The 66th Annual Grammy Awards, the biggest night of the music industry, arrived with a storm and left after breaking several records and creating a lot of historical moments. Trevor Noah returned yet again as the host for the night, marking his fourth consecutive turn at the helm of the ceremony. With his flamboyant nature and exceptional hosting skills, Noah gave the artists and the audience a wonderful and soulful night.
At the 2024 Grammys, several artists became first-time winners of the honorary gramophone award. Starting with Miley Cyrus, who won her first Grammy with ‘Best Pop Solo Performance’ for her song ‘Flowers’ and later that night bagged ‘Record of the Year’ for the same. Singer-songwriter, Victoria Monét, too, became a first-time Grammy-winning artist and managed to take home three awards this year, including, ‘Best New Artist’, ‘Best R&B Album’, and ‘Best Engineered Album’. The 22-year-old South African singer, Tyla, took home her first Grammy for her breakthrough song, ‘Water’, in the category ‘Best African Music Performance’. Colombian singer Karol G marked her first-ever Grammy victory in the ‘Best Música Urbana Album’ category for her collection Mañana Será Bonito. American singer Coco Jones had a pretty stiff competition with fellow artists SZA and Victoria Monét, but she did end up taking home her first Grammy for her 2022 single, ‘ICU’.
Besides the first-time winners, it was also a big night for artists like Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Billy Joel, and many more. Taylor Swift broke the all-time Grammy records with the most ‘Album of the Year’ wins becoming the only artist in history to have won four of them. Earlier the same night, the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer won ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’ for her album Midnights, and as an appreciation for her fans, she announced her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which will be coming out on April 19th, 2024.
This year, the Grammys paid homage to legendary veteran artists with appearances from Celine Dion, who presented the ‘Album of the Year’ award, and Joni Mitchell, who not only won ‘Best Folk Album’ for Joni Mitchell at Newport but also performed her song ‘Both Sides Now’ along with musicians Brandi Carlile and Jacob Collier. For the past 10 years, the 80-year-old singer has been robbed of language after a life-threatening brain aneurysm, and after intensive rehabilitation, she returned to the stage in 2022 at the Newport Folk Festival. Her performance at the 2024 Grammys was truly euphonious as she settled into her rich, dusky vocal tone.
Another historic moment was set when the six-time Grammy winner Billy Joel returned to the prestigious stage to perform his new single ‘Turn the Lights Back on’, which is also his first release in almost two decades. Another artist who was celebrated for her return to the Grammy stage is Tracy Chapman, who performed a duet with country singer Luke Combs. Their performance of Chapman’s song, ‘Fast Car’, started with Tracy’s unforgettable riff and then proceeded with Combs and her trading verses before uniting on the chorus. Combs stated, “Just to be associated with her in any way is super humbling for me.”
Feminine dominance is also something that was witnessed at the Recording Academy ceremony, where the four big Grammy prizes, ‘Best New Artist’, ‘Song of the Year’, ‘Record of the Year’, and ‘Album of the Year’ were all swiped by female artists Victoria Monét for ‘On My Mama’, Billie Eilish for ‘What Was I Made For?’, Miley Cyrus for ‘Flowers’ and Taylor Swift for Midnights, respectively.
It was a big night for SZA, who took home not one, not two, but three Grammys. She already had a whopping nine nominations, which made her the most nominated artist at this year’s Grammys. She won ‘Best R&B Song’ for ‘Snooze’, ‘Best Progressive R&B Album’ for SOS, and ‘Best Pop Duo/Group Performance’ with ‘Ghost in the Machine’ featuring Phoebe Bridgers. The ‘Kill Bill’ singer almost broke down crying on stage while receiving one of her wins.
Probably the biggest moment of the night was Jay-Z being honoured with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award for a second time by the Recording Academy. Jay-Z was present at the award show with his wife, Beyoncé, and their daughter, Blue Ivy, and the latter even accompanied him on the stage when he was honoured by the Recording Academy with such a special award. However, situations took a little towards the south when Jay-Z took a dig at the Grammys, calling out the Academy for snubbing Beyoncé for the ‘Album of the Year’ awards over the years. Jay-Z said in his acceptance speech, “But you know, some things- I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.”
Beyoncé has set the record for most Grammys of all time (male and female artists combined) with a record of 32 wins and is also celebrated as the most nominated female artist with 79 career nominations. But unfortunately, not one of those 32 wins is an ‘Album of the Year’ award. Jay-Z did not let go of his opportunity to call out the Academy for snubbing his wife of the Award in question, but he made sure to end his speech with some powerful words. He stated, “Just in life, you got to keep showing up. Just keep showing up. Forget the Grammys you got to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve. Until they call you Chairman, until they call you a genius until they call you the greatest of all time.”
The night was celebrated in the most melodious way possible by performances from Dua Lipa, who performed her latest releases, ‘Training Season’ and ‘Houdini’, Olivia Rodrigo’s soulful vocals in ‘Vampire’, Billie and Finneas performed, ‘What Was I Made For?’ and Miley Cyrus, who performed her hit single ‘Flowers’ for the first time on TV!
It was indeed yet another iconic and legendary night of the Grammys legacy, celebrating artists and music from all over the world.
Written By: Adrita Barua
Edited By: Abirami Mathialagan