Don't Pit Adele & Beyonce Against Each Other

For all the complaints you might have about the 2017 Grammy nominations, whether it's the near-total lack of Life of Pablo or the absence of Justin Bieber's "Sorry," it's impossible not to be thrilled about the fact that Adele and Beyoncé each scored a huge number of nods. For her record 25, Adele picked up five nominations, while Beyoncé earned a whopping nine for her visual album Lemonade. With numbers like that, it seems like the 2017 Grammys — especially in the categories of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song Of The Year — will basically boil down to a competition between two of music's biggest superstars. Yet, while it's perfectly fine to be excited that A and Bey are taking over the Grammys, pitting the duo against each other as a showdown of sorts is the wrong response to them sweeping the 2017 nominations.

Whenever two successful women are honored for a similar achievement, we as a culture tend to put them against one another. It doesn't matter if the women themselves haven't discussed the perceived competition they're in; simply being female artists honored in the same category is enough to spur the idea that they're rivals vying for one chance at success. Just look at how Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence were treated back in 2013, when both stars were nominated for Best Actress at several major awards shows. The women were viewed as being angry at and competitive with one another just because they were up for the same awards, despite an actual friendship and a lack of desire from either of them to start any type of feud. "Why do we support the myth that women are competitive and cannot get along?" Chastain wrote in a Facebook post at the time. "Please don’t allow the media to perpetuate the myth that women aren’t supportive of each other."

Or look at the constant comparisons between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, which are made seemingly every time the duo are honored by the same awards show or have albums out around the same time. Yes, the two may truly have "bad blood," but that doesn't mean that they must be pit as enemies whenever they're up against each other in a race. Yet each time they are, the "Taylor vs. Katy" headlines are everywhere , which not only distracts from each person's actual honors, but pushes the stereotype that successful women must always be in competition.

And now there's Beyoncé and Adele, whose appearances together in so many Grammys categories will undoubtedly lead to rumors of a "feud" or perceived nastiness against one another. Yet that doesn't have to be the case. We can choose to separate the two as individuals, and celebrate each of their achievements without pitting them against one another. Both Bey and Adele deserve to be recognized for their impressive musical work this past year, and the fact that they're being honored in similar categories should only be an added reason for fans' excitement. Besides, neither woman has ever even hinted that they're anything but supportive pals; in fact, Adele has made it perfectly clear that she's a fan of her peer, telling Zane Lowe in 2015 that she's “Queen Bey to the day I die."

Beyoncé and Adele are both hugely talented stars who deserve all the recognition they each got from the Grammys this year. So rather than pitting them against each other and viewing them as enemies, let's celebrate each star's success and be grateful that the Grammys honored two ladies as awesome as them.