The 2024 Grammys are the latest awards show to mistakenly announce the wrong winners — but this time the flub wasn’t on camera.
The Recording Academy only gives out a certain number of trophies during the televised ceremony, with the majority of the 94 winners being announced in a ceremony ahead of what’s shown on CBS.
While Killer Mike was awarded Best Rap Song for his tune “Scientists & Engineers,” which features André 3000, Future and Eryn Allen Kane, on Sunday, February 4, the official Recording Academy account on X accidentally named Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice as the winners for “Barbie World” from the Barbie soundtrack.
The online blunder was quickly deleted and corrected, but not before fans snagged screenshots.
The #GRAMMYs official account mistakenly announced ‘Barbie World’ as the Best Rap Song winner, instead of ‘Scientists & Engineers.’ pic.twitter.com/gFWtwT4QyH
— Pop Base (@PopBase) February 4, 2024
“They literally did this on purpose,” one fan claimed. Another added, “It’s been 13 years and they’re still sabotaging nicki.”
A third wrote, “Thats very suspicious.”
Fans claimed the entire ordeal was “shady” because Minaj, 41, has yet to win a Grammy Award despite being nominated 12 times in her career. Her first nomination came in 2011 alongside Ludacris for “My Chick Bad” in the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group category.
Minaj has also nabbed Best Rap Performance nominations twice (for “Moment 4 Life” and “Truffle Butter”) along with two Best Rap Album nods (Pink Friday and The Pinkprint) and another two for Best Rap Song (“Anaconda” and “Barbie World”). A few of her most iconic collaborations — including “Only” featuring Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown and “Bang Bang” featuring Ariana Grande and Jessie J — have also been up for awards over the years.
Minaj previously called out the Grammys in 2022 after they labeled her song “Super Freaky Girl” as a pop song instead of rap.
“They stay moving the goalposts when it comes to me. Why is the goalpost only ever moved when it’s Nicki?” she claimed on X at the time. “It was done to decrease my chances of winning awards for ‘Super Freaky Girl.’ It was done to remove me from the category that they don’t want COMPETITION in!!!!!!!”
She continued, “They are all scared to death of the success of that song & thought it would be super EASY for them (like it’s been for the last few years) but ‘SFG’ is such a global smash, certain members are AFRAID to keep it in the competition.”
Minaj also slammed the Grammys in 2020 for their Best New Artist snub years prior.
“Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation,” she wrote at the time. “They gave it to the white man Bon Iver. #PinkFriday.”
