The American Music Awards (AMAs) are where the music industry’s best of the best gather to celebrate the tunes, hits, and bops of the last year. And the artists behind them.
The AMAs honour an ‘Artist of the Decade’ each year and, in 2019, Taylor Swift will receive the award.
Taylor joins the ranks of Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and The Beatles, and is the first-ever woman to receive the award.
Taylor, the powerhouse that she is, hasn’t only had a great year she’s had a great career.Seven studio albums, two Kanye West incidents, a feud over backing dancers, and about 100 different looks have cemented Taylor as a household name across the world.
Her music is alright too.
Love her or hate her, there’s no denying Taylor’s talent. She’s put years if hard work into her art – the success of her career didn’t happen over night – and deserves to have it honoured.
However, there are a plethora of female artists who were around before Taylor and alongside her that also deserve to be recognised by this award. I won’t say they deserve to be awarded more than Taylor – that’s not for me to decide – but I will admit I think Taylor is an interesting recipient choice.
Especially when she exists among huge names like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Adele, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Charli XCX who have all challenged and changed the music industry in their own ways.
I don’t want to take anything away from Taylor – this is a huge and impressive achievement.
I do want to remind the world of the women who, although they are not receiving an award, are just as valuable as Taylor Swift. The women whose tracks we’ve jammed to, cried too and blasted through our car speakers for the last decade.
TSwizzle might write a mean breakup song, but no one does rap as good as Cardi B, or power ballads like Beyoncé.
