There’s a fine line for what the Recording Academy considers eligible for Best Contemporary Christian Album at the Grammys. In the case of drag-queen Christian singer Flamy Grant, that line was drawn over several curse words.
Grant, whose offstage name is Matthew Blake and uses they/them pronouns when not performing as Grant, gained prominence over the summer after far-right preacher Sean Feucht bashed them and called their collaboration with fellow Christian artist Derek Webb a sign of “the end days.” Fans supported Blake in light of Feucht’s comments and pushed their song “Good Day,” and the album Bible Belt Baby, to the top of the iTunes Christian charts.
Riding a successful summer, Blake decided to submit Bible Belt Baby for consideration for Best Contemporary Christian Album at this year’s Grammy Awards. But just over a week ago, Blake discovered that, without explanation, the album was moved from the Christian category to Best Pop Vocal Album, a move that they said “completely buried me” as they’d now be measured against the likes of the world’s biggest superstars as opposed to a smaller niche of peers from the Christian music community.
The Academy confirmed to Rolling Stone that an explicit track from the album caused its move to the pop vocal category. Bible Belt Baby has one explicit song listed, “Esther, Ruth and Rahab,” which praises the women of the bible while pushing for more gender equity in the Church. The most explicit lines in the song, which features nonbinary singer Adeem the Artist, were that “God would only hear a prayer/If it came from a person with a cock,” and that “Eve said, ‘Fuck this system, I am chasing after wisdom.’” (Some of the other racier-for-Christian lyrics included “men just fear the snatch.”)
“The Academy is an open and inclusive organization that embraces artists from all backgrounds and genres,” the Recording Academy said in a statement. “Re-categorizing recordings with explicit language/content has been a standard practice for the Gospel & CCM genre committee, given that the Gospel & CCM Field consists of lyrics-based categories that reflect a Christian worldview.”
“This is all so new to me, I’m pretty clueless about the inner workings of the music industry,” Blake says. “At first I didn’t even think twice about it. I just figured it wasn’t where we submitted it, but whatever. But it was my friends’ collective shock that made me want to look more. I was told that screening committees moving you happens, but it’s weird to get moved into pop. There was nothing within the guide indicating why I would’ve been moved. The ultimate reason I’m coming out to talk about this is because we weren’t told what happened. What do future artists need to know if they want to follow this path?”
Blake and Erin Anderson, a Nashville-based manager who was consulting Blake in the submission process, had looked through the Contemporary Christian Album requirements in the Grammys Rulebook, which said only that “this Category recognizes excellence in a solo, duo, group, or collaborative performance of Contemporary Christian Music, including pop, rap/hip-hop, Latin, and rock. Recordings of sermons are eligible in Best Audio Book, Narration And Storytelling Recording.”
With no further specifics listed in the book, the two sought out conversations with Nashville Academy chapter members, but hadn’t received much more details beyond being told that it isn’t uncommon for artists to have their albums recategorized after submission. That was something Anderson already knew, as she’s seen some of her artists flip between folk and Americana during the process.
Requiring clean lyrics for submissions in the Christian category isn’t exactly surprising and every nominated album Rolling Stone reviewed since the Contemporary Christian Album category was introduced in 2012 — from Christian mainstays like TobyMac to less conventional winners like Kanye West — contained no explicit songs.
Blake is aware their music isn’t as traditional and doesn’t expect all of the Christian music industry or its events, like the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards, to recognize their work. But they tell Rolling Stone that they submitted for the Grammys expecting the values to be different.
“We’ve seen the Grammys celebrate diversity in really explicit ways over the years,” Blake says. “I would’ve correlated my hopes to that, that maybe Christian music in general isn’t ready for a drag queen singer-songwriter, but at the Grammys, maybe there’s a spot for me.”
Both Blake and Anderson expressed frustration not only at the move, but also at the lack of communication from the Academy on the change in the first place. As a newer artist, Blake isn’t a member of the Recording Academy and therefore couldn’t view any of the ballots themselves. They only found out the album was recategorized because a fan who was also a member of the Academy had reached out and said they were excited to vote for Blake in the Pop Vocal category.
“This conversation is important because there’s no transparency in these decisions,” Anderson says. “There’s no resource, there’s no one to talk to, and they’re not required to give a reason. What would make me happy is some transparency. If the reason an album can’t be eligible is because it’s explicit, that should be specifically stated right away. Otherwise these feel like judgment calls.”
Blake also says moving the album to pop vocal in particular was questionable, adding that if they couldn’t be in the Christian field, they’d categorize their music as gospel, roots-rock, or folk and Americana. Still, even if it was a standard and valid technicality that called for the album to be categorized elsewhere, both Blake and Anderson were disappointed that a few explicit words on one song took an entire album out of consideration — particularly when Blake felt the message was important for audiences to recognize.
“I’m telling the story of how I was raised in evangelicalism and struggled with doubting myself, doubting my place in the church, and that I found drag and found my version of Christianity that embraces and accepts LGBTQ+ people,” Blake says. “The crazy thing about that explicit song, it’s the most biblical song I’ve ever written. It’s literally about women in the bible. I probably don’t have a more explicitly Christian song on the record.
“Next time I write a song addressing the oppression of women and LGBTQ+ people in the church,” Blake continues, “I’ll be sure to do it in a way that’s more palatable to those doing the oppressing.”