The 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday Feb. 1 was a historic night, with performances captivating the eyes of anyone who tuned in on CBS, and award categories that had viewers on the edge of their seat when rooting for their favorite musicians.
This was a night of music that showcased not just pop or classic sounds, but really focused on the global music and the expansion of their categories that are not usually incorporated into previous year’s award shows. Musicians like Bad Bunny and Gloria Estefan were big names in the Latin Music categories that night, which was a genre heavily showcased in the hard-hitting categories that night like Album of the Year and Record of the Year than simply the specialized genres in the pre-show.
The show was hosted by Trevor Noah in his sixth and final time leading the Grammys. Multiple times, Noah tried getting Latin artist Bad Bunny to sing just one of his catchy hits, but to no luck since Bad Bunny is under a contract keeping him from performing anything until his Superbowl Halftime Show on Feb. 8.
Categories have also begun to broaden as the music style expands. The Best Country Album category split into two separate categories, Best Traditional Country Album and Best Contemporary Country Album. The change comes after the CEO of the Recording Academy Harvey Mason Jr. stated that the change aligned more with the sub-genres of the music style.
Less mainstream artists don’t have to be pushed into the Americana category, consisting of folk and “red-dirt” artists if their music isn’t fully aligned with the broad Country category. Jelly Roll won Best Contemporary Country Album for his album “Beautifully Broken,” and Zack Top won Best Traditional Country Album for his album “Ain’t In It For My Health.”
This year, the race for Best New Artist was stacked. Nominated were Tiktokers-turned-stars Addison Rae and Alex Warren, indie pop band The Marias, British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean, internet sensation Sombr, K-pop group KATSEYE, former Nickelodeon actor Leon Thomas and the grunge artist Lola Young. Every single nominee performed that night, in a medley showcasing each of the eight artists’ most recognizable hits. After the showstopping performance, artist Olivia Dean took home her first Grammy for winning the category.
The awards show comes during an alarming time for the United States. Currently, many citizens across the country are standing in solidarity with the increasing ICE raids and brutal attacks across the states, and in Minnesota specifically. Many artists entered the red carpet donning white “ICE OUT” pins to stand in support of the victims of the increasing brutality.
Artists even used their acceptance speeches to push for the removal of ICE.
“Ice out,” Bad Bunny said after winning Best Musica Urbana Album. “We are not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
“No one is illegal on stolen land,” Billie Eilish said with her brother and producing partner Finneas at her side during their speech for winning Song of the Year.
Other notable wins include Kendrick Lamar and SZA winning Record of the Year for their song “Luther,” Bad Bunny winning Album of the Year for “DeBi TiRAR MaS FOToS,” Amy Allen winning for Songwriter of the Year, “Messy” by Lola Young winning Best Pop Solo Performance and “Defying Gravity” from the first “Wicked” movie winning Best Pop Duet/Group Performance.
