Taylor Swift wins record fourth best album Grammy
LOS ANGELES: Taylor Swift made Grammys history Sunday by winning her fourth Album of the Year prize, the most of any artist – the crowning moment of a night of electric performances and breakthrough wins.
In taking home the honor at the 66th annual Grammys in Los Angeles, Swift surpassed the likes of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder, industry greats she previously had been tied with.
It’s a cherry on top for the 34year-old, who is already one of music’s blockbuster stars.
“For me, the award is the work,” Swift said, who earlier in the night announced she would drop a new album on April 19. “I love it so much.”
“It makes me unbelievably blown away that it makes some people happy who voted for this award too.”
Swift however lost two other top prizes she was up for.
Record of the Year honors went to Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and the prize for Song of the Year, which honors songwriting, went to Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for “What Was I Made For?” from the “Barbie” soundtrack.
“This award is amazing but I really hope it doesn’t change anything because my life was beautiful yesterday,” Cyrus said onstage as she accepted her prize, her second of the evening -- and the second of her career.
“Not everyone in the world will get a Grammy, but everyone in this world is spectacular, so please don’t think that this is important.”
The already decorated Eilish was equally humble in accepting her prize, saying: “I just want to say everyone in this category, like – that was a crazy list of incredible people, incredible artists, incredible music!”
And Victoria Monet won the coveted Grammy for Best New Artist, her third prize of the evening.
Monet entered the night with seven nominations, including one for Record of the Year, after her debut studio album “Jaguar II” sparked a commercial breakthrough following years in the industry.
“Thank you to the champagne servers of tonight. That’s my first thank you,” Monet told the audience, also thanking her mother.
‘Feel very seen’
A clean sweep of the top awards for women was a triumph for the Recording Academy, which has been working for years against criticism that it heavily favors white men.
“As a woman, it feels a lot of the time like you’re not being seen... this makes me feel very seen,” Eilish told journalists backstage, when asked what the banner year for women meant to her going forward.
“Sometimes it feels really good to, like, have somebody telling you ‘good job’.”
This year, just one man, the jazz polymath Jon Batiste, was up for Album and Record of the Year; he left the gala empty-handed.
Top nominee SZA, who entered the night with nine nods, seized three total prizes, including Best R&B Song, Best Progressive R&B Album and Best Pop Duo or Group Performance with Phoebe Bridgers.
She burst onto the stage in a fluster to claim her Best R&B Song prize, telling the crowd she had just finished changing following her sizzling performance.
“I’m just really overwhelmed,” she said. “You don’t really understand, I came really, really far and I can’t believe this is happening.”
Karol G won the prize for Best Musica Urbana Album for “Manana Sera Bonito” -recognition that some industry watchers said wasn’t enough given that Latinos were excluded this year from the major categories.