Earlier this month, artists and fans gathered to celebrate the 66th Annual Grammy Awards – a night of excitement and controversy for music lovers across the globe. While the Grammys are inherently subjective and may not always accurately measure the quality of music or the impact of an artist, with some triumphs and some snubs, the night still proved to be another fun celebration of the past year of music.
The Grammys reflected that Taylor Swift seems to be ruling the world at the moment. Taking home the award for Best Pop Vocal Album and announcing her brand new album The Tortured Poets Department during her speech, there is simply no one doing it quite like her. She also accepted the biggest award of the night – Album of the Year. We are life-long Swifties here at The Grizzly but nonetheless agree with some of the controversy that the culture that existed around The Eras Tour deserved recognition, not the album Midnights itself. The album alone simply does not outdo SOS by SZA, the record by boygenius, or Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard by Lana Del Rey. However, another win for Swift is another win for The Grizzly writers, so we will happily take it.
During the pre-ceremony, the supergroup boygenius took home three awards including Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for “Not Strong Enough” and Best Alternative Music Album for their critically acclaimed album the record. Paramore also took home two awards for Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Rock Album for This Is Why. While we both hoped these awards would be shown during the telecast to increase the bands’ exposure, they were still sweet moments shared with us die-hard boygenius and Paramore fans who were eagerly watching live streams and crossing our fingers the bands would win. Julien Baker of boygenius commented that “music is the language I use to find my family” and Paramore celebrated at home with a cake decorated with the word “Winner” and a smiley face – endearing moments shared between the band members and virtually with their fans. Paramore also made history as the first female-fronted band to win Best Rock Album, a decisive milestone in gender equality in music we hope will herald inclusivity in music spaces for everyone.
SZA, who received the most nominations this year for her album SOS and hit singles “Kill Bill” and “Snooze”, took home three awards including Best Progressive R&B Album and Best R&B Song. She also won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance alongside Phoebe Bridgers for their collaboration “Ghost in the Machine.” This win, alongside the three awards as part of boygenius, made Bridgers the most awarded artist of the night.
Some other major wins included Billie Eilish’s Song of the Year for “What Was I Made For?” As a core part of the Barbie movie that helped spur a new wave of feminism and pride in girlhood on social media platforms like TikTok, this choice seemed appropriate. In an extremely competitive category, this win truly reflects how female artists dominated the Grammys this year. However, Miley Cyrus’ win for Record of the Year caused a bit more controversy both online and among Grizzly writers. “Flowers” was undeniably popular, and you almost cannot enter a moving vehicle without hearing it on the radio. Yet for an award so focused on the producers and engineers that contribute to a recording, this win seemed a bit out of place.
Best New Artist was especially competitive this year with artists including Ice Spice, Victoria Monét, Coco Jones, Jelly Roll, Gracie Abrams, Fred again.., Noah Kahan, and The War and Treaty. Many expected Ice Spice to take it home, considering her rapid rise to fame and considerable popularity on social media. However, many still happily celebrated Victoria Monét’s win and are excited to see what she does next. As a long-time collaborator with artists such as Ariana Grande, writing hits such as “7 rings” and “thank u, next”, Monét can certainly go anywhere from here.
One of the biggest controversies was Lana Del Rey’s lack of recognition. The Grammys have repeatedly snubbed her year after year, and this was no exception. Besides her shoutout from Swift, Del Rey was once again overlooked by The Recording Academy and walked away without a single award. Additionally, Olivia Rodrigo’s losses came as a surprise to fans. Some also claim that rappers were snubbed this year, although Jay-Z was given the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.
With a tear-jerking performance by Joni Mitchell and Trevor Noah’s jokes that struck the appropriate balance between funny and offensive, the event was watchable and even enjoyable. You have to take it with a grain of salt – The Recording Academy does not know everything. But if you acknowledge the subjectivity that inherently exists in these award shows, it was another year of fun and spirited debate surrounding music.
