On February 2nd, 2025, the 67th annual Grammy Awards took the stage of the Crypto.com Arena for music’s biggest night. Throughout 2024, there were many trends and viral hits, leaving the year with an incredible soundtrack. The Recording Academy decides which songs stood out the most throughout the year. As artists submitted their work, buzz surrounding this year’s nominations stirred. With such vast ranges of music released this year, and people with strong opinions about all of them, the cultural impact of the 2025 Grammy’s was sure to be the cause of multitudes of internet uproar.
the big four awards
Each year, four awards from the Academy are the most coveted of the night: Record of The Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. There is a whopping 94 categories in the award show, many of which are not aired. However, throughout 67 years, these four categories are tried and true, typically being the most relevant in mainstream music and pop culture. This year the winners of the big four were grounds for controversy, as they are every year. As promised, here is a rapid overview of the nominees and winners of 2025’s big four:
Record of the Year
Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar
360 – Charli XCX
Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter
TEXAS HOLD ‘EM – Beyonce
Good Luck, Babe! – Chappell Roan
Birds of a Feather – Billie Eilish
Now and Then – The Beatles
Fortnight – Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone
WINNER: Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar
For readers who don’t remember, in Spring 2024, Lamar released Not Like Us as a reaction to layers of rap beef. The song, which has lyrics solely written by Lamar himself, are highly targeted at Drake, calling him out on his problematic and predatorial behavior. The most popular line in the song highlights the main idea of it nicely. Lamar raps “Certified Lover Boy, certified pedophile,” referring the title of Drake’s 2021 album, Certified Lover Boy. A large controversy in Drake’s career has been his friendship with Millie Bobby Brown, who is 18 years younger than him. Many onlookers viewed their relationship as problematic, suggesting Drake was being a creep. Upon Not Like Us dropping, Drake felt the need to reassure the public that his friendship with Millie Bobby Brown involved nothing impure, but many people found that claim to be suspicious, as no one ever mentioned her directly prior to his statement. This fueled the fire of the rap beef and reflected poorly on Drake, however it led Not Like Us to the top of the charts for the entire summer.
album of the year
Short n’ Sweet – Sabrina Carpenter
BRAT – Charli XCX
Jacob Collier – ‘Djesse Vol. 4’
COWBOY CARTER – Beyonce
Hit Me Hard and Soft – Billie Eilish
The Tortured Poets Department – Taylor Swift
The Rise and Fall of A Midwest Princess – Chappell Roan
WINNER: COWBOY CARTER – Beyonce
In 2024, pop queen Beyoncé, went country. As country music is experiencing a resurgence, she was quick to hop on the train. Snagging 11 nominations, Beyoncé was the highest nominated artist of the night, which tracks with the history of her Grammy experience. Beyoncé is the highest nominated and highest awarded artist of all time in Grammy history, however this was her first win for Album of the Year, though she had been nominated 4 times.
Song OF THE YEAR
A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey
Birds of a Feather – Billie Eilish
Die with a Smile – Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars
Fortnight – Taylor Swift and Post Malone
Good Luck, Babe! – Chappell Roan
Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar
TEXAS HOLD ‘EM – Beyonce
WINNER: Not Like Us – Kendrick Lamar
Throughout the night, Not Like Us won a total five awards, an impressive feat for a song that was viral for a temporary amount of time. However, what does it mean to win Song of the Year, and how is it different from winning Record of The Year? Not Like Us went home with both awards on Sunday, this means that everyone who worked on the song was recognized for their contribution. The Grammy for Song of the Year recognizes the composition of a song, whereas Record of the Year acknowledges the whole production of a song. When a Grammy is awarded, though only one person collects the physical trophy, the entire team becomes Grammy winners. Record of the Year awarded Not Like Us for Lamar’s performance of the song and the production quality on it. Song of the Year awarded the behind the scenes technicality in creating the track.
BEST NEW ARTist
Benson Boone
Sabrina Carpenter
Chappell Roan
Doechii
Khruangbin
Shaboozey
Raye
Teddy Swims
WINNER: Chappell Roan
In 2024, Chappell Roan was H-O-T topic. Her quick rise to fam was unmatched in the music industry this year, but her first record came out in 2017. A long-lasting criticism of the Grammy’s is that frequently, the nominees for best new artist are people who have spent years trying to make in the industry. Critics of this category claim that artists should be recognized for their older work, as well as the work that contributed to their nomination.
historical moments
Sometimes at the Grammy’s, music history is made. With more nominees and inclusion every year, Grammy history has changed dramatically. At the 2024 Grammy’s, Taylor Swift made history, becoming the only artist to ever win Album of the Year four times; prior to this feat, she was the only woman to win two and three times.
This year, Beyoncé became the first black woman to receive the award in the 21st century, the last black woman who took home the award was Lauryn Hill in 1999. Furthermore, Beyoncé became the first black woman EVER to win the Grammy for Best Country Album.
Another major win was received by Doechii, who was nominee for Best New Artist and Best Rap Album. Although she did not win Best New Artist, she did in fact take home the award for Best Rap Album. This makes Doechii third woman ever to receive this award, she is now in the likes of Cardi B and Lauryn Hill, but in 67 years and so many incredible women in the rap industry, hopefully more women will snag the award in years to come.
scandals and snubs
Unlike years of the past, the 2025 Grammy’s were ultimately a peaceful happening. Award season can get crazy, and incidents such as Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, and Kanye West saying Beyonce deserved the VMA over Taylor Swift as she was giving her acceptance speech… moments that occur when all eyes are watching have the potential to live in infamy. For 2025, the biggest issue involved Kanye West (as usual), and his current partner Bianca Censori. The couple attended the show together, and Kanye wore a black shirt and black pants with a snazzy pair of sunglasses, and accompanying girlfriend wore…well…nothing. Bianca Censori arrived wearing a short, sheer, pantyhose material slip dress along with a furry pashmina. Needless to say, her dress did not truly cover anything, and the couple was promptly escorted from the ceremony.
There is some irony to this situation. In 2009, Taylor Swift received the VMA for Video of the Year for her song You Belong With Me, which was up against Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it) by Beyonce. When Swift won the award, Kanye ran out on the stage and declared that Beyonce had “one of the greatest videos of all time” in the midst of Swift’s speech. At the 2025 Grammy’s poetic justice was delivered as Swift presented Beyonce her award for Album of the Year, and Kanye was asked to leave the premises.
Each year, there is discourse about who truly deserved which award. The hottest take of this year’s show was COWBOY CARTER’s Album of The Year win. The album had one mainstream hit and was nominated against albums that produced trend after trend. It seems that Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft had the popular vote of who deserved Album of The Year, but the academy has to upset some people so they’ll hate-watch every year.
Overall, the 2025 Grammy’s was a ceremony to remembered. With history being made and scandal being ensued, this year’s show perfectly encapsulated what fascinates us most about the world of celebrities.