As a child, I always imagined what being a celebrity felt like. However, my success did not come through wealth, recognition, or influence but through awards.
My first experience with award shows came when I was in second grade, and through heavy advertisement, the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards became one of my most significant sources of entertainment.
An award show with categories like “Favorite Animated Animal Sidekick” or “Male Buttkicker” is not necessarily the prestigious award show that most imagine. Still, the kid’s award shows soon transformed into events I am not ashamed to admit I enjoy, like the Golden Globes and Emmys.
I have always enjoyed nominations morning. It is the morning when the nominees for each category are revealed. Before that morning, there were only so many individuals you can imagine to be a ‘lock’ for a nomination, but the overall list brings things into perspective on which show, movie, or artist received the most love.
There are often frontrunners in categories, but my favorite situation is when the outcome is up in the air, when it is anyone’s guess.
When a winner is uncertain, I have grown to understand that there is a big chance I will be disappointed.
When my preferred choice wins, I celebrate, but when I find the winner underwhelming, I start to reconsider my admiration for award shows and if there is any true merit to them when they arguably snub the most deserving individuals.
However, these feelings do not persist, because by the time this thought process is over, there is another award show for me to fawn over.
Over the last several years, I have noticed the media coverage of prospective EGOT recipients. (EGOT, representing the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys, are the significant awards in television, music, movies, and theater respectively.) For me, this is the be-all, end-all, where every award show, no matter how seriously the general public takes them, is a precursor award for one of the EGOT’s.
The Primetime Emmy Awards were held in January, which kicked off the season.
The Tony’s is something I rarely watch in full, but usually, every year I have a favorite actor win in the play or musical categories.
At the Oscars, I typically focus on the actress categories, in both leading and supporting roles, since I usually watch all the nominees in those two categories.
The most polarizing, yet my favorite, is the Grammys. With over ninety categories, there are bound to be both surprises and disappointments.
The general field, which consists of four categories: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year, is genreless and is voted on by the entire voting body.
Despite any genre being eligible, there is a trend for what categories make it in the most, like pop and rock acts. I often try to predict the eventual winners in the general field, but my accuracy has been mixed, especially in years when there are multiple artists with commercial success and critical acclaim.
An argument I understand, and have noticed myself, is the lack of diversity in mainstream award shows. Over the last few years, this topic has been brought up leading to more nominees, but when it comes to being the recipient, the diversity seems to end there.
I can empathize with the lack of recognition that many groups of minorities receive, which feels discouraging as time goes on, and more individuals are awarded.
Award shows have always been something that people strive for, but when it comes to taking them too seriously and imagining them to be the only merit achievable, it begins to make it feel disingenuous in something that is supposed to recognize the best in the entertainment industry.
