The 66th Grammy awards are one for the history books – women’s accomplishments were a forefront theme of the award show, with several performances stunning the Grammy stage. Some may say that, for the first time in years, the recording academy somewhat fairly distributed their awards.
As a musician myself, the deep rooted obsession with the Grammys has followed me around for most of my life. It is a musician’s dream to even be nominated. Over the weekend, I attended Noah Kahan’s concert in Glasgow and he said something I found particularly interesting: ‘’I was at the Grammy’s last week and I felt like the biggest loser there’’ . This perfectly depicts the honour and pressure an artist may feel to be part of the biggest music event of the year. Given its reputation, it seems only right to discuss the wins, performances, controversies, as well as the best red carpet looks at this year’s Grammy awards.
Wins:
Phoebe Bridgers was the most awarded artist of the night, taking home four awards. Three were with her stellar band Boygenius – winning best rock song for ‘Not Strong Enough’ a song that clearly dominated everyone’s Spotify playlists upon its release, and one solo Grammy win with her collaborator SZA, on a song called, ‘Ghost in the Machine’. As a long-term Phoebe Bridgers fan, witnessing her talent being finally recognised, after losing all of her nominations in 2021 felt exquisite; it was like I was also winning a grammy myself.
Taylor Swift made Grammy history by being the only woman to win Album Of The Year four times, arguably the most prestigious award of the night. Earlier, Swift took home Best Pop Vocal Album for ‘Midnights’ and announced her 11th studio album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ which sounds exactly like every English student’s dream. Thus, the utter shock on Swift’s face when she was announced the Album Of The Year winner was priceless and unexpected. April 19th cannot come any sooner…
We have all grown up watching Hannah Montana on Disney Channel and at one point in our girlhood we were obsessed with Miley Cyrus. I genuinely believe Cyrus is one of the best vocalists of our time. With the immense power her vocal abilities hold and the raspy rock ‘n’ roll tone, she truly is the goddaughter of legend Dolly Parton. Cyrus’ win for her song ‘Flowers’ was a long time coming, with 18 years in Hollywood under her belt, genre changes, drastic haircuts and public scrutiny of her private life Cyrus made it clear at the 66th Grammy’s that she is a worldwide treasure not in spite of who she is but because of who she is.
Lastly, the category that kept me up all night; Best New Artist. Noah Kahan and Gracie Abrams are my two favourite artists and both were nominated, thus making it a difficult decision over who I was rooting for the most. However, none of them took home a Grammy that night. Instead, it was awarded to singer/songwriter Victoria Monnet. At first, I was disappointed that my favourite artists did not win, considering the fact that Kahan brought his mum as his date. However, after re-evaluating, I realised how incredibly hard Victoria Monnet has worked to get where she is now, she spent years behind the scenes, writing music for artists like Ariana Grande and Fifth Harmony. Monnet proved that sometimes it may take 15 years to become an overnight success and to never give up on your dreams.
Controversies:
It wouldn’t be the Grammys without a little bit of controversy.
Taylor Swift, the biggest artist currently on the planet, received a flood of criticism online for announcing an album release on the Grammys stage and for inviting Lana Del Rey to join her, after Del Rey had lost to her for Album Of The Year. I think this hate is unnecessary; people will never be happy for Swift no matter what she does. People would have been upset if she did not bring Del Rey on stage and gave her a beautiful tribute. The situation reminds me of the 2016 hate train on Swift, which stemmed from society’s refusal to celebrate a woman at the pinnacle of her success.
This leads me onto my second point: Lana Del Rey was cheated out of an award. Del Rey is the 31st most listened to artist on Spotify and one of the most influential songwriters of our time. Del Rey’s true artistry lies in her lyricism discussing difficult topics such as abuse and mental illness- topics that so many young women can relate to. She has paved the way for female artists to be able to express themselves more freely through their music. The recording academy has never granted Lana Del Rey the recognition that she deserves. I rather believe that they use her attendance at the award shows for publicity. Therefore, Swift’s eloquent speech on Del Rey’s influence on the music industry was not only beautiful but needed.
Whilst Jay-Z was on stage accepting his award he began to defend his wife, Beyonce and criticize the Grammys for never awarding her with Album Of The Year, despite being the most awarded artist ever in Grammy history. It is interesting to point out that most of Queen B’s nominations and awards have been strictly stuck in the realm of RnB and HipHop and never in the bigger categories such as Album of the Year or Song Of The Year. Thus Jay-Z pointed out the fact that the Grammy’s often undercut black artists from the central categories and fail to recognise their art appropraietly. Frank Ocean once addressed this issue with refusing to submit his music to be eligible for a Grammy nomination as an act of protest against the recording academy.
Performances:
As always, the Grammys have the best mainstream acts performing at the award show. Starting with Billie Elish performing ’What was I made for’ from the worldwide phenomenon that was, and still is, the Barbie film.
Olivia Rodigro performed her hit song ’Vampire’ which demonstrated her power as a young vocalist in the music industry – and she did it in the most beautiful red gown (I must say).
Dua Lipa debuted a snippet of her upcoming single ‘Training season’ which was amazingly choreographed and reinforced Lipa’s Pop power on the charts.
However, I think the best performance of the night has to go to Joni Mitchell. Mitchell at 80 years old made her return to the stage with an emotional performance of ‘Both Sides Now’causing the audience of A-list celebrities to shed tears and provide standing ovations. Mitchell suffered an aneurysm in 2015, and had to learn her cognitive abilities again. Therefore, Mitchell’s power as a musician is particularly extraordinary as she demonstrates that her art is most precious to her. You cannot take the artists out of the art and that is the best way to encapsulate who Joni Mitchell is, she is her art.
Red Carpet Looks:
The Grammys are not only a music event but also a fashion one. Here are some of my favourite looks:
Madison Beer wore the most beautiful, elegant and Audrey Hepburn-esque gown by Marmar Halim, all wonderfully accented with a bow in the centre- Beer will be on every coquette Pinterest board in that dress.
Blue Ivy, despite being only eleven years old, is the epitome of class and true elegance. She looked phenomenal in a Vivienne Westwood dress and accompanied her father, Jay Z, whilst accepting his award. I think it’s fair to say that Blue Ivy took the spotlight away from him.
Tyla rocked the red carpet in an astonishing mint gown with silver sparkles designed by Atelier Versace.
Overall thoughts:
In Conclusion, the 66th Grammy awards were probably the Grammys, which somewhat fairly recognised the musical talent that sprung in late 2022 and 2023. One of my favourite moments was when Miely Cyrus screamed mid performance ‘’I just won my first Grammy’’ and the look of disbelief and pride in her face was priceless. This evidently highlights the importance of being recognised by such a prestigious award for an artist. However, this does not mean that the recording academy is inclusive with acknowledging musicians and their art. They still have a long way to go before one can call the Grammys a non-bias award show.