But the people voting are forced to listen to the song because they have to evaluate it, the public isn’t. People tend to listen to the artists they know and love on repeat. Bonnie Raitt, while a legend, is mainly going to be popular with an older crowd, many of whom probably do not use Spotify or if they do they listen to playlists that they’re children or grandchildren helped them put together, so they may not have even been aware that she put out a new song. And I mean, there’s plenty of beautifully written songs out there that fly under the public’s radar everyday. It just so happens that this time, one of them managed to win a major award despite that.

This isn’t how they determine song of the year. Song of the year is the award for excellence in songwriting, not how popular a song was.