2025 Grammy's: Best of the Night
Music's biggest night was filled with unforgettable performances and served as a celebration of some of the best art released in the past year. The competition was very tight this year, every category had several nominees that were equally deserving of the night's biggest honors. This past year was so great in terms of new music releases, it has been so much fun to be a fan of all of these artists. There was a very diverse range of artists celebrated, which was so great to see.
The entire show was dedicated to fundraising for the communities in Los Angeles that have been affected by the devastating wildfires last month, which is such an important cause to bring attention to. Los Angeles is home to such a vibrant artistic community, a city that is intertwined with the history of so much of the best art and music of our time. Many small businesses were highlighted throughout the show as well as tributes to the victims of the fires, the firefighters and first responders that put their lives on the line.
One of the best moments of the entire night was a tribute to the city from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, who performed the classic "California Dreamin'" by The Mammas and The Papas together. It was such a stunning performance from two of the most talented vocalists ever. The pair later won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their "Die With A Smile" collaboration.
I was especially excited to see all of the artists that won their very first awards from the Recording Academy this year, many even being nominated for the very first time. Doechii won her first Grammy for Best Rap Album for her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, making her now one of only three female artists in history to win that award, following in the footsteps of Lauryn Hill and Cardi B. I have recently discovered her music and truly am so in awe of her talents and the vision she has for her art. She is so deserving of that honor and her acceptance speech was so beautiful too. "I put my heart and my soul into this mixtape," she said through tears. "I bared my life. I went through so much. I dedicated myself to sobriety and God told me that I would be rewarded and that He would show me just how good it can get."
"I know that there is some Black girl out there, so many Black women out there that are watching me right now and I want to tell you: You can do it. Anything is possible. Anything is possible," she added. "Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, that tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark or that you’re not smart enough or that you’re too dramatic or you’re too loud. You are exactly who you need to be, to be right where you are, and I am a testimony. Praise God!"
Her performance later in the show was another one of my very favorite moments of the entire night. The choreography and vocal performance were both so sharp and executed so perfectly.
Sabrina Carpenter was nominated for six awards this year for the first time, she ended up winning Best Pop Solo Performance for "Espresso" and Best Pop Vocal Album for Short n' Sweet. She is among only 13 artists in history that have been nominated in all four of the big categories of the year, best new artist, record of the year, song of the year, and album of the year. She shares that achievement with another first-time nominee this year, Chappell Roan. Chappell has had a massive year and it has been so exciting to see her also receive six nominations celebrating her breakout success. She won the coveted Best New Artist award and her collaborator Dan Nigro was also awarded with Best Producer for their work together. She took this platform to raise awareness for up-and-coming artists in the music industry being undervalued and taken advantage of, particularly demanding that labels pay their artists a livable wage and provide health insurance. I have never seen another artist bring attention to that major issue before and it was really cool to see someone do so in front of millions of people watching,.
All of the Best New Artist nominees performed throughout the night, which were some of my favorite moments. Chappell took us all to the Pink Pony Club with her performance and Sabrina's jazzy rendition of "Espresso" and "Please Please Please" was so fun too. The medley of the other nominees like Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, RAYE, Doechii, Shaboozey and others were all great as well! 2024 was the year of incredible new artists breaking through and achieving massive success, I am really looking forward to seeing where all of the nominees go from here!
Charli xcx also received seven nominations, the second-most of any artist this year. I don't think anyone could have seen that coming this time last year, it is so exciting to see. BRAT was one of my personal favorite albums the year and I have truly loved seeing her have such a massive moment in pop culture with this record. Especially after being a fan of her for so long, all of the success is so well deserved and long overdue. Even though Charli has been consistently releasing incredible and innovative music for the better part of the last decade, she was only ever nominated for a Grammy one other time for her collaboration with Iggy Azalea on "Fancy" in 2015. She ended up winning three of the awards she was nominated for including Best Dance/Electronic Album, Best Dance Pop Recording for "Von dutch" and Best Recording Package. As an avid record collector, that last award couldn't have gone to a better artist - the physical packaging of her vinyl is among the most unique and well designed in my entire collection (maybe I'll do a full vinyl post about the album soon 💚)
She also closed out the show with an electrifying performance of "Von dutch" and a shortened version of the "Guess" remix (without Billie on stage, unfortunately!) She literally brought a rave to the Grammy's, starting in the parking garage and strutting her way to the main stage, which was also filled with cameos from all of the icons in the brat-verse. It would have been even more iconic if she performed "Spring breakers", it feels like that song was literally made to be performed there! It was so exciting to see her have this opportunity to perform on such a massive stage for the first time. May brat summer live on forever and ever!
The news has been particularly bleak over the past few months and many of the artists' acceptance speeches reflected that and advocated for those that are having their rights stripped away by the government. It has been really heartbreaking to see all of the evil and injustice in the world continue to take center stage. In moments like this, music can truly bring people together and it is so important to shed light on those communities that are underrepresented in the media. As I mentioned, Doechii and Chappell Roan both had very important political messages in their acceptance speeches, but many other artists took the time to stand up for an important cause on music's biggest night too. Lady Gaga took a stand for the trans and queer communities during her acceptance speech with Bruno Mars, following Trump's hateful declaration of there being only two sexes and blocking gender affirming care with his anti-trans executive orders. "Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love," she said.
