The 2023 Grammy Awards: Whose big night was it?

Our takeaways from music's so-called Biggest Night

View this email online Feb. 6, 2023 by Marissa Lorusso Today, we’re sharing the key takeaways from Sunday night’s 65th Grammy Awards. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Leading up to the 65th annual Grammy Awards, many of us were focused on one major question: Would the Recording Academy finally do right by Beyoncé? The answer, it turns out, is a little complicated. On one hand, she hit a major milestone: Beyoncé’s four wins last night, courtesy of her album RENAISSANCE, bumped up her all-time Grammy total to 32 — more than any other artist, ever. But that wasn’t the whole story. As is becoming Grammys tradition, Bey got shut out of the general categories. She has never won album or record of the year (and hasn’t won song of the year since 2010), and last night proved to be much the same. RENAISSANCE lost album of the year to Harry Styles' Harry's House, and "Break My Soul" lost record of the year to Lizzo's "About Damn Time.” (Meanwhile, the Grammy for song of the year — which honors songwriters specifically — was more or less a total surprise: It went to Bonnie Raitt for her song "Just Like That.") By the time Styles accepted the night’s final award and the dust began to settle on the (very long) ceremony — capped off by DJ Khaled shouting “God did!” into the streets of LA amidst a very DJ Khaled extravaganza — the energy felt a little … strange. That’s not to say the night didn’t have some serious highlights. The show opened with Bad Bunny, who gave an electrifying performance of tracks from his album Un Verano Sin Ti; later in the night, he accepted the award for best música urbana album. "I made this album with love and passion and when you do things with love and passion, everything is easier — life is easier," he said in English in his acceptance speech. It was also a delight to see the award for best new artist go to the gifted young jazz singer Samara Joy, who marveled that she’d won one of the Grammy's biggest prizes, as she put it, "just by being myself." (If you want to catch up on Joy’s meteoric rise, read this lovely profile from WRTI’s Nate Chinen.) And Sam Smith and Kim Petras made history when they won for best pop duo/group performance — the first Grammy awarded to an openly trans woman and the first to an openly nonbinary artist. I felt especially touched when Petras shouted out SOPHIE, the groundbreaking trans pop artist who died in 2020, in her acceptance speech. Newsletter continues after sponsor message The night was filled with excellent performances, too: Brandi Carlile’s stirring rendition of "Broken Horses”; Steve Lacy’s magnetic performance of “Bad Habit,” featuring Thundercat on bass. The show’s “In Memoriam'' segment, honoring musicians and industry professionals who died in the last year, was made especially moving by personal connections among artists, like the elegy the late rapper Takeoff received from his uncle and Migos groupmate Quavo, and the memorial to Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie by Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood. But the real standout performance was the star-studded tribute to the history of hip-hop organized by Questlove. The set honored the genre’s 50th anniversary this year and featured landmark songs from across its history, with performances from Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Ice-T, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, GloRilla, Lil Uzi Vert and many more. “Every few seconds seemed to bring someone new, but the set never felt enervating or unnecessarily chaotic,” my colleague Stephen Thompson wrote. “There were quibbles — it could have showcased more Southern sounds, Lil' Kim was in the building but didn't perform, and so on — but the result was just glorious.” (Stephen detailed his thoughts on the night — including his take on Lizzo’s big win and the Academy’s curious relationship with country music — in a list of 10 major takeaways.) If you’re craving a deeper dive into music’s so-called Biggest Night, reporter Anastasia Tsioulcas and editor Hazel Cills have all the details. Plus, you can hear more analysis of last night’s events on today’s episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, where Stephen was joined by Anastasia and critic Kiana Fitzgerald. And though just a handful of awards were handed out on the telecast, tons more were given out to artists including Rosalía, Robert Glasper and Wet Leg in a ceremony earlier in the afternoon; we’ve got the full list of winners on our site. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. 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