Los Angeles has hosted the Grammy Awards all but two times out of the last 20 years, usually at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center). So it was no surprise that the wildfires that devastated L.A. throughout January were the focal point of the 67th annual Grammys on Sunday night, with frequent instructions on how to donate to a fire relief fund.
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Brad Paisley and members of the band Dawes, who lost their homes in the fires, opened the show with an all-star group including Sheryl Crow and John Legend, performing a cover of Randy Newman’s 1983 hit “I Love L.A.” And throughout the night, artists who call Los Angeles home were continuously shouting out the city.
Billie Eilish ended her performance of “Birds of a Feather” by quickly stating, “I love you, L.A.” Chappell Roan called “Pink Pony Club” her “love letter to L.A.” in the pretaped introduction to her performance. Anthony Kiedis and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers and sang a couple of lines of “Under the Bridge” to profess their love of Los Angeles while presenting Best Pop Vocal Album award.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars saluted L.A. with a cover of “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas instead of performing their nominated duet, “Die with a Smile.” And at the end of the night, a group of about 20 members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department received a standing ovation when they appeared onstage to present Album of the Year.
(Credit: JC Olivera/WireImage)
Bey’s Big Night
Beyoncé has been the most awarded artist in Grammy history since 2023, but the fact that she’s never won Album of the Year had begun to loom over the awards as something of an embarrassment. The previous four times she’d been nominated for the Grammys’ highest honor, she lost to Taylor Swift, Beck, Harry Styles, and Adele, who tearfully declared, “The artist of my life is Beyoncé” in her acceptance speech. When Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z received the inaugural Dr. Dre Global Impact Award last year, he chided the Recording Academy: “Think about that. The most Grammys, never won Album of the Year. That doesn’t work.”
This year felt like it could finally be the big one for Beyoncé, who was the most nominated artist, up for 11 awards. And at the end of the night, she finally locked down Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter. “I hope we just keep pushing forward, opening doors,” Beyoncé said, dedicating the award to Linda Martell, a Black country trailblazer who appeared on Cowboy Carter.
The Recording Academy has long had a tendency to give Album of the Year to artists who were well overdue for the honor. The way people at the Grammys talked about Beyoncé, who’s 43, made her sound positively ancient. Bob Dylan, Steely Dan, Ray Charles, and Herbie Hancock were all much older than Beyoncé is, and further past their peak (and in Charles’s case, dead), when they finally won Album of the Year. Still, better late than never.
All in all, Beyoncé won three awards on Sunday, bringing her record-breaking Grammy total to 35. She’s only the second Black woman to win Album of the Year after Lauryn Hill. And when she won Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to win a country Grammy in 50 years. The Pointer Sisters previously won in the same category for “Fairytale” in 1975.
Kendrick’s Sweep
One of the funniest moments from Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 beef got a little more hilarious on Sunday night. “Kendrick just opened his mouth, someone go hand him a Grammy right now,” Drake rapped on the diss track “Family Matters,” bitterly mocking Lamar’s propensity for winning prestigious awards. The chart-topping response song that Lamar released just a day later, “Not Like Us,” won every category it was nominated in: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video.
“Not Like Us” played as Lamar walked onstage to accept Record of the Year, and the assembled audience of music industry A-listers could be heard loudly singing along with the diss track, infamously directed towards Drake. “We’re gonna dedicate this one to the city,” Kendrick Lamar said in his acceptance speech. “Compton. Watts. Long Beach. Inglewood. Hollywood. Out to the Valley. Pacoima. I.E. San Bernardino. All that.”
Kendrick Lamar was nominated for seven Grammys overall, but another song he dissed Drake on, Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” was also nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, so he could only win five. Lamar now has a career total of 22 Grammys, with Jay-Z and Kanye West as the only rappers with more awards. Drake, who has had a contentious relationship with the Recording Academy and withdrew his music from Grammy consideration in 2021 and 2022, has won a total of five Grammys. And with his Super Bowl halftime show performance a week away, the Grammys aren’t even the most exciting date on Kendrick Lamar’s calendar this month.
