Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish were among the big winners of the 2021 Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
The night remarkably saw all four major awards (Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist) go to women – just three years after former Recording Academy president Neil Portnow received strong unanswered criticism that women were needed to “step up” if they wanted to be recognized at the Grammys. Album of the year went to Folklore, with Taylor Swift becoming the first woman to win the award three times (she previously won for Fearless in 2010 and 1989 in 2016). SHE won the Song of the Year for “I Can’t Breathe”, while Billie Eilish won the Record of the Year for “Everything I Wanted” after winning the same award last year for “Bad Guy”.
Meanwhile, Megan Thee Stallion had a monumental night, becoming the first female rapper to win the Best New Artist award since Lauryn Hill in 1999. The Houston rapper also took home Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for his remix of “Savage” with Beyoncé. Megan then ended her big night with one of the best performances of the night, channeling an old Hollywood feeling – complete with tap dancers – into her interpretations of “Body” and “Savage”, before joining Cardi B to achieve her success. “WAP” live for the first time.
Beyoncé also had a historic night, becoming the most winning female artist in Grammy history, after winning four awards – including Best R&B Performance for “Black Parade” – to bring her grand total to 28. That also put her just three behind the top – award-winning person in Grammy history, conductor Georg Solti, who is 31 years old. On top of everything, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter, Blue Ivy, won her first Grammy, sharing the Best Music Video trophy with her mother and WizKiD.
As for the other awards shown during the Grammy broadcast, Harry Styles won his first Grammy, Best Pop Solo Performance, for “Watermelon Sugar”, as well as Bad Bunny, who won the Best Latin or Urban Pop Album for YHLQMDLG. Dua Lipa, in turn, won the Best Pop Vocal Album for Nostalgia for the future.
The Covid-19 pandemic, of course, yielded a visibly different Grammy, with the audience comprised only of the evening’s top nominees gathered at socially distant tables in an outdoor space near the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But, to some extent, the show was quite familiar: even under normal circumstances, the Grammy usually does not devote more than 30 minutes to awarding prizes, while the other three hours of the show are packed with as many performances as possible.
So it was this year, although the program had a more simplified feel: there were no classic “Grammy moments” – those collaborations that were sometimes intriguing, but often tediously fabricated – focusing only on this year’s nominees, while the lack of a great the audience personally also made the presentations more intimate.
The show began with a biting monologue by Trevor Noah, followed by performances by Styles, Eilish and Finneas, and Haim, all gathered in the same room. This charmingly cavernous space served as the main stage for the night, providing a unique space where the artists essentially ended up performing for each other. After doing an eye-popping performance of “Dákiti” with Jhay Cortez, Bad Bunny sat next to the stage and sang silently while Dua Lipa played in a stunning medley of songs from Nostalgia for the future.
Although the show featured a mix of live and pre-recorded performances, the entire production felt perfect. The artists took advantage of all the obstacles, be it Swift, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner acting Folklore songs in an elaborate forest setting, or DaBaby wearing diamond-encrusted gloves, enlisting a violinist and conducting support singers dressed as Supreme Court judges while tearing up “Rockstar” with Roddy Ricch. In one of the most powerful moments of the night, Lil Baby staged a harrowing rebuke to police violence while singing his protest song, “The Bigger Picture”, with the help of Killer Mike and activist Tamika Mallory.
Mickey Guyton, who made history as the first black solo artist to win a Grammy in a country category (Best Performance Solo Country, although he lost to Vince Gill), made a stellar interpretation of “Black Like Me” to start a series country presentations. Miranda Lambert followed with “Bluebird”, while Maren Morris closed things down with “Bones”, with John Mayer on the guitar.
Later, Post Malone chaired a hyper-stylized session during “Hollywood’s Bleeding”, Doja Cat shot into the future with a version of his hit “Say So”, and BTS was broadcast from a roof in Seoul, South Korea, for his performance of “Dynamite”. Roddy Ricch gave the final performance of the night, debuting a new song “Heartless” before breaking his big hit, “The Box”.
The in memoriam section featured Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic honoring Little Richard with “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.” Lionel Ritchie then sang “Lady” for his good friend Kenny Rogers and Brandi Carlile sang the last song John Prine ever recorded, “I Remember Everything”. Brittany Howard and Chris Martin ended the segment with a devastating version of “Youll Never Walk Alone”, a song originating from the musical Carousel but he became famous for Gerry and the Pacemakers, whose singer Gerry Marsden died in January.
While the performances dominated the night, the short documentaries that ran throughout the night highlighting the various nominees for the Record of the Year were less engaging (an award-winning trick that seemed to be derived from the Oscars or the Golden Globes). But the Recording Academy did well to raise awareness of independent locations devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, enlisting venue owners and staff at the New York Apollo Theater, Nashville Station Inn and Los Angeles Troubadour and The Hotel Café locations to distribute various prizes.
As always, most of the actual Grammy awards were presented before the broadcast. After 14 nominations, Nas finally won his first Grammy, taking home the Best Rap Album for King’s disease. The Strokes, after being nominated for their first Grammy this year, won their first Grammy too, Best Rock Album for The New Freak.
Other first time winners were Nigerian star Burna Boy (Best Global Music Album by Twice as high), Tiffany Haddish (Best Comedy Album by Black Mitzvah) and Highwomen (Best Country Song for “Mesa Crowada”). The duo of singers and songwriters Gillian Welch and David Rawlings also won their first Grammy, Best Folk Album by All the good times, while the famous producer Kaytranada won his first two trophies: Best Dance / Electronic Album for Bubba and Best Dance Recording for “10%” with Kali Uchis.
Other notable winners included Fiona Apple, who chose the Best Alternative Album for Take the Screw Cutters and Best Rock Performance for “Shameika” and Thundercat, which won Best Progressive R&B Album for It is what it is. Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande shared Best Pop Duo / Group Performance for “Rain on Me”, John Legend won Best R&B Album for Greater loveand Miranda Lambert won the Best Country Album for Wildcard.
Several major artists have also received posthumous awards this year. John Prine was awarded as Best Song and Performance by American Roots for “I Remember Everything”; Reggae legend Toots Hibbert received the best reggae album award for Toots and the Maytals’ It has to be toughand the great jazz Chick Corea won Best Improvised Jazz Solo for “All Blues” and Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his collaboration with Christian McBride and Brian Blade, Trilogy 2.