The 65th annual Grammy Awards was a history-making night – literally!
Comedian Trevor Noah hosted the star-studded show, which took place on Sunday, Feb. 5 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The last three years – 2021, 2022 and 2023 – mark the least-watched Grammy Awards in history. However, the 2023 Grammys earned the ceremony’s highest viewership since 2020 with 12.4 million, a 30% increase from last year, according to time-adjusted Nielsen ratings.
Bad Bunny kicked off the night by performing a medley of songs from his album Un Verano Sin Ti. The album earned him the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album later in the evening.
Many artists won their first awards Sunday night, including Viola Davis, who achieved EGOT status (a title earned by individuals who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award, respectively) after winning a Grammy for Best Audiobook, Narration & Storytelling for the recording of her memoir, “Finding Me.” She further made history by becoming the third Black woman to attain the most coveted status in the entertainment industry, and the 18th person to receive the EGOT honor overall.
Singer Kim Petras also not only won her first Grammy, but she also made history as the first openly transgender woman to win the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance Award, for “Unholy” with collaborator Sam Smith.
Beyoncé may not have won her first Grammy on Sunday like Viola and Kim, but she achieved something even bigger. When Beyoncé won the Grammy for Best R&B Song for her smash-hit ‘Cuff It,’ it was announced that she now equaled the record for the most Grammy wins in history.
Beyoncé didn’t stop there – later on in the evening, she won Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for her hit album Renaissance. With this win- 32 in total –she broke the record for the most-awarded Grammy artist of all time. Winning four of the nine categories for which she was nominated, the singer surpassed classical music conductor Georg Solti’s record of 31 Grammys, a record that has stood untouched since 1998.
Lizzo also made history this weekend when she won Record Of The Year for her number one track, “About Damn Time.” Lizzo made history as the first Black woman to win Record Of The Year this century. She shared her excitement and gratitude on Instagram, “The last time a black woman won Record of the Year was Whitney Houston for ‘I Will Always Love You’… I don’t take this lightly. Thank you.”
To celebrate 50 years of hip-hop, the Recording Academy gathered many of the biggest names in the genre’s history. The medley brought together many artists including LL Cool J, Salt-n-Pepa, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Nelly and Lil Uzi Vert. Each performer had their time to shine and play snippets of their most memorable and ground-breaking songs.
Sunday night’s Grammys also had its fair share of awkward moments. First of all, what the heck was going on with super-couple newlyweds Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck? Affleck went viral after the show for his many facial reactions seen during the telecast. Many viewers took to social media to report how miserable and bored he looked most of the night. At one moment, the cameras may have possibly caught the couple in a tiff. A few days later, we still would love to know what conversation was going on between those two.
Some of Trevor Noah’s jokes seemed to land a bit more awkward than funny. One, in particular, was when he asked Taylor Swift if she could get her legion of fans (the Swifties) to lower the ever-rising price of eggs. She awkwardly played along saying, “Yeah, they’ll get on it. Just let them know what you need.” Taylor then shook her head and rolled her eyes at the camera.
Meanwhile, Harry Styles had a stage-production issue when he performed his chart-topping hit “As It Was.” Harry planned to perform with a group of dancers on a turntable, mimicking the song’s music video. The circular rotating stage ended up spinning in the opposite direction, giving Harry and his dancers a very short period of time to adjust.
Earlier on in the evening, Trevor reported to the audience that singer Adele’s long-time dream was to meet Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Adele’s dream came true when The Rock stealthily approached her table to meet her and then stayed for a chat. Later in the evening, Dwayne presented Best Pop Solo Performance. Ironically, the Grammy was awarded to Adele for her song “Easy On Me.” He announced her win by playfully saying, “Get up here best friend!” The singer got emotional as she accepted the award and dedicated the win to her son, Angelo.
The most coveted Grammy – and final award of the evening – was Album Of The Year. The competition was tight with Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, Adele, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Kendrick Lamar, ABBA, Coldplay, Mary J. Blige and Brandi Carlile all vying for the golden statue. However, it was Harry who ended up walking away with the highest honor for his album Harry’s House – which also won Best Pop Vocal Album earlier in the night.
Harry’s win is still getting mixed reactions. As he accepted the award, shocked, audience members were heard yelling Beyoncé’s name. When Harry made his way to the stage to accept the honor, he humbly said, “And I think on nights like tonight it’s so important for us to remember that there is no such thing as best in music. I don’t think any of us sit in the studio making decisions based on what is going to get us one of these.”
Everyone has their favorite artists and there was plenty of speculation leading up to the famed night in music. Who do you think got snubbed at this year’s Grammys?