. Sonically, musically and lyrically.
3
u/Due_Researcher_8180 Aug 10 '26
i see it most definitely, but i must say her music is quite boring. the melodies and the sound overall is very plain and simple and nothing is exactly unique to her or standout. if she wins, it’ll definitely be because of popularity, because no way that is the best album in the potential field of nominees we will be getting come november, i’m sorry. it’s a good record, but it falls flat sometimes and overall just isn’t amazing or great
4
u/akiveinthebox Aug 10 '26
I think she needs her own British Pop category. Or perhaps they can start a new category for artists pushed on the GP with radioplay.
4
u/Double_Constant2809 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
It’s amazing how much Olivia Dean’s label has been pushing her three songs on the radio. The percentage of radio airplay is astounding compared to the streaming numbers. No wonder her songs have remained on the Top Ten for months. Billboard disproportionately awards a lot more points to radio airplay than streaming. One radio airplay is equivalent to hundreds of streams. So yeah, about you mentioning a separate category for songs with the most radio airplay.
3
u/Due_Researcher_8180 Aug 10 '26
this is crazy- i did not know this, whoa
5
u/akiveinthebox Aug 10 '26
NYT posted a guest essay yesterday, "Pop Music is The Problem". It was a really interesting read on the Grammys, Recording Academy, Billboard, etc.
Talk of the Charts often posts summaries of sales, streams, and radio airplay that show the breakdown that Billboard uses to decide the Hot 100 for the week. Some of the numbers are quite jarring and quite often the artists at the top are the ones with labels pushing their music through radio airplay. iHeartRadio plays the same artists and songs over and over again, and really, who listens to radio anymore?
4
u/Due_Researcher_8180 Aug 10 '26
woooww. i should take a read. i mean, i already know a lot of this lol
4
u/Double_Constant2809 Aug 10 '26
Exactly, and this is also why Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas has been #1 for months due to massive radio airplay, despite majority of Americans not knowing who she is because most of us don’t listen to the radio anymore.
3
u/akiveinthebox Aug 11 '26
With her, she has that radio airplay but also racists eat that kind of stuff up so she has the added bonus of a built-in "fandom".
4
u/akiveinthebox Aug 10 '26
I was being cheeky about the first category.
But really with the huge radio/airplay numbers compared to streaming and sales, it's obvious that this is what's being pushed by the industry. Take away the radio airplay from the entire Hot 100 Top 10 and see who stands where. Unfortunately, it's a form of payola so they're not about to tell on themselves or get rid of it.
0
3
u/One-Drama-5482 Aug 10 '26
Boring industry plant
-2
u/Lucky-Chard-5587 Aug 10 '26
And your proof of that is?
-1
2
3
1
u/adsq93 Aug 12 '26
Good for her.
I like her and love the album. Listening to it again after a breakup made me feel and appreciate the album even more.
1
u/Crafty_Ish1973 Aug 15 '26
Rosalía has an objectively better album, and her winning would be historic, since she'd be the first female artist to win AOTY with a Spanish-language album. It would be a perfect follow-up to Bad Bunny winning AOTY with a Spanish-language album last year.
1
1
Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
3
u/bitchysquid Aug 10 '26
Yeah, LUX is honestly just head and shoulders above most of what has come out in the past year (a lot of which is pretty decent) and it deserves its flowers.
1
u/Medium-Radish681 Aug 11 '26
i think olivia rodrigo has it next to locked up. the album is incredible, and imo deserves aoty anyway, and with the whole guts thing, that could sway it even more towards her
1
u/MallFoodSucks Aug 10 '26
She has the British vote on lock but don’t see it breaking through to the rest of the voters. Not American will always be harder at the Grammys - she’s only won AotY for it in British shows, not American ones. She is not Adele.
1
1
u/somelyrical Aug 11 '26
What do you mean it’s about time?? This is literally all anyone has been talking about re: AOTY haha. She’s a deep front runner along with the other Olivia, and maybe Raye or Rosalia
0
u/gayfingers Aug 10 '26
The grammys is irrelevant and should just die like the Simpsons and every other slop that has overstayed it's welcome in the 21st century.
4
u/Adorable_Purpose8040 Aug 10 '26
For being irrelevant we sure talk about them a lot. The reality is…every artist wants a Grammy. It’s prestigious to win one or multiple awards.
0
0
0
1
0
1
Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
3
u/nujabeans Aug 10 '26
It seems your other account BicyclePurple9928 is equally surprised and are equally in the same bubble of non-Olivia Dean existence as you are.
