Megan, Beyoncé rock the Grammys
AND DESPITE VOTING GRIPES, STARS BILLIE EILISH, LADY GAGA, ARIANA GRANDE & EVEN BLUE IVY CARTER SHINE
Megan Thee Stallion was the belle of the ball at the Grammys Sunday night, but Queen Bey kept her crown.
The 26-year-old singer was named best new artist at the ceremony, making her the first female hip-hop artist to win the category since Lauryn Hill in 1999.
“It’s been a hell of a year, but we made it,” she said while accepting her award outside the Los Angeles Convention Center. She also took hardware for best rap song and performance for “Savage.”
Beyoncé, meanwhile, beat Alison Krauss’ record for the most Grammys ever by a female artist — 28 — with her win for best R&B performance for “Black Parade.”
“I wanted to uplift, encourage and celebrate all of the beautiful Black queens and kings that inspire me and inspire the whole world,” she said during her acceptance speech.
It became a family affair when her 9-year-old daughter with rapper Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter, became one of the youngest Grammy winners in history with her trophy for best music video for “Brown Skin Girl.”
Beating out a crowded category that included Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, H.E.R. won song of the year for “I Can’t Breathe.”
“I didn’t realize that my fear and my pain would turn into impact and that it would possibly turn into change,” the singer said while accepting her award.
Taylor Swift’s “folklore,” the first of two surprise albums the singer released in 2020, was named album of the year, making her the first woman to win three times in that category after “Fearless” in 2010 and “1989 in 2016.
Miranda Lambert, who attended with husband Brendan McLoughlin, an NYPD officer from Staten Island, won best country album for “Wildcard” and Harry Styles received the trophy for best pop solo performance for “Watermelon Sugar,” which he performed live earlier in the show.
Nas’ “King’s Disease” won best rap album, The Strokes’ “The New Abnormal” won best rock album and Fiona Apple scored two early trophies for alternative album with “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” and for rock performance with “Shameika.”
Tiffany Haddish’s Black Mitzvah won best comedy album and Kanye West won best contemporary Christian music album for 2019 s “Jesus Is King,” his first Grammy win since 2013.
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande won best pop duo/group performance for “Rain on Me,” and Billie Eilish made history with her win for “No Time to Die” off the upcoming “James Bond” movie, marking the first time a song from an unreleased movie has won.
John Prine, who died in April due to complications from COVID-19, won two Grammy awards, best American roots song and best American roots performance for “I
Remember Everything,” released two months after his death.
With concerts canceled for more than a year due to the pandemic, musicians took advantage of the opportunity with stunning performances, from Bruno Mars doing his best Little Richard, mustache and all, to DaBaby with a stage full of grandmas as backup dancers.
Swift also took the Grammy stage for the first time since 2016 to perform a medley of “cardigan,” “august” and “willow” off her “folklore” and “evermore” albums, accompanied by collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.
Lionel Richie paid honor to his friend Kenny Rogers, who died in March 2020, with a rendition of the 1980 song “Lady,” which Richie wrote and produced and Rogers performed, while Brandi Carlisle performed Prine’s “I Remember Everything.”
Amid a racial reckoning in country music, spurred by rising star Morgan Wallen’s use of the N-word, Mickey Guyton, the first Black solo female country nominee, performed her stunning “Black Like Me.”
But the most culturally significant performance of the night came from Lil Baby, whose performance of “The Bigger Picture,” which he set in a re-creation of the Atlanta Wendy’s parking lot where Atlanta police officers fatally shot Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man who was cops found sleeping in his car in June 2020.
“President Biden, we demand justice, equity, policy and everything else that freedom encompasses,” activist Tamika Mallory said during the performance in a staged protest.
The Recording Academy also enlisted help from music venues around the country, including Station Inn in Nashville and the Troubadour in West Hollywood, where their managers helped announce winners.
But despite the joyous event on stage, industry politics cast a shadow over the festivities.
In the days leading up to the annual award show, The Weeknd, Zayn Malik and Justin Bieber, three of music’s most popular voices, accused the Recording Academy of nefarious side door deals that ruined the sanctity of the nominations.
“Because of the secret committees, I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys,” The Weeknd, whose album “After Hours” was snubbed from any nominations, told the New York Times.
Malik, who left One Direction in 2015, was more direct.
“F--k the Grammys and everyone associated. Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary,” he tweeted last week.
“My tweet was not personal or about eligibility but was about the need for inclusion and the lack of transparency of the nomination process and the space that creates and allows favoritism, racism, and networking politics to influence the voting process.”
On Sunday, hours before the show began, the “Vibez” singer echoed comments about “secret committees” by The Weeknd. “I’m keeping the pressure on & fighting for transparency & inclusion,” he tweeted. “We need to make sure we are honoring and celebrating ‘creative excellence’ of ALL.”
Bieber, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen during Sunday night’s ceremony despite several nominations after he called out the Academy in November for ignoring that he classified “Changes” as an R&B album and instead nominated him in pop categories. His collaboration with Dan + Shay, “10,000 Hours,” won best country duo/group performance.