(Image courtesy of Grammy. “This year’s Grammy Awards ceremony was marked by a surprising amount of sentimentality.”)
Tristin Henson
Connector Editor
The Grammys kicked off the night with a performance by Sabrina Carpenter, featuring a rendition of “Manchild.” Soon after, Doechii and Queen Latifah presented the award for Best Rap Album, with nominees CHROMAKOPIA and GNX being the top two competing albums for this award this year, but the context surrounding GNX, as well as how marketable it had been to masses of people (plus all the radio promotion it had gotten), made it no surprise that GNX won.
The next award was for Best New Artist, with the nominees from this category performing some of the songs that got them their newfound fame before the award itself was presented. The Marías performed a rendition of “No One Noticed”, and after them, Addison Rae performed one of her top songs, “Fame is a Gun”, backstage, which transitioned into “Gnarly” by one of the newest global girl groups: KATSEYE. Back on the Grammys stage, Leon Thomas performed “MUTT”, with Alex Warren performing “Ordinary”, where, during his performance, he experienced some technical malfunctions with his earpiece. This follows a common consensus among many this year was that the Grammys were a bit of a mess.
From the chaotic nature of Trevor Noah going full filter off because it was his last year hosting, to Cher presenting the award for Record of the Year, it seemed like as much as we, the audience at home, didn’t know what was coming next, neither did any of the artists at the Grammys. This was encapsulated by Lola Young performing a piano rendition of “Messy” next, the song itself winning Best Solo Pop Performance later in the night, but not Best New Artist.
After a quick performance of “12 to 12” by Sombr, the title ended up going to Olivia Dean, who had performed “Man I Need” just beforehand, with Chapelle Roan giving her the award while not hiding from the audience the obvious teleprompter phrases. Again, matching that ‘messy’ theme of the night, Justin Bieber was next on the stage, where he performed “YUKON” in his boxers, apparently a last-minute decision. After that, Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny, who Trevor Noah made sure to make the shining star of the Grammys, won Best Música Urbana Album. Beautifully Broken by Jellyroll won Best Contemporary Country Album, and Best Pop Album was won by Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM after she performed “Abracadabra”. Bruno Mars performed his new single “I Just Might”, his second performance that night, as he and Rosé had performed “APT.” earlier on. “Wildflower” by Billie Eilish won Song of the Year, after which Tyler, the Creator performed “Thought I Was Dead” and used “Like Him”, as well as powerful words from Regina King, as an interlude to “Sugar on My Tongue”.
Pharrell Williams was then presented with a special Dr. Dre Global Impact Award by Q-Tip, also performing later in the night. Following an “In Memoriam” segment, it was time for the two most anticipated awards that night: Record of the Year and Album of the Year.
“Luther” by Kendrick Lamar with SZA won Record of the Year. Soundwave, one of the producers, gave high praise and credit to the original producer of the song, Luther Vandross, and both SZA and Kendrick gave thanks to their whole team.
Then, to finish off the night, Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny won Album of the Year, the first time a Spanish album has been given this award. In his winning speech, he thanked the citizens of Puerto Rico for his success, the Academy, all the people who believed in him and worked on the album, his mother, and dedicated his award to “everyone who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams…To all the dreamers, to everyone who has lost a loved one and still had to move forward and carry on with great strength…[t]o all the Latinos around the entire world, and to all the artists who came before and deserved to be on this stage receiving this award.”
Of course, no one can mention the Grammys this year without talking about the obvious socio-political atmosphere it held. Multiple award winners mentioned ICE in their speeches, Billie Eilish being one of the artists to receive much backlash over her “F*** ICE” comment. SZA mentioned how we shouldn’t “fall into despair, [and that] we need each other, we need to trust each other.” ‘ICE Out’ pins were a common sight to see on many different artists throughout the night, Olivia Dean proudly saying how she is “the granddaughter of an immigrant…a granddaughter of bravery and those people deserve to be celebrated”, and Bad Bunny himself was the epicenter of it all.
A lasting comment Bad Bunny made on this was: “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans…I know it’s tough not to hate on these days…The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love… So, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we must do it with love.”