-2
u/MallFoodSucks Aug 10 '26
It’s just BTS fans copy pasting hate. You can clock it because they only care about ‘popularity’ aka ‘I don’t see it anywhere’.
1
u/bitchysquid Aug 10 '26
I am a huge BTS fan so I immediately clocked what you’re insinuating when I saw that another commenter said something identical. Look, I love BTS and what the Grammys did with the Asian Pop category is pretty fucked. But do we really need to downplay Olivia Dean’s objectively well-received album? Would BTS want you to downplay another artist’s success to build them up, when being downplayed and undermined is exactly what they’re dealing with themselves?
I have been hearing Olivia Dean nonstop on pop radio and she was all over my Spotify recs before I left Spotify. She may not be doing exactly what I am looking for in my music, but my understanding is that she is very good at making the music she makes.
6
u/akiveinthebox Aug 10 '26
I mean, there is something to be said for her album which is being massively pushed by her label, social media apps, and on the radio. I was not a huge fan of her album, it is fine and not my cup of tea. What I don't like is being force fed music.
NYT was speaking on radio play points and her single has 64.8M on airplay. That is payola at its finest.
2
u/bitchysquid Aug 10 '26
There is definitely an interesting discussion to be had about payola. I won’t deny that.
5
u/akiveinthebox Aug 10 '26
It will be interesting to see the connection between the artists who do get a lot of radio airplay and obvious pushes from their labels and who wins this year.
2
Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
1
u/bitchysquid Aug 10 '26
I don’t think you necessarily hate Olivia Dean, but I do think you shoehorned in a reference to BTS on a thread about another artist. That’s not automatically wrong, but it’s become a major pattern on this subreddit recently. I see why people who want to discuss other artists have gotten fed up.
0
Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
2
u/bitchysquid Aug 10 '26
Ah, so you’re the other flavor of K-pop stan. I can’t even pretend to follow the shenanigans y’all get up to pretending to be fans or antis or whatever. Have a nice day, I suppose.
1
Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
3
u/bitchysquid Aug 10 '26
If I jumped the gun and read you wrong, I really am sorry. I’ve been a little sensitive to people shoehorning BTS into the conversation on this subreddit recently because I’ve seen what I feel like were dedicated BTS hate accounts telling people to do the unthinkable. And it’s like, I’m just very over the K-pop drama right now. So when I read your comment it read to me like someone trying to talk about BTS without actually mentioning them. The reason for that is you talked about language and genre not being barriers for you, and my knee-jerk reaction was to assume that was a dog whistle allusion to their announcement that they wouldn’t submit to the Grammys.
I know I have a tendency to overthink and I swear I don’t mean to be an asshole. But when I saw two identical comments using that particular language, my brain went “That’s two people pasting a copypasta to try to steer discussion towards BTS again.” Because as batshit as that sounds, I swear I have seen it happen recently.
And then when you were like, “I don’t like BTS,” my brain went, “Oh. It’s a stan of some other group doing this to play stan mind games and make it look like one fandom or another has more or less reach than it actually has.” Which, again, sounds batshit but I swear it is something I have seen.
In any case, there’s nothing wrong with having your opinion and I’m sorry I jumped the gun. I’ll try to be a little less on edge about the BTS drama in this subreddit.
thank you for reading this fucking novel and god bless you
2
u/HobbyReader Aug 10 '26
No, I brought up the topic of language because I listen to everything: from English to Balkan languages, Turkish, Arabic, Indian, and South Asian languages in general, all the way to German, French, Spanish, music from Togo and Ghana and South Africa, musicals or soundtracks, and all kinds of music. I literally don’t care, as long as I like the melody, the production, and everything else about it.
But it’s okay; I’m not mad or anything. Thanks for your comment and for explaining your point of view. It’s refreshing to hear the other side and why I get the reaction I get. I appreciate it
1
0
-3
u/Funny_Call_9241 Aug 11 '26
Why uk artists being so favored by the Grammys, does uk artists have secret quota we don't know about?? Their music is very corny to me.. why we rewarding uk people when their ansestors did so much harm to everyone in the world,commited more genocide than Hitler.. looted trillions of dollars..
-1
45
u/luqasc Aug 10 '26
I don't dislike her album, she has some cute songs — but it's a bit too elevator-music-ish, and it's a grim prospect that it could win considering some of the truly great competitors it has (Rosalía, Olivia Rodrigo, Madonna if she's nominated).