12 Scandals And Shocking Moments From The Grammy Awards That Have Gone Down In History

I wonder if any of these scandals have inspired any Grammy-worthy songs.

Besides the show-stopping performances and the red carpet fashion, my favorite part of any awards show is by far those jaw-dropping moments that make you think, "WTF just happened?"

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After recently diving deep into Academy Awards scandals, I wanted to see if the Grammys had any shocking moments of their own.

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And man, do they! Here are 12 truly unforgettable moments from Grammys history, from boycotts to onstage interruptions.

1989: Will Smith boycotted the show after it was announced that his category wasn't going to be televised.

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Turns out Will Smith's Oscars moment isn't his only award show scandal!

In 1989, Smith and his musical partner DJ Jazzy Jeff, who were nominated for Best Rap Performance and invited to appear onstage, boycotted the show after they learned that their category wasn't going to be featured on the TV broadcast.

For the 1989 show, the Grammys announced that they would only be airing what they considered to be the top 16 awards, and decided that the rap categories would not make the cut.

“We don’t have the problem with the Grammy as an award or the Grammys as an institution, we just had a problem with the 1989 design of the awards show,” Smith told Entertainment Tonight in response to the snub. “We chose to boycott. We feel that it’s a slap in the face.”

Other musicians, including Salt-N-Pepa and LL Cool J, joined in the boycott. Smith and Jeff ended up winning the award for their song "Parents Just Don't Understand." While the Grammys ended up broadcasting the presentation of the award the next year, other rappers, like Jay-Z and Public Enemy, boycotted future shows because they thought the Grammys disrespected Black artists by refusing to give rap and hip-hop the credit it deserved.

2001: People protested Eminem and Elton John's Grammy appearance after he included anti-gay lyrics on his album, so the rapper flipped off the audience.

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When Eminem released The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000, the album was met with controversy for the inclusion of anti-gay, misogynistic, and violent lyrics. The album was so controversial that some of the lyrics were even criticized at a Senate hearing, and the rapper was nearly banned from entering Canada. 

Despite the backlash, the album was nominated for four awards, and Eminem was invited to perform at the ceremony. It was later announced that the rapper would be taking the stage with Elton John, who is gay. Immediately, groups like GLAAD released statements expressing shock over the unlikely duo's performance, saying they were "appalled that John would share the stage with Eminem, whose words and actions promote hate and violence."

Before the performance, John told the Los Angeles Times that he would "rather tear down walls between people than build them up. If I thought for one minute that he was hateful, I wouldn’t do it."

People speculated that Eminem asked John to duet in an attempt to save his image before the awards, but the rapper's team insisted that John had been a longtime supporter of his music, and often made the decision to ignore politics in order to support musicians whose work he enjoyed.

Once the pair hit the stage, all seemed to be smooth sailing during their rendition of "Stan," until Eminem ended the performance by flipping off the entire audience in a response to all of the backlash.

2004: Justin Timberlake was asked to apologize for his involvement in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl scandal instead of giving an acceptance speech.

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Both Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake were under fire after a planned costume reveal during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show went awry, with Timberlake accidentally ripping Jackson's costume and revealing her right breast on camera. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission received over half a million complaints and launched an investigation into the scandal. 

Just weeks later, both Timberlake and Jackson were asked not to attend the Grammys — which, just like the Super Bowl, were airing on CBS — unless they agreed to apologize onstage. Jackson had been part of a planned tribute to Luther Vandross, while Timberlake had been nominated for several awards, and was also scheduled to perform.

According to Entertainment Weekly, "CBS said it had 'serious reservations' about letting either performer appear at the Grammys, but ultimately deferred to the Recording Academy. Of the offer to attend if they agreed to an on-air apology, the statement said, 'Ms. Jackson declined the invitation. Mr. Timberlake accepted.'"

As a result, Jackson ended up being cut from the tribute, while Timberlake took home awards for Album Of The Year and Best Vocal Pop Album. 

”I know it’s been a rough week on everybody,” he said during his acceptance speech. ”What occurred was unintentional, completely regrettable, and I apologize if you guys are offended.”

1990: Milli Vanilli was forced to give back their Best New Artist award after it was revealed that their pair didn't actually perform any of the songs on their album.

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Milli Vanilli, a duo comprised of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, hit the music scene with the hit album, Girl You Know It's True. Three songs on the album hit number 1, and the pair was nominated for Best New Artist.

After Pilatus and Morvan took home the prize, they were forced to give back their award just nine months later after it was revealed that they didn't actually perform any of the songs on their album, and had lip-synced their way through all of their live performances.

