Social media users have called out Billboard Music Awards for not awarding Summer Walker any of the R&B awards as Doja Cat swept all categories of the genre.
Doja Cat‘s wins have caused backlash from Summer Walker fans, who felt particularly hurt that Walker did not win a single award, while Doja Cat, who considers herself a rapper and pop artist, was named winner in all of the R&B categories.
Doja Cat took home four awards at Sunday’s event held in Las Vegas, winning
top R&B artist and R&B female artist for the second consecutive year, along with top R&B album and female artist.
Walker’s boyfriend, LVRD Pharoh, was the first one to question how Doja Cat won the categories even though ‘Planet Her’ is said to be an R&B/ Soul, Pop, and Afrobeats album.
Pharoh was, however, not convinced as he pointed out that Walker’s album was strictly R&B and was also highly successful when her streaming numbers are considered.
“@billboard explain to me how a Pop artist @dojacat wins 2 r&b categories???? And she has 1 e&b song ever?? @billboard numbers don’t like how did she win,” LVRD Pharoh wrote in now-deleted IG Stories.
“My bad she stopped lemonade once. But we know these awards it’s all rigged,” he added along with the hashtag #quitrobbingourblackqueens.
While acknowledging that she was an amazing artist, Pharoh doubled down on her being categorized as an R&B artist even though her label RCA markets her as multi-genre, and even Doja herself has claimed to be more than a pop star and has even called herself a rapper.
“No one is knocking her artistry at all. She’s an amazing ‘POP’ artist,” he continued. “But r&b is r&b. SZA, Summer, Given should have won because they are the actual artist for the category! It’s not about Summer winning it’s about respecting the culture of r&b. In the 2000s none of this ‘pop based music’ would have been considered r&b because its not that! God bless everybody,” he concluded.
Summer Walker had congratulated Doja Cat on one of her wins, but she later responded to her fans with a sarcastic post of her own as she reacted to Doja Cat’s overall wins.
“Well this was an interesting night, congrats to everyone but not 1 r&B win. Hm. Guess I just need to work harder lol Larry come break my heart,” she wrote.
Walker’s ‘Still Over It’ broke quite a few records after its release.
The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 and sold 166,000 album-equivalent units, becoming her first No. 1 album and the first No. 1 R&B album by a woman since Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ in 2016.
The album also holds a streaming record having the biggest opening week in 2021 for any R&B album and the largest streaming figures for a female R&B album, with over 201.1 million streams, according to Billboard’s MRC data.
Correspondingly, Doja Cat’s album also performed exceptionally well as it rivaled Walker’s album for longevity on the charts.
‘Planet Her’ debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 109,000 album-equivalent units sold in the first week. The album also topped the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart and, in its second week, jumped No. 1 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and remained at number two on the Billboard 200 after moving 68,000 units.
It is also the first album to spend its first three weeks at No. 2 on the chart and has remained on the charts until now.
