Harry Styles was awarded Album of the Year at Sunday’s Grammys in Los Angeles, where Beyoncé won a record 32nd award.
Rapper Bad Bunny opened this year’s 65th Grammy Awards, which returned to Los Angeles at the Crypto.com Arena after last year’s ceremony in Las Vegas.
Although she didn’t win the album of the year, the gala was dominated by Beyoncé: the singer won in four categories, increasing her number of Grammy awards to 32, breaking a record of more than a quarter of a century, and now sitting alone on the imaginary throne of the Grammy.
Beyoncé broke the record of Hungarian-born conductor György Solti. Solti collaborated on a total of 31 Grammy Award-winning recordings, the last one in the year of his death, in 1997, in the category of best opera recording, for The Master Singers of Nuremberg.
Several of this year’s winners thanked Beyoncé, emphasizing how much of an influence she had on them. The performer was also greeted on stage by her husband, the rapper Jay-Z. By the way, Beyoncé was late for the ceremony due to a big traffic jam, and by the time she appeared, she already had three awards. He won best R&B song (Cuff It), best dance and electronic music recording (Break My Soul), best traditional R&B performance (Plastic Off the Sofa) and fourth best dance-electronic album (Renaissance) his Grammy.
Harry Styles’ Harry House, which won album of the year, won both the best pop vocal album and the best non-classical album for sound engineering.
Lizzo took home the award for Record of the Year for About Damn Time; the speaker dedicated his award to Prince in his acceptance speech. Jazz singer Samara Joy won best new artist, beating names like Wet Leg, Anitta and Maneskin. Samara Joy also won the best jazz vocal album category.
Sam Smith and Kim Petras were chosen as the best pop duo performers for the song Unholy, Ozzy Osbourne won the best rock album for Patient Number 9, and he also won the award for the best metal performance. Michael Bublé won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Higher.
Veteran singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt won song of the year for Just Like That, beating out Adele, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, among others. His song – as the speaker highlighted at the gala – is about organ donation. Raitt also took home two other Grammys (Best American Performance, and Best American Roots Song).
The actor Viola Davis can now claim the EGOT, that is, after the Emmy, Oscar and Tony awards, she also won a Grammy; the latter now with his audiobook Finding Me.
At the gala, they paid tribute to the 50th birthday of hip-hop with a quarter-hour show. Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Ice-T, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Nelly and LL Cool J also took the stage during the performance. This year’s main prize winner of the genre was the now six-time winner Kendrick Lamar, who won both the best rap performance (The Heart Part 5) and the best rap album (Mr. Morales & The Big Steppers) categories.
At the ceremony, tributes were paid to several stars who died last year, including Loretta Lynn, rapper Takeoff and Fleetwood Mac musician Christine McVie. Lynn Coal’s song Miner’s Daughter was performed by Kacey Musgraves, a former member of the hip-hop group Migos, Takeoff was recalled by Quavo and Maverick City Music, and McVie was remembered by Sheryl Crow, Mick Fleetwood and Bonnie Raitt together with Songbird.
The host of the Grammy Awards this year was Trevor Noah.
MTI
