Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy |
| After a year of unexpected disappointments and disastrous shutdowns for the global music industry, last night’s 63rd annual Grammy Awards offered a few pleasant surprises – and saw some notable historic achievements. Taking home four awards, including best R&B performance and best rap performance, Beyoncé became the most decorated performer in Grammys history; Taylor Swift’s album of the year win for folklore made her only the fourth artist – and first woman – to ever take home three Grammys in that category. For the final award of the night, Billie Eilish, who swept last year’s ceremony, upset Megan Thee Stallion, who’d been named best new artist earlier in the evening; Eilish used her speech to praise Meg, saying, “Megan … girl, you deserve this.” It was an earnest, though awkward, gesture, and one that pointed to the larger context of erasure and exclusion in the ceremony’s history; as NPR Music contributor Maria Sherman points out in her recap, “It wouldn’t be the Grammys without a dose of cruel traditionalism and a few familiar mistakes.” |
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| In his takeaways, Stephen Thompson admitted that the telecast was surprisingly watchable for a pandemic-era broadcast, coming just on the heels of a clunky Golden Globes ceremony. The performances – a blend of live and pre-taped moments – were downright impressive. As for the Recording Academy? Last year’s ceremony was clouded by controversy, following explosive allegations of sexual misconduct and financial and voting improprieties, and a year later, it’s clear the organizing body still has some serious work to do. You can hear more analysis of the ceremony on today’s episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, recorded overnight with NPR Music contributor Cyrena Touros. And for the completists and the curious, we’ve also got the full list of winners on our site — there were just 11 awards handed out on the telecast, but 72 more given out to artists like Fiona Apple, John Prine and Kaytranada in a ceremony earlier in the afternoon.
And if many of the faces of last night’s winners looked familiar to us, it may be because they’ve graced the Tiny Desk (or shared a (home) concert since the pandemic). We’re always especially proud when Tiny Desk alums take home trophies — shoutout to three-time Grammy winner and inaugural Tiny Desk Contest winner Fantastic Negrito — so we put together a Tiny Desk playlist where you can watch all the Tiny Desk performances by this year’s winners. |
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