While some said the lip-synching was known by some in the industry, others couldn't believe that the duo were faking it because they were so good at it. In fact, at first their own record label didn't even know they were lip-synching, but later uncovered the truth.

Upon winning the award, Morvan recalled thinking that it was "pure confusion" for the duo. "We knew this would come back to bite us in the butt."

In fact, the artists felt so bad about the deception that just a week before their cover was blown, they suggested that the prize be given to John Davis, Brad Howell and Charles Shaw, who were the actual singers on the album.

On November 20, 1990, the pair held a press conference to officially return the Grammy, one day after Michael Green, who was then the head of the Recording Academy, revoked the prize.

2021: The Weeknd boycotted the Grammys and called them corrupt after not being nominated.

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Could you do virtually anything in late 2019/early 2020 without hearing "Blinding Lights?" Nope, you could not.

Shockingly, the song — and subsequently, The Weeknd's entire After Hours album — didn't receive a single nomination when Grammy nominations dropped in November 2020. The snub left everyone shook, including The Weeknd himself. The singer tweeted "The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency..."

Some thought that the artist wasn't nominated after tense negotiations between the Grammys and the singer's management after the Recording Academy supposedly asked The Weeknd to perform at the show, just a week after his Super Bowl halftime show performance.

The Recording Academy shot back and said the Super Bowl had nothing to do with the snub. "To be clear, voting in all categories ended well before The Weeknd's performance at the Super Bowl was announced, so in no way could it have affected the nomination process," Harvey Mason, Jr., Recording Academy CEO said in a statement. "Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists."

As a result, The Weeknd has vowed to never again submit his music for consideration, and said he will boycott future ceremonies. Ahead of the 2022 Grammys, he received three nominations for his work on Kanye West's "Hurricane," and his guest appearances on West’s Donda and Doja Cat’s Planet Her (Deluxe).

1994: Bono cursed on-stage and then presents Frank Sinatra with a lifetime achievement award, only to have Sinatra's speech cut off by a commercial break.

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Bono was part of not one, but two scandals at the 1994 ceremony.

When U2 won Best Alternative Record for Zooropa, Bono couldn't help but drop an F-bomb during the band's acceptance speech, saying, "I'd like to give a message to the young people of America. We shall continue to abuse our position and f**k the mainstream." While the show was supposed to be on a 10-second delay, the curse made it into the live broadcast.

Later in the night, Bono headed back onstage to introduce Frank Sinatra, who was being presented with a lifetime achievement award. After a standing ovation, an emotional Sinatra took to the stage, where he began to deliver his speech.

"That's the best welcome I ever had," Sinatra said. "This is like being in baseball —the bases are loaded and you're at bat, and you don't know what you're going to do."

The broadcast then awkwardly cut to commercial while Sinatra was speaking. While some thought that it was an accident, Michael Greene, head of the Recording Academy, said that one of Sinatra's assistants told them they feared Sinatra would talk for an hour, so they cut him off to avoid running over.

Soon after Sinatra was interrupted, Billy Joel, knowing they wouldn't cut to commercial in the middle of a song, stopped his performance of "The River of Dreams," looked at his watch, and said, "Valuable advertising time going by, valuable advertising time going by. Dollars, dollars, dollars," with a smirk before resuming the song.

2014: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were criticized for winning Best Rap Album over Kendrick Lamar, so Macklemore sent Lamar a text telling him he thought Lamar deserved the award.

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The field for Best Rap Album was full of heavy-hitters in 2014. Drake, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Kanye West were battling it out to see whose album would reign supreme. 

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who were nominated for five awards, ended up taking home Best Rap Album, even though Kendrick Lamar was viewed as the frontrunner. After the upset, Lamar's fans were not happy, and took to social media to protest, saying that Macklemore and Lewis weren't even rappers.

"There was a big conversation around whether or not we should be in the Best Rap Album category, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck? Do I not rap? Is this not a rap album?'" Macklemore told NME.

The drama eventually got so intense that Macklemore texted Lamar: "You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech then the music started playing during my speech and I froze.”

Lamar responded to the message in a Billboard interview saying, "That text surprised me, but Macklemore is a genuine dude. However it panned out, I wish him much success. He touched people's souls, and no one can take that away. Really, the whole Grammy moment was incredible. Not everyone gets that shot."

Reflecting on the drama years later, Macklemore said that he thought being the only white rapper nominated gave him the edge, although he also acknowledged that the situation was complicated.

1998: Bob Dylan's performance was interrupted by a man with "Soy Bomb" written on his chest.

