Between Beyoncé finally winning Album of the Year and The Weeknd reconciling with the Recording Academy, the 2025 Grammy Awards seemed to right many past wrongs. However, one glaring detail revealed that fairness still has its limits.
Despite being nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Milton + Esperanza alongside Esperanza Spalding, Brazilian music legend Milton Nascimento was not given a seat among the main tables at the Crypto.com Arena—unlike Spalding. “I’m mad this living legend wasn’t considered important enough to sit among the A-listers, or however the main floor is organized,” Spalding wrote in an Instagram post.
Nascimento traveled from Brazil to Los Angeles for the ceremony, documenting parts of his journey for his social media followers. “I’m taking all of you with me here on the left side of the chest,” he wrote in an Instagram post, referencing his own verse in Canção da América, while sharing a video from his flight. “I hope to get this award for Brazil.” Unfortunately, he didn’t—but that wasn’t the real issue.
On the day of the ceremony, Nascimento and Spalding posed together on the red carpet. However, Spalding’s post later suggested that the two were not seated together— or even anywhere near each other.
In a February 3rd Instagram post, Nascimento shared that, according to Spalding’s team, only the artists the ceremony’s organizers wanted “on video” were given seats at the main tables. As a result, he chose not to attend the main show. His post also referenced his mobility challenges due to his age.
Brazil’s Minister of Culture, singer Margareth Menezes, called the Academy’s treatment of Nascimento a serious issue.
Nascimento is a towering figure in Brazilian music. Over his six-decade career, he has written and recorded songs that have become cornerstones of the Brazilian songbook, from Maria, Maria to Coração de Estudante, which became the anthem of Diretas Já, the movement that pushed for Brazil’s return to democracy during the military dictatorship. He was also a key figure in the musical movement that produced Clube da Esquina (1972), one of the most acclaimed Brazilian albums of all time.
His Grammy nomination alongside Spalding wasn’t a first—Nascimento had been nominated four times before, in 1992, 1995, 1998, and 2002, even winning in 1998 for Best World Music Album. In a year when the Academy honored the legacy of Quincy Jones, it’s hard to ignore the irony of another legend being sidelined.
As Brazilian culture continues to gain international recognition—most recently in cinema, with the success of Ainda Estou Aqui and its lead actress, Fernanda Torres—the Grammys incident draws an unsettling parallel. At the 2025 Golden Globes, Torres, nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, was also seated far from the stage and away from her fellow nominees. When Viola Davis announced her as the winner, the Brazilian actress had to take a long walk to accept her award.
Nascimento never got that chance at the Grammys, as Samara Joy took home the award for Best Jazz Vocal Album. However, the way both ceremonies physically positioned these Brazilian artists speaks to a larger issue. Despite earning their nominations, Latines don’t always get a seat at the table—sometimes, quite literally.
Nascimento, however, is receiving his flowers where it matters. This year, his life and legacy will be honored in the samba-enredo of the traditional Brazilian Carnival samba school, Portela. The Recording Academy’s lack of acknowledgment at the 2025 ceremony does nothing to diminish the weight of his artistry. What it reveals is far more disappointing: even when legends are supposed to be celebrated, they still aren’t always given the bare minimum respect.