Snubs and Controversies
Post Malone lost the most awards on Sunday, winning none of the eight categories he was nominated in. Billie Eilish also came up empty for seven nominations, and Taylor Swift and her producer Jack Antonoff were both 0 for six. Bruno Mars only won one of the two awards he was up for, making Sunday the first time Mars has lost any Grammy he’s been nominated for since 2014.
Kanye West was an unwelcome guest at the Grammys this year. The Chicago rapper was photographed on the red carpet with his barely clothed wife, Bianca Censori, minutes before the couple were escorted off the premises. West was apparently uninvited despite being nominated for Best Rap Song, which he did not win. He was previously disinvited from the 2022 Grammys after a series of insulting social media posts about several public figures, including Grammys host Trevor Noah, though he still won two awards that year.
In 2021, The Weeknd began a boycott of the Grammys after he was shut out of nominations for his album After Hours and the blockbuster single “Blinding Lights.” On Sunday, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. gave a speech that directly addressed the criticism the organization had faced about its voting process, and the “transformation” it underwent in recent years to prioritize “fairness, integrity, and the principle that every voice in our community matters.” Then, Mason introduced a surprise performance by The Weeknd that had been kept under wraps, with the Canadian superstar performing two songs from the album he released two days earlier, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
Pop and Politics
Donald Trump’s name was not spoken during the Grammys telecast. But throughout the night, several stars made statements unambiguously opposing the policies of the divisive 47th President of the United States, and the many executive orders he’s signed in his first two weeks in office, targeting immigrants, transgender Americans, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
“This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices. We’ve seen on this stage talented, hard-working people from different backgrounds with different points of view and it changes the game. DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift,” said Alicia Keys when accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.
“Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up, music is love,” Lady Gaga said while accepting Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Die with a Smile” with Bruno Mars.
Diana Ross, while presenting Song of the Year, said, “To those who are hurting tonight, especially the children who might be frightened: you are not alone. We stand with you.”
“I, too, have been an immigrant who came to this country with a dream,” said Shakira, while accepting the Best Latin Pop Album award. “Latinos, we are an unstoppable force. I will not tire of fighting with them and for them.”
Trevor Noah, who was born in South Africa, made a quick joke about the Trump administration’s immigration policies, stating, “I’m just going to enjoy tonight, because you never know, this may be the last time I get to host anything in this country.” Another joke the host made did not play well on social media, though: “Shakira is here, the greatest thing to come out of Colombia that isn’t a Class A felony.”
The New Class
Only two artists in Grammy history have swept the “big four” all-genre categories (Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Arist): Christopher Cross in 1981 and Billie Eilish in 2020. This year both Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan had a shot at winning all four awards, but neither pulled off the sweep. Roan got Best New Artist, while Carpenter won a pair of awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Roan, outspoken as ever, used her acceptance speech to advocate for the industry to take better care of musicians: “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you — but do you got us?”
This year’s Grammys featured one of the strongest fields of Best New Artist nominees in years. And since the more established stars like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Kendrick Lamar weren’t performing this year, Grammy rookies like Carpenter, Roan, Doechii, and Benson Boone dominated the spotlight with some of the night’s most memorable performances.
“This award was introduced in 1989, and three women have won: Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and me,” Doechii said in an emotional speech while accepting Best Rap Album (actually, that category was introduced in 1996 – it was Best Rap Performance that became the first hip-hop Grammy in 1989).
Other first-time Grammy winners this year included West Virginia country singer Sierra Ferrell, French metal band Gojira, North Carolina rapper Rapsody, and New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas.
Charli XCX became a Grammy winner for the first time on Sunday, winning three awards exactly a decade after her first two nominations for her Iggy Azalea collaboration “Fancy.” She also gave the climactic final performance of the night, a medley of “Von Dutch” and “Guess” that ended with the stage covered in an enormous pile of underwear that had to be quickly swept off during a commercial break.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
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By: Al Shipley
Title: The 2025 Grammy Awards: Winners, Losers, Snubs, and Surprises
Sourced From: www.spin.com/2025/02/the-2025-grammy-awards-winners-losers-snubs-and-surprises/
Published Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 14:30:00 +0000
