By: Lilliah Otero
This past Sunday, Feb. 2, was the night of the 67th Grammy Award ceremony. Comedian Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony. This makes it his fifth year hosting the Grammys, starting back in 2021. There were many unexpected winners, “snubbed” artists and killer stage performances from artists and backup dancers in full glam.
The Love for L.A. and a Tribute to Quincy Jones
After the artists walked the red carpet, the Grammys opened with a heartfelt tribute to Los Angeles and California, as many cities and families were recently devastated by wildfires. John Legend, Sheryl Crow, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard and Brad Paisley joined the stage with Dawes, a group also affected by the wildfires, singing Randy Newman’s 1983 song “I Love L.A.”
The love for L.A. didn’t stop there -- throughout the night viewers were asked to donate via QR code, and during commercial breaks ads were promoting small local L.A. businesses. Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock were joined by singers whose schools were destroyed in the fires, who sang “We Are the World.” Another fantastic tribute performance to L.A. was a duet between Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga of “California Dreamin’.”
Later in the night Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock did another tribute piece with Cynthia Erivo for the late Quincy Jones who won 28 Grammys for being a producer, conductor, trumpet player, recording artist, and composer for film and television. The trio sang “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra, followed by Janelle Monáe closing the tribute performances with “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson with motifs in her performance choreography and clothing directly referencing Jackson.
Jaw-Dropping Performances
Billie Eilish had one of the first big performances of the night, singing “Birds of a Feather” with her brother Finneas on guitar. They both grew up in the L.A. area, so this performance was very special to them and the crowd. In total Billie had seven nominations this year at the Grammys and her song “Birds of a Feather” receiving three out of the seven nominations.
Throughout the night each Best New Artist nominee had a chance to perform on the big stage. Each performance showed the creativity and passion of every artist. First, Sabrina Carpenter also performed that night with a medley of her hits “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” She had three separate costume changes, from a bedazzled black and white suit to a bedazzled baby blue rhinestone body suit. She also had a taping section during the dance break of her performance. Many on the internet have been saying that Sabrina’s performance is what happens when you give a theater kid an unlimited budget. Sabrina was not the only one to have a Grammy debut performance in the color baby blue.
Chappell Roan performed “Pink Pony Club” in a bedazzled cowboy-esc body suit with a giant pink pony as a prop. Her stage looked out of a Western movie with a Chappell Roan twist. Her backup dancers were dressed up and cowboy and ranch wrangler clothing with clown face pain varying from performer to performer.
Then Doechii performed right after winning Best Rap Album for her mixtape “Alligator Bites Never Heal.” She sang “CATFISH” and then ditched her outfit that slightly matched with her backup dancers to reveal a matching undergarment set to start her song “DENIAL IS A RIVER.”
Benson Boone performed his chart-topping song “Beautiful Things,” and it is not a Benson Boone performance without him doing a flip off of something which he did -- off of a piano. RAYE, Shaboozey, and Teddy Swims also had their time to shine on the big stage with their own chart-topping songs like, “Lose Control,” “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and “Oscar Winning Tears.”
There was also a performance from Charlie XCX featuring her songs “Von Dutch” and “Guess,” having Billie Eilish vocals on the track. Lead singer of Coldplay Chris Martin also sang during the Grammys this year for a tear-jerking memoriam that recognized the death of artists like Liam Payne, Toby Keith, and Tito Jackson.
The Wins, The Losses, The History Made
Now it's time to talk awards. Each major category was neck and neck. For example, you had powerhouse artists like Ariana Grande’s "eternal sunshine," Billie Eilish's "HIT ME HARD AND SOFT," Taylor Swift’s "THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT" and more nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, which went to Sabrina Carpenter’s "Short n' Sweet." For Best New Artist you had Teddy Swims, RAYE and Doechii nominated, with the award going to Chappell Roan. When accepting her award, she used her voice and growing platform to call out music companies for not giving their artists the resources for artists, especially rising artists, to take care of their mental and physical health.
Lady Gaga used part of her speech when accepting the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Bruno Mars for “Die With A Smile” to uplift trans and queer people's rights. There was also Alicia Keys who spoke up about Diversity Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, while accepting her award for the Global Impact Award.
Beyoncé made history this year by being the first Black woman ever to win Best Country Album and the most recent Black woman and the fourth Black woman ever to win Album of the Year for her album Cowboy Carter.
Doechii also made history by being the third woman to win Best Rap Album, following Cardi B and Lauryn Hill. Kendrick Lamar also broke records tonight for his song “Not Like Us” by winning all five categories he was nominated for, which little fun fact: it is the same amount of awards that Drake has won in his whole career and Kendrick Lamar won that same amount in one night. With new history made and records broken who knows what may happen next year.
For the rest of the winners, here’s the full list from the Grammy’s. The full ceremony is available to watch on YouTube.
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