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The 66th Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles featured amazing moments like Miley Cyrus‘ five outfit changes, Jay-Z‘s roast of the Grammys and more notable performances from the most popular names of music today.
Cyrus Gets Her Flowers
Most importantly, it was a victorious night for women in music. Women in the industry took home the gold, winning every competitive category featured in the telecast.
The live broadcast allowed Cyrus to make several fashion moments in all her outfits as she accepted her awards and gave a dazzling performance. Cyrus won her first Grammys for her smash hit “Flowers,” taking home Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
The cherry on top of Cyrus’ night was her contagiously joyous performance of the song in a sparkly Bob Mackie dress and a Southern belle hairdo.
First-time Winners
International superstar KAROL G, representing Colombia, won her first Grammy for her mega-hit album of self-love, “Mañana Sera Bonito,” becoming the first female artist to win Best Música Urbana Album.
Tyla, representing South Africa, also won her first award for Best African Music Performance with her debut single and now Billboard Top 10 hit “Water.”
Another winner from the night — Victoria Monét — may have seemed like an underdog to those unfamiliar with the monumental melodies that she is responsible for like Ariana Grande‘s smash hit “7 Rings.”
Monét stepped into the spotlight as a solo artist and took home Grammys for Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. The album win was for her breakthrough genre-blend of “Jaguar II,” featuring the hip-hop-influenced, smooth song “On My Mama.”
“The Big Four”
In addition to Monét’s Best New Artist win, the winners from the other big three categories are as follows:
Cyrus for Record of the Year — the “Everything Award” as Meryl Streep wittily deemed it while presenting the award for “Flowers” alongside her son-in-law, the English-born producer responsible for the “Barbie” soundtrack.
Billie Eilish for Song of the Year — the songwriting recognition for “What Was I Made For?” — the gut-wrenchingly sad track she composed for the bubbly “Barbie” movie, which she also performed, hitting all the right high notes.
Lastly, Taylor Swift took home her fourth win for Album of the Year — awarded to her latest effort “Midnights.”
Swift the Showboater
An ever greater shock than Swift breaking Stevie Wonder‘s record for most Album of the Year wins, which he held for nearly 50 years with three total wins, was her announcement — on live television, at the Grammy Awards of all places — that her new album will be released April 17.
This album reveal was almost like a proposal at someone else’s wedding. Albeit not the most considerate choice, Swift was likely giving the Recording Academy the first teaser to an album that will surely be nominated for several categories next year.
Empty-handed
During Swift’s Album of the Year acceptance, she awkwardly brought the sad girl supreme, Lana Del Rey, up on stage with her. Del Rey, a featured artist and winner for “Midnights” and nominated in the same category for her latest and most personal album “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.”
This deeply moving record garnered Del Rey five nominations, including Song of the Year for “A&W” and Best Alternative Music Album.
Del Rey has come back into the public eye in a way that has intrigued those unfamiliar with her work and blindsided long-time fans of the singer. “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” featured Del Rey at her most visceral — divulging her familial trauma and reflecting on her tumultuous past.
Del Rey was not the only artist who went home empty-handed. Olivia Rodrigo, who bathed herself in blood during her performance of “Vampire,” received nominations for six awards, including Song, Record and Album of the Year for her sophomore project “Guts,” but did not win an award.
Nine-time Nominee: SZA
Back to the breakthrough artist with one of the highest-selling albums of 2023 who led the event with a total of nine nominations: SZA, with her chart-topping “SOS.” This album reigned over the Billboard charts, selling over 3 million copies.
SZA took home three golden Grammys, including Best Progressive R&B and a shared recognition for Best Pop Duo Performance for “Ghost in the Machine” with Phoebe Bridgers.
SZA’s success begs the question of adding a new category to the ceremony, such as “Artist of the Year,” recognizing the artists that not only dominated the airwaves but also took innovative measures to push the boundaries of music further — which SZA absolutely did i.e. “Good Days,” one of her biggest songs.
Grammy Performances
SZA also stunned the ceremony with a pre-recorded performance of her highly anticipated, scrapped song “Saturn.” This performance was nicely choreographed and overshadowed her own live performance and that of other performers from the night, including Travis Scott.
Scott’s overproduced and aggressive performance resembled a Balenciaga runway, muddled with out-of-breath auto-tune. He performed a medley of songs off his latest hip-hop record “UTOPIA.”
Although Scott performed at the ceremony, he lost his nomination for Best Rap Album to Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, who got arrested for getting into a physical altercation after receiving his trophies. Well, you win some, you lose some.
The list of performers also included afro-beat superstar Burna Boy, joined by the vocal Bible and former Pepperdine student Brandy and 21 Savage, singing their rendition of “Sittin’ on Top of the World.”
Other performances included the return of some veteran icons in the industry, including Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel and Tracy Chapman, singing her hit “Fast Car” with country star Luke Combs.
Grammy’s Roast from Jay-Z
Lastly, Shawn Carter, stage name Jay-Z, accepted the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award with his daughter Blue Ivy Carter. He turned his speech into a nod to his superstar wife Beyoncé, who has lost Album of the Year four times — calling out the Recording Academy.
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady [Beyoncé], but she has the most Grammys and has never won Album of the Year,” Jay-Z said to the Recording Academy. “Even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”
Furthermore, Jay-Z recommended the Recording Academy get it close to right.
Lastly, Jay-Z said music is subjective, but the audience definitely loves to see their favorites win at the Grammys and rightfully so. Music is more than just sound waves through speakers — it is happiness, sadness — the means to get through the days.
Music is deeper than a way of life or an expression of the deepest of emotions; of course, watching the year’s favorite music receive a golden gramophone can feel like a proud moment for listeners, but it is definitely not the purpose of the art — as Jay-Z said, winning is all subjective.
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Contact Ivan Vicente Manriquez via email: ivan.manriquez@pepperdine.edu