When Shakira accepted her award for Best Latin Pop Album for Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, she gave such a powerful speech, "I want to dedicate this award to all of my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country. You are loved, you're worth it and I will always fight for you."
Alicia Keys was honored for her production with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. "This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices," she said. "We've seen on this stage talented, hardworking people from different backgrounds with different points of view, and it changes the game. DEI is not a threat, it's a gift." She added, "And the more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all."
Kendrick Lamar was among the biggest winners of the night, sweeping both Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Not Like Us", along with Best Music Video too. "This is what it's about, man, because at the end of the day, nothing more powerful than rap music. I don't care what it is. We are the culture that's gonna always stay here and live forever," he said in his speech for Song of the Year.
While it is common for the nominees for both categories to overlap, it is far less common for an artist to win both in the same year, so this is definitely a massive achievement and well-deserved for Kendrick. These wins are coming off of a major year for him, following his string of iconic diss tracks against Drake and the release of his incredible new album GNX. He is set to perform at the Superbowl Halftime Show in a few weeks, along with SZA before they embark on their tour together later this year. By the way, SZA also won for Best R&B song for "Saturn", which is so well deserved too!
"Not Like Us" is only the second rap song in Grammy history to receive the award for Record of the Year, following Childish Gambino's "This Is America" - surely it is the first diss track to ever win these awards though!
This year, Beyoncé extended her record of the most awarded and nominated Grammy artist of all time, with 35 wins and 99 nominations. She won the award for Best Country Album, making her the first Black woman to ever do so, a historically important achievement that has been a long time coming. "I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists and I just want to encourage people to do what they're passionate about, and to stay persistent," she said.
Finally the time has come for the biggest award of the night, Album of the Year, to be awarded to Beyoncé for Cowboy Carter as well. This is her fourth time nominated for Album of the Year and her first time winning. "I just want to thank the Grammys, every songwriter, every collaborator, every producer, all of the hard work. I want to dedicate this to Miss Linda Martell, and I hope we keep pushing forward and opening doors," she said, referring to the first commercially successful Black female country artist, who was featured on two songs on Cowboy Carter. This was another very tight category with so many incredible albums nominated, so it was difficult to predict who was going to win this year. It is worth noting that this Album of the Year win follows a moment in last year's show when her husband was accepting an award of his own and complained about the Grammy's for never awarding her with the most coveted award of the ceremony. I don't think the artist that is not only the most nominated, but also the most awarded artist in history can necessarily be slighted by the Academy in anyway, but this is a massive achievement nonetheless.
In an interesting turn of events, both Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift were completely shut out of every award they were nominated for this year. Two of the most beloved artists in pop music, both of which were nominated for seven and six awards respectively, went home empty handed following their massively successful 2024 releases. When it comes to Taylor with The Tortured Poets Department, I honestly wasn't too surprised by that because the competition was so strong this year. As much as I love Taylor, I knew they wouldn't award her Album of the Year to two years in a row, or the fifth time overall - at least not right now. It would be cool to see her win Album of the Year again one day, which would only be extending her own record at that point!
However I think that Billie Eilish's HIT ME HARD AND SOFT may be up there with one of the biggest snubs in Grammy history, right up there with Lorde's Melodrama and every single Lana Del Rey album ever. It truly is the perfect album from start to finish, a true masterpiece that is among the greatest work she has created thus far. Out of all of the artists nominated this year, Billie was the last one that I expected to see not win anything this year, it was very surprising. No one came close to what Billie did with that record, those ten songs are masterfully performed, produced, and curated into a truly transcendent listening experience. At the end of the day, awards don't matter any way, and she definitely isn't underappreciated or underrated by any means, but this album in particular is just so amazing and deserved that recognition.
I was especially surprised "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" didn't win anything in either the major categories or the pop categories either, I thought that would have been an obvious win for them. It's one of the most incredible songs of the year, which was further solidified with her stunning performance of it early in the show. The stage design looked like a canyon in Los Angeles, with the screen incorporating childhood photos of her and Finneas throughout the song. It was such a beautiful ode to the city that shaped who they are as artists.
In addition to the iconic musical moments, I always love to highlight some of my favorite red carpet fashion moments too!
B E S T D R E S S E D
Chappell Roan
Taylor Swift
Charli xcx
Sabrina Carpenter
Billie Eilish
Olivia Rodrigo
Clario
Cynthia Erivo
Doechii
Cardi B
Kacey Musgraves
Miley Cyrus
Shakira
Alicia Keys
Jack Antonoff & Margaret Qualley
Troye Sivan
Gracie Abrams
Noah Kahan
Finneas & Claudia Sulewski
Trevor Noah
RAYE
Willow
Mustard & Brittany Stroud
Shaboozey
Nat & Alex Wolff
St. Vincent
This year, The Grammy's spotlighted MusiCares.org as a resource to help relief efforts for those affected by the devastating wildfires. Please support if you are able to or spread the word for their cause. 💓
Thanks for reading! I have written many in-depth reviews of this year's biggest nominees, all of which are linked below. Much of this music + more were also spotlighted in both my favorite albums and favorite songs of 2024 list, be sure to check those out if you're looking for more music recommendations from some of the best music of the past year.
All photo credit to owners - CBS, Getty Images, The Recording Academy, People, The Hollywood Reporter, USA Today, Associated Press
Related Posts:
Comments
Post a Comment