By Mick Dillon / The Jambar
The stars were out in California as the Recording Academy hosted The 68th Grammy Awards ceremony Feb. 1 at Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles.
The Grammys consist of 95 categories including fan favorites like Album of the Year, Best Live Performance and Record of the Year. The categories not aired on the main broadcast occurred a few hours beforehand during the red carpet event.
While The Grammys are given to the most outstanding artists each year, the ceremony also doubles as a live performance featuring all-star casts. Some key performers of the night included:
- Bruno Mars and Rosé
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Addison Rae
- Olivia Dean
- Justin Bieber
- Lady Gaga
- Tyler, The Creator
- Clipse
- Reba McEntire
- Lauryn Hill
McEntire performed for the first time in Grammy history and delivered a rendition of her hit song, “Trailblazer,” accompanied by Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson. The performance was a tribute to McEntire’s late stepson, Brandon Blackstock.
Keeping up the trend of historic performances, Hill took the Grammy stage for the first time since 1999 and performed a touching 12-minute tribute to artists D’Angelo and Roberta Flack. Hill was accompanied by Lucky Daye, Raphael Saadiq, Anthony Hamilton, Leon Thomas, Leon Bridges, Alexia Jayy, Jon Batiste, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, John Legend, Chaka Khan and Wyclef Jean.
Each nominee for Best New Artist was given a brief timeslot to showcase their breakout songs. Olivia Dean and Leon Thomas had standout performances and quickly became fan favorites of the night.
Although the actual awards ceremony seemed to be an afterthought, viewers were still able to catch the “Mount Rushmore” of awards in between the performances — Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist.
Best New Artist was the first award given on the broadcast. Dean received the award over fellow nominees Alex Warren, Thomas, KATSEYE, Lola Young, The Marías, Sombr and Rae.
Album of the Year was a highly competitive award, as always, with Bieber, Tyler, The Creator, Bad Bunny, Gaga, Carpenter, Lamar, Thomas and Clipse all earning nominations. Ultimately, upcoming Super Bowl LX halftime performer Bad Bunny received the award for his album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.
Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish’s Wildflower and was her lone award of the night, bringing her career total to 10 Grammys.
Lamar led all artists in nominations with nine and received awards for Record of the Year, Best Rap Album, Best Melodic Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.
Steven Spielberg took home the award for Best Music Film, adding him to the list of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award recipients. Spielberg became just the 22nd competitive EGOT recipient, joining stars like Legend, Elton John and Viola Davis.
Next year’s Grammy ceremony will mark the end of a 54-year run on the CBS network as the awards show will begin its decade-long contract with ABC. All future iterations of the Recording Academy’s ceremonies will be broadcast on ABC and streamed on the station’s subsidiaries, Disney+ and Hulu.