Thoughts on Esperanza Spalding's Grammy Upset of Justin Bieber for Best New Artist

I asked the same question- who is Esperanza Spalding? You know what I'm talking about if you saw the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards back on Sunday. Justin Bieber was almost a lock for the Grammy of Best New Artist. You don't have the sort of meteoric rise that J-Be had... and NOT pick up a prestigious title like Best New Artist. Nobody heard of or cared about Esperanza Spalding, a jazz bassist and singer from Portland, Oregon, USA; until they saw Esperanza upset J-Be for the honor of Best New Artist. What was a stunner to me, however, was how some upset fans felt it was best to trash Esperanza Spalding's Wikipedia entry.

This blog post is just a few thoughts about how some J-Be fans felt about the upset of Justin Bieber losing Best New Artist to a relatively unknown performer. This is not a "Famous Person" post of any kind. I am not here to profile either Esperanza Spalding or Justin Bieber. All this is about is my own thoughts regarding how some fans have reacted towards Justin Bieber not winning the Grammy for Best New Artist and the reaction certain fans have made in response to this.

BEFORE I BEGIN: If you are new to my blog, welcome to "John's Blog Space." The opinions I express are not meant to attack anyone or undermine any specific entity or party. I don't post blog posts just to gain negative attention. I am truthful and professional in my comments. So having said this, get ready to read my thoughts.

--- Setting Up the Story ---

^ from: www.jazzpdx.org - "Who is Esperanza Spalding?" You probably were not the only one to ask this question!

Here's how the deal unfolded. There were five nominees for Best New Artist. Esperanza Spalding was one of five different nominees up for the award. These were the nominees:

* Esperanza Spalding
* Justin Bieber
* Drake
* Florence and the Machine
* Mumford and Sons

And as you can tell from context, Esperanza Spalding won the title to MY amazement including the rest of the world who had Bieber Fever. Those who can't stand Justin Bieber would probably say that he is severely overrated and should stop whining about not winning Best New Artist. Those who truly love Justin Bieber felt heartbroken that J-Be didn't get the honor thanks to the relative unknown (unless you follow Esperanza's genre of music) Esperanza Spalding. Some who probably are complete music fans (meaning lovers of many kinds of music) likely feel that it's great for Esperanza to win the honors that she did.

What happens when you're a fan of someone or something, and you become heartbroken they didn't win something significant? You go on a spat. That's EXACTLY what some Justin Bieber fans did, trashing the Wikipedia entry on Esperanza Spalding by posting all kinds of crap about her. The trashed page was later cleaned up by Wikipedia. Clearly, some Bieber fans took this Grammy loss almost as if a corrupted and controversial politician was elected leader of a nation. Was this really necessary? I am here to post my own thoughts in the next section.

--- Thoughts on Certain Bieber Fans ---

My thoughts on this whole deal requires me to look at this from a number of perspectives. So bear with me here.

Understanding the Frustration.

If you are in the movie business, your goal is to win Emmy awards. If you are in the Broadway musical business (I personally severely dislike Broadway musicals), you want to win Tony awards. If you are in the musical business, you want to win the Grammys. Look back at the nominees for Best New Artist for 2010- Justin Bieber was an absolute lock, and only Drake would be the second-best pick. So for Justin Bieber to not win Best New Artist at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards is truly heartbreaking considering the meteoric rise to fame the Canadian teenager has garnered.

The Grammys are NOT a Popularity Contest.

As much as I like to think it is like a popularity contest, the Grammys encompass all of music- not just the more popular genres of music. The sad fact of the Grammys (for most people, anyways) is... the Grammys is about excellence in multiple forms of music. Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist over Justin Bieber in an upset. It's an upset to me because no one could have envisioned someone not seriously popular to win this award. It's like when I was stunned during the 2009 Video Music Awards when Taylor Swift won "Best Female Video" (and we all know what happened after she won the award when a fellow named KanYe West shown up on stage) in an upset.

Bieber would be the outright winner of Best New Artist in the minds of many, but the Grammy voters chose Esperanza Spalding instead. J-Be fans who thought Bieber would win the Grammy for Best New Artist probably thought he was snubbed in favor of Esperanza Spalding. Those who probably believe in conspiracy theory thought that Bieber was going to win Best New Artist hands down... until someone or something voted Esperanza Spalding instead for the Grammy.

Severe Side Effects of "Bieber Fever."

Bieber Fever is what many fans have for fans of Justin Bieber. If there were side effects to Bieber Fever, certain fans demonstrated the most severe side effects after the Grammys- total lack of respect for the other nominees. I was as stunned that Justin Bieber didn't win Best New Artist as you probably were (unless you hate Justin Bieber). What I am disgusted with was how people felt it was absolutely needed to trash Esperanza Spalding with disrespectful and threatening comments online.

