Happy Monday, folks! If you didn't know, it was a long evening in the music industry last night at the 65th annual Grammy Awards! While there was something for everyone, there were good, bad, and some head-scratchers! Get into my favorites of the night, things I could have done without, and some of the funniest tweets I agree with!
The show opened up with Bad Bunny showing us why his reach is global! Starting his set, "With a lot of love to all of you," he opened with "El Apagon" accompanied by plena dancers, A genre from Puerto Rico, and giant character heads. He performed "Despise de la Playa" on stage with around 40 merengue dancers! Though he did not win Album of the Year for "Un Verano Sin Ti," the first project entirely in Spanish to be nominated, he did snag Best Música Urbana Album for it. He deserved his spot on my year-end list, that's for sure.
Viola Davis won the Grammy for Best Audio Book Narration and Storytelling for her memoir Finding Me. This win makes her the third Black woman to EGOT alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Hudson. She looked stunning onstage, accepting her award as she shouted to the crowd, "I just EGOT!" I know that's right, Vi! Well deserved.
Continuing with more Black woman records, after a beautiful rendition of the title track of her album Special backed by a full gospel choir and fully taking us to church, Lizzo won Record of the Year for "About Damn Time," which a Black woman has not won since Miss Whitney Houston won in 1994 for "I Will Always Love You."
Queer history was made last night after Sam Smith & Kim Petras won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Smith and Kim are the first non-binary and transgender duo to win the category. This was not lost on Smith, who allowed her to accept the award on stage. She thanked the "transgender legends before me." while naming SOPHIE specifically as an inspiration!
In an expansive and executed-way-better-than-I-thought way, the Grammys paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with a medley performance that spanned decades from Run D.M.C., L.L., Flava Flav, Queen Latifah, and more to Lil Baby, Glo Rilla, and Lil Uzi Vert. While some argued that the tribute was missing a lot of people, a point L.L. Cool J made before it began, it did not fail to get the crowd up on their feet watching some of the genre's most extraordinary talents perform.
Now we talk about Mother, who became the most decorated Grammy-winning artist last night with 32 Grammys after winning best R&B song for "Cuff It," dance-electric music recording for "Break My Soul," traditional R&B performance for "Plastic Off the Sofa" and dance-electric album for Renaissance.
Many were waiting for Beyonce to finally win Album of the Year, which she has lost every year she has entered, but the win went to Harry Styles's Harry's House to many scratching heads. We closed out the Grammys to many disappointed fans, some artists, and very uproared Black Twitter.
Here are some of my favorite tweets commemorating the night:
Adele in complete shock at Album of the Year, us too girl... us too
Adele said “I don’t fink so babes! I ain’t clapping for ‘em” pic.twitter.com/aOkxlwL2Sn
— Meech (@MediumSizeMeech) February 6, 2023
Apple TV definitely needs an upgrade.
Now Apple… y’all need ya A** beat. Cuz wtf kinda closed captioning is this… for Spanish?! pic.twitter.com/wVVyW1XGY4
— She-King (@kornbreadTMFS) February 6, 2023
It was a female rap renaissance this past year... where is the love Grammys?!
Another blasphemous moment: not a single Female rapper nominated for rap category ? When last year the women were dominating the charts ?? pic.twitter.com/Rdc9FjnFLk
— 444 (@thisiscourtneyt) February 6, 2023
VIOOOOOLA!!!!
nothing but respect for MY EGOT winner Viola Davis who actually won every award for actually performing (not producing) which is way rarer than you think!! a true queen!
— Chris Murphy (@christress) February 5, 2023
Lizzo genuinely had the best pics of the night!
Selfie as Beyoncé casually makes herstory pic.twitter.com/UPzPdcaaPP
— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) February 6, 2023
Cardi B being best dressed in my opinion.
If there is one thing Belcalis is going to do, she's going to WORK a red carpet. Cardi B is really the fashion girl of the rappers and I love that for her. pic.twitter.com/2xa5QXU291
— Mekishana Pierre (@mekishana) February 6, 2023
And that's that on the Grammys... will we watch next year? Probably not but it was a cute time!
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