An act doesn't have to write songs to get an award, unless it's specifaclly for songwriting such as a Grammy like "Song Of The Year" which goes to the writer and not the act, unless the act wrote the song, or technically whoever is listed on the songwriting credits. There's awards for vocalists like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, Whitney Houston, Barbra Striesand, Celine Dion, and other non writers. Before The Beatles (& maybe Bob Dylan) popularized it, very few performers self wrote, and most of them were jazz acts. Besides awards are campaigned for by the record labels (or movie studios for the Oscars). It's like running for a political office pretty much. The voters don't even listen to a lot of the songs. There's many catagories on the Grammys that don't get telecast. Do you really think all of the voters really listen to a Hillary Clinton spoken word album or the albums nominated for best Polka or best Native American recording, lol? Some of it is just blind voting, picking a veteran act that the majority of the older voters know (like Herbie Hancock), or voting for whoever's label spent the most money campaigning for their act.
