2021, was a wild one! From the Jesy and Little Mix drama to multiple snubbing’s at the Grammys, we were certainly never left without entertainment. There have been endless history-making events, some being incredible, and some, sadly, being truly heartbreaking. So come with us on this whistle-stop tour through the music events that contributed to both the make and break of 2021.

Britney is Free

If you’ve been living anywhere other than under a rock, you’ll know that Britney has been under a conservatorship, controlled by her father, since 2007, when she very sadly had a hugely public breakdown. The entire conservatorship has been kept quiet, with Britney recently requesting some details to be open to the public. In recent years, it became clear that Britney’s father was controlling every aspect of her life, down to who she could date, at which point her fans created the #freebritney movement, after realising she was being mistreated. Throughout this legal agreement, Britney was forced to have a contraceptive IUD to stop her from getting pregnant, even though she wanted a child. She was forced to go on tour when she was in a terrible place and forced to take medication she didn’t want to take. Some reports even claim her bedroom was bugged with cameras.

After years of failed attempts to remove her father as her conservator, Britney never gave up hope. On August 12th, Jamie (Britney’s father), stepped down from the conservatorship. Then the day finally came, November 12th, the judge officially terminated the conservatorship, meaning it completely ceased to exist, and Britney is now rightfully a free woman, with full control of her own life. 

Jesy’s Exit from Little Mix Wasn’t So Amicable Afterall

When Little Mix announced that Jesy was leaving the band in 2020, it was said that they were all supportive of each other and would all remain friends… yikes, that didn’t age too well. Since then, let’s say shade has been thrown. Jesy made hints towards the drifting of the friends this summer, saying that they no longer keep in touch.

However, the drama really started when Nelson was accused of blackfishing. The BBC describes blackfishing as “someone who uses things like hairstyling and makeup to make them appear as if they have black heritage or are mixed-race.” It is a type of cultural appropriation in which a person who is not of colour attempts to use traditionally emulate black people, without having to deal with any of the discrimination or racism that often comes with being black. Following Jesy’s release of ‘Bad Boyz’, in which she is extremely tanned and is wearing wigs/braids, the star was called out for blackfishing.

So how does this relate to Little Mix? Well… Jade Thirlwall mentioned in an interview, that the band had previously warned Jesy about the blackfishing issue, in a ‘friendly and educational manner’, but clearly didn’t feel the problem had been addressed and were reportedly still not best pleased with the Bad Boyz video. There were also some supposed leaked messages from Leanne calling Jesy a ‘horrible person’, however, these weren’t verified, and it has since been assumed these were fake.

Obviously, none of this went down well and in a live stream with Nicki Minaj, Jesy and Nicki were not-so cryptically laughing and criticising her former bandmates, with Nicki calling Leanne a ‘clown’, whilst Jesy listened and laughed. Hmmmm….

That was a lot! Regardless of what has gone on, having the whole world watch must be so difficult. We hope all the girls are OK. 

JLS Mended Every Girls Heart with Their Reunion Tour

After eight years apart, every young girl’s favourite boy band reunited (there were tears). JLS finally embarked on their reunion tour after having to postpone because of the dreaded c-word. The tour started on 20th October and finished on 27th November – an impressive run! One of the shows was reserved specifically for a free matinee performance for NHS staff.

The X factor heartthrobs performed all their classics such as ‘Everybody in Love’ and ‘She Makes me Wanna’. Now, if this wasn’t big enough news, the group have also announced their new record deal which will see them bringing new music out as a boyband one again. In an interview, they said “After 8 years it feels great to sign a new record deal with BMG. For us, music is the core of everything we do, and we are so excited to bring new music to the world again.” We cannot believe our ears.

There’s one thing we can all look forward to!

The Weeknd Boycotts The Grammy’s

It’s not entirely clear what’s gone on here, but we can talk about what we know. Let’s start at the start.

 Over the previous years, the Weeknd has been nominated for 10 Grammy’s and won three, so understandably, the music world and the singer himself were very surprised to have been nominated for 0 Grammys following his 2020 After Hours album. 

The category that the Weeknd would previously fall into; ‘Best Urban Contemporary Album award’, was changed to ‘Best Progressive R&B album’, which wipes out other genres that used to come under this category. When talking to Rolling Stone magazine, he said that “R&B and black music is such a wide variety. If they put us all into one category, I still think it’s not fair. We’ll see how it goes.”

Artists have been questioning the process of nominations for a while, as they use a ‘secret’ nomination-review committee, which artists feel eradicates any honesty and transparency in relation to the award-giving decisions.

Following the nomination announcements this year, The Weeknd was understandably, not happy and made sure both the Grammys and everyone else knew this when he tweeted – “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”

The singer has now completely boycotted the awards ceremony and will not allow any of his music to be submitted until the secret committees are removed and the alleged corruption is eliminated. Power move. 

The Rivalry of Donda Vs Certified Lover Boy

Kanye and Drake releasing their albums within days of each other… yeah, we’re not surprised that caused drama. Both hip-hop megastars were extremely competitive in their releases and obviously have been compared directly against one another. Let the best man win.

The two rappers have been feuding for years, from interview snubbing’s to diss tracks, it’s been a dog-eat-dog rivalry, to say the least. I mean, there’s nothing like a bit of healthy competition, right? 

So, if we’re talking sales, Drake doubled Kanye’s, with CLB selling 604,000 copies within the initial seven days, compared to Donda reaching 309,000… ouch. Not only this, but Drake trumped Kanye on streaming services too, hitting 430 million US streams within three days, and his counterpart taking eight days to get there. Now, on paper ‘Certified Lover Boy’ was the better album if we are basing the conclusion off commercial success, but what does everyone else think?

The overarching opinion was that the reason Drake’s album did so well, was because it was created for the sole purpose of making a profit. Many felt that it was full of your typical TikTok viral songs, lacking a new or creative sound and had more padding than purpose.

On the other hand, the popular opinion was that Donda was a career-marking album, with hugely relevant themes including religion and the rapper’s struggles. So, whilst Kanye’s tracks potentially didn’t have the same viral potential that CLB does, it appears people feel it serves as an extremely poignant piece of art, which the opposing album seems to lack. 

We feel this is a great example of the way the music industry is heading. Most artists write what they know will sell, with very few are still creating authentic music that is true to them, regardless of how it may be received, which begs the question…which one is more important?

Let us know what you think!

2022 Let’s Have You

If we talked about all of 2021’s major music moments, we’d be here all year, so we’ll leave it there. 

There were also some incredible fashion moments over the past year, so be sure to check that article out here

There is no doubt 2022 will bring even more drama and excitement.