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During Bob Dylan's performance at the 1998 ceremony, Michael Portnoy, a backup dancer hired by the Grammys, ripped his shirt off, ran onto the center of the stage and began dancing in a robotic manner. The strangest part of all? He had the words "Soy Bomb" painted on his chest.

Portnoy, who had been paid $200 for his performance, was onstage for only 35 seconds before he was removed by security. To Dylan's credit, he remained unfazed during the disruption and kept performing. 

So why "soy bomb?" Portnoy said that soy represents dense nutritional life, and he felt art represented "dense, transformational, explosive life.” Portnoy devised the plan during rehearsals. Apparently the dancers had been told to give Dylan a "good vibe" during his song. During the rehearsal, Portnoy decided that he wanted to make a major splash, and said he had to "assert myself on national TV."

Portnoy was escorted out of Radio City Music Hall following the interruption, but didn't face any additional repercussions.

2004: After losing Best New Artist to Evanescence, 50 Cent interrupted their acceptance speech onstage.

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Looks like Kanye interrupting Taylor wasn't the only time a speech was interrupted onstage!

Evanescence, 50 Cent, Fountains of Wayne, Heather Hadley, and Sean Paul were all up for the coveted Best New Artist award. When Evanescence took home the award, 50 Cent was not pleased. Instead of graciously congratulating the band, 50 Cent walked onstage and took a loop around the podium while they were delivering their acceptance speech.

While Evanescence joked about the interruption, 50 Cent remained salty for years to come. When he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he couldn't help but bring up the beef again, 16 years after the fact.

"I got the largest first album — debut album in hip-hop album but you don’t got no Best New Artist trophy," 50 Cent said, while mispronouncing Evanescence's name. "The Best New Artist, they gave that shit to Evanescence. Can you find fucking Evanescence? Mike, I ain’t seen Evanescence since that night."

2000: Jennifer Lopez's shocking dress broke the Internet and became the reason why Google Images was invented.

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We've all seen Jennifer Lopez's iconic Versace gown. But did you know that the demand for photos of the dress was so large that Google created Google Images in response?

J. Lo's green dress, complete with a deep plunge down to the navel, was actually a last-minute decision. Before a final fitting, J. Lo's stylist saw the dress in the window of a Versace boutique and decided to swap out the planned outfit for the gown.

The gown became a media sensation, and inspired the creation of Google Images. In a 2015 essay, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote that after the site received a record number of search queries for photos of the dress, they realized that they needed to develop an image search function. 

2004: Native Americans protested OutKast and CBS after they used feathers, teepees, and war paint in their "Hey Ya" performance.

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CBS was going through it in 2004. After the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake scandal caused parents to boycott CBS, OutKast's "Hey Ya" performance just weeks later prompted Native American groups to protest the network.

During the group's "Hey Ya" performance, Andre 3000 used feathers, teepees, war paint, and headdresses as part of the dance routine. The number caused the Native American Cultural Center to stage a boycott against CBS for not pumping the brakes on the cultural appropriation.

Andrew Brother Elk, the group's chairman, said that the boycott was not an attack on OutKast, but a response to the idea that it was okay to use other cultures' symbols. "They can go out and make fools of themselves if they want to, but we are going to question the commercialization of our symbols," he said in a statement. "Our point is: How could no one [involved in the production of the broadcast] say, 'This is not entertainment, this is racism?'"

CBS later issued an apology for their involvement in the number.

1989: When Jethro Tull won the first Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performace, the audience was dead silent for nearly a minute, thinking it was a joke.

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Definitely not how you want your first Grammy win to go down, that's for sure.

The 1989 Grammys ushered in the debut of the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance award. Metallica or Jane's Addiction were the frontrunners, and the nomination of Jethro Tull was considered a huge joke. In fact, during rehearsals, presenters Alice Cooper and Lita Ford kept cracking jokes, and the placeholder envelope even included a card declaring Jethro Tull the winner, which seemed to confirm suspicions that the band wouldn't win the award.

Much to the shock of everyone, Jethro Tull did in fact with Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance. The win left the crowd speechless, and the announcement was met with dead silence instead of the customary applause.

"There was a two-minute pause, then everybody broke out laughing," Cooper said. "They thought I was doing a joke.”

To make matters worse, Jethro Tull wasn't even at the ceremony: they had been advised not to attend because they were told there was no chance they would win, leaving Cooper to deliver an acceptance speech on the band's behalf.

In order to avoid any awkward situations the next year, the Grammys split Hard Rock and Heavy Metal into two separate awards.

Any other shocking moments from Grammys history come to mind? Tell us about it in the comments.