By KATE BELMAN
If you weren’t aware, we’ve been in awards season since November. Awards season is the annual period from November to February when most awards shows occur. Last Sunday, February 4 at 8:00 PM, the Grammy Awards were presented by The Recording Academy “to recognize ‘outstanding’ achievements in the music industry.”
GRAMMY nominations for this year came out on November 10, 2023. In total, there are 98 categories for this year's awards. Some of the most coveted awards include Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.
This year, there were three new debut GRAMMY categories: Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording. According to an article on grammy.com, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. says these additions as well as other updates and amendments are all a part of the process to transform the awards to be “more fair, transparent and accurate.”
If you were busy Sunday night, here’s a recap of the evening: Song of the Year nominee Dua Lipa opened the Grammys with a combination of some of her most popular songs. Miley Cyrus won the first Grammy of the evening, for Best Solo Performance. Luke Combs then performed his iconic cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” as a duet along with her.
Best R&B Song was presented to SZA for her song “Snooze” from her album “SOS,” which came out in December 2022. Taylor Swift won her “lucky number” 13th Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album on her album “Midnights,” and announced her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” which comes out on April 19.
Stevie Wonder performed “In Memoriam,” featuring music from artists who passed away recently like Jimmy Buffet and Harry Belafonte. Annie Lenox also performed, singing a Sinéad O’Connor song. Jon Batiste sang as well. Fantasia Barrino performed a tribute to the legend Tina Turner, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Jay-Z won the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award and came on stage to accept the award with his 11-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy.
Song of The Year, presented by Lionel Richie, went to Billie Eilish for “What Was I Made For” from the major motion picture, Barbie. Plus, for the very first time, 80-year-old legendary singer-songwriter, Joni Mitchell, performed at the Grammys, with her song, “Both Sides Now”.
Best New Artist had 8 nominees: Coco Jones, Noah Kahan, Fred Again, The War and Treaty, Gracie Abrams, Victoria Monét, Ice Spice, and Jelly Roll. The Grammy was presented by last year’s winner, Samara Joy. The winner, Victoria Monét, is a 34-year-old R&B and pop singer. One of her more popular songs that you may have heard, “On My Mama”, came out in 2023.
Meryl Streep and son-in-law Mark Ronson presented the award for Record of the Year, with John Batiste, Boygenius, Miley Cyrus, Billie Elish, Victoria Monét, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and SZA competing for the award. The Grammy went to Miley Cyrus for “Flowers,” her viral 2023 hit.
The renowned “Piano Man,” Billy Joel, then came on stage. Joel carries quite an impressive career under his belt, like selling out Madison Square Garden in New York City 150 times, being a six-time Grammy Award winner and 23-time nominee, and selling over 150 million records worldwide. After a 30-year-long hiatus, Joel wrote and recorded a new song. It took two additional years, but the world was finally gifted with a new song, titled “Turn the Lights Back On,” which Joel played as one of the final performances of the night.
The show ended with Celine Dion presenting Album of the Year, which went to Taylor Swift, for “Midnights,” her fourteenth Grammy award overall, and her second of the night. This is Swift’s fourth time winning this award, making her the very first person to win Album of the Year four times.
February 2024
The Prowler 