Beyoncé is the most awarded artist in Grammy Awards history, and the albums she has released have caused cultural upheaval and changed norms in the music industry, AFP reports.
But few performers have ever been so blatantly snubbed by the Recording Academy - for all her groundbreaking achievements, Beyoncé has never won the coveted best album or recording awards.
On Feb. 2, she will again go into the Grammy gala with the best chance of winning after last spring's "Cowboy Carter" - her genre-spanning and sociopolitically charged album - was critically acclaimed.
It earned her a fifth nomination for album of the year. In the intervening years, the singer has lost to Taylor Swift, Beck, Adele and, most recently, Harry Styles.
As for Record of the Year, this is her ninth attempt at the golden gramophone.
And as an obvious pattern, almost all of Beyonce's losses have been to white pop and rock artists.
"If she wins the Album of the Year category for 'Cowboy Carter,' to me personally, it would be similar to when Barack Obama won the presidency," said Birgitta Johnson, a professor of African American studies and music history at the University of South Carolina.
To explain this parallel, Johnson said that after Obama's victory, "as a black person in America ... I was completely shocked." | BGNES