I am not any kind of Bieber fanatic. I respect Justin Bieber greatly. I DON'T respect how certain fans can stoop to such a low of going on an epic rage and trashing online material related to Esperanza Spalding. Winning a Grammy is a prestigious honor. Anyone, at least in the mainstream American music society, dreams of winning a Grammy (even if not any televised honors) for their work. Winning a Grammy completes you and establishes you as a musical elite. Winning multiple Grammy awards establishes you as a total elite.

I think Justin Bieber will win at least one Grammy award before he completely hangs up his musical career. Some fans took Bieber's losing of Best New Artist too far. Trashing somebody else's online profile just because Justin Bieber didn't win Best New Artist is NOT... and I repeat, NOT going to help better his chances of being Best New Artist. If anything, it just speaks volumes to how inconsiderate and tasteless some fans of Justin Bieber have been in handling this Grammy upset. You do NOT go around posting upsetting and threatening content just because your musical favorite didn't win a certain award. You are putting yourself in potential trouble by posting such content online. I am not disrespecting all fans of Justin Bieber- I am just taking issue with Justin Bieber fans who thought it was okay to trash somebody [that very few have ever heard of] for winning an award that an outright favorite probably should have won.

Looking at the Issue in a Different Way.

As an alternative example, I wanted Lady Antebellum (remember- I'm not a country music fanatic) to win the Triple Crown of Grammys- Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. I wanted them to get this Triple Crown since they were having such a wonderful night. They were denied that Triple Crown when The Suburbs (who I NEVER heard of and weren't impressed with) won "Album of the Year" over Lady Antebellum. When Lady Antebellum didn't win "Album of the Year," did I go on an epic rage posting all kinds of hateful material online? No. I wasn't part of the voting committee to vote for the Grammy winners. I am a fan of music just like many of you. My influence wouldn't have meant anything in swaying the interest of the Grammy voters to choose Lady Antebellum over The Suburbs as much as J-Be fans' influences wouldn't have swayed Best New Artist honors from Esperanza Spalding to Justin Bieber.

In Conclusion...

The classless and stupid ways of certain Justin Bieber fans, who decided the best way to vent frustration by trashing another artist, was completely unnecessary. What has Esperanza Spalding done to you to where you feel it is perfectly acceptable to trash Esperanza for winning a Grammy that Justin Bieber probably should have won? You probably never heard of Esperanza Spalding until the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards like I have. That doesn't mean, however, that you should rant on Esperanza Spalding like she stole a Grammy from Justin Bieber. Fact of the matter is- Esperanza seemingly did more than enough to win the respect of Grammy voters than what Justin Bieber has worked up for the past few years. I see this as an upset and still see this as an upset. What makes ME upset is how some J-Be fans felt it was absolutely necessary to post threatening and disgraceful content online, even if you have never heard of Esperanza Spalding.

Justin Bieber still shown his support to all of his fans for cheering him on in not winning Best New Artist (including a few other Grammy nominations he didn't win). Bieber even said that himself this experience has helped him to work harder to win himself one or multiple Grammy awards in the future. Some disgruntled J-Be fans just chose to go to this extreme of trashing Esperanza the way they did. You're not fighting Bieber's battles- you're just disgracing yourself while showing support for J-Be. Justin Bieber just didn't win Best New Artist at this year's Grammys. It is not the end of the world. Get a hold of yourself and be more considerate to other artists. And just because you've never heard of an artist or group doesn't mean you have to hate on him/her/them.

Justin Bieber may have lost Best New Artist to Esperanza Spalding, but the REAL losers are all the ones who disgraced themselves in the process of disgracing Esperanza. You stooped yourself to such an incredulous low in showing your disapproval of Justin Bieber not winning the Best New Artist Grammy award. Congratulations, sore losers. You may now use this wise usage of your time wisely to make your acceptance speech for being such inconsiderate and disrespectful fans of music. Congratulations on this dishonor to all of you who vented your anger at Esperanza in this manner.

--- What I Would Tell Justin and Esperanza (if they read this) ---

What would I say...

...to Justin Bieber?

If Justin Bieber somehow reads this... I'm sorry you didn't win Best New Artist. You're going to win at least one Grammy award before you completely retire from music. Keep your head up and keep working to make great music.

...to Esperanza Spalding?

Congratulations to you, Esperanza! Very few people have ever heard of you until you won the Grammy for Best New Artist. Congratulations on winning this honor.





Thank you for reading my blog post! These were my thoughts regarding the stupidity of some Justin Bieber fans who thought it was necessary and warranted to post threatening and disrespectful material to Esperanza Spalding just because she won Best New Artist over Justin Bieber. I am always willing to wonder what your response is to my content. Feel free to post your own comments in response to my blog post (as well as on any others that interest you).

Subscribe to my blog via FeedBurner (or any other aggregator in the sidebar)! Click on the graphics below to subscribe to both of my blogs, and also Become a Fan (or Like) my Facebook Fan Page:
* Subscribe to John's Blog Space!
* Subscribe to John's Shop Space! (http://jbmshopspace.blogspot.com)
* Subscribe to the all-new John's Gran Turismo Space! (http://johnsgtspace.blogspot.com)