The Grammy Awards 2024

The Grammy Awards 2024 was a night to remember, filled with extraordinary performances, diverse talent, and moments of profound significance. As the music industry continues to evolve, this celebration of excellence serves as a testament to the enduring power of music to inspire, unite, and provoke thought. The event not only recognized the achievements of established artists but also paved the way for emerging voices, ensuring that the future of music remains as dynamic and inclusive as ever.

2024 Grammy AwardsTaylor Swift Makes History on a Night Dominated by Women

From https://www.nytimes.com/

Swift won her fourth album of the year award, breaking the record. Billie Eilish won song of the year, Miley Cyrus won record of the year, and Victoria Monét was named best new artist. Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell and Billy Joel performed.

  1. Taylor Swift holds a Grammy award in front of a microphone and smiles as two people behind her clap.
    Taylor Swift

    Amy Sussman/Getty Images

  2. Celine Dion stands on stage as an enlarged image of her is projected behind her.
    Celine Dion

    Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

  3. Billy Joel

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  4. Victoria Monét

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  5. Finneas and Billie Eilish

    Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

  6. Brandy, Burna Boy and 21 Savage

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  7. Travis Scott

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  8. Joni Mitchell

    Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

  9. Jay-Z and Blue Ivy

    Amy Sussman/Getty Images

  10. Taylor Swift

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  11. Fantasia Barrino-Taylor

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  12. Jon Batiste

    Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

  13. Annie Lennox

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  14. Stevie Wonder

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  15. Olivia Rodrigo

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  16. SZA

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  17. Miley Cyrus

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  18. Billie Eilish

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  19. SZA

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  20. Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs

    Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

  21. Mariah Carey and Miley Cyrus

    Mike Blake/Reuters

  22. Dua Lipa

    Kevin Winter/Getty Images

  23. Trevor Noah

    Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated P

It was a big night for women, as both winners and performers. Here are takeaways.

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Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus embrace their Grammy Awards, which look like small old-fashioned record players.
Taylor Swift, right, who won best pop vocal album and album of the year for “Midnights,” poses with Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus of boygeniusCredit…Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

Women thoroughly dominated the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, with a history-making album of the year win by Taylor Swift and victories by Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, SZA, Lainey Wilson, the Colombian pop star Karol G and the band boygenius.

The wins capped a year when women were extraordinarily successful in pop music, and also signified a change for the Grammys, which have frequently been criticized — as recently as five years ago — for overlooking female artists on the show.

In addition to the wins, the show featured powerful performances by SZA, Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and even Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman — two godmothers of modern songwriting who have made only rare public appearances in recent years.

In taking album of the year for “Midnights,” Swift became the first artist to win the Grammys’ top prize four times, beating a trio of male legends — Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon — who had three.

“I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life,” Swift said when accepting the award. “But I feel this happy when I finish a song or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love,” she said, and added: “For me the reward is the work.”

Other highlights included:

  • Eilish, along with her brother, Finneas, won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” a dreamy but haunting meditation from Greta Gerwig’s film “Barbie.” The song also took best song written for visual media, and the “Barbie” soundtrack took best compilation soundtrack for visual media.

  • The R&B singer and songwriter Victoria Monét won three prizes, including best new artist. Boygenius, an indie-rock supergroup that sold out venues like Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl last year, won a total of three awards, and one of its members, Phoebe Bridgers, took a fourth — more than any other artist at this year’s ceremony — as part of a collaboration with SZA.

  • Mitchell, 80, performed at the Grammys for the first time, playing her 1968 song “Both Sides Now” nine years after an aneurysm that at first left her unable to speak. Seated in a plush chair, clasping a cane, she was surrounded by supporters including Brandi Carlile, who has lately been Mitchell’s biggest evangelist. After the performance, stars like Beyoncé and Swift clapped wide-eyed.

  • In another major moment, Chapman made a very rare public appearance, performing her 1988 favorite “Fast Car” in a tender duet with Luke Combs, whose note-for-note cover of Chapman’s song became a surprise cross-generational hit last year. Dressed in jeans and a plain button-down shirt, Chapman seemed to have watery eyes as she strummed her acoustic guitar and sang.

  • Taylor Swift, as always the master of promotion, used the opportunity of accepting the award for best pop vocal album to announce a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” saying it would come out April 19. Her Instagram page briefly crashed.

  • Celine Dion, the Canadian diva who announced in 2022 that she has a rare neurological disease that makes it difficult for her to sing, was another rare appearance at the show, announcing the award for album of the year.

  • It wasn’t all just the ladies. Billy Joel, who recently released “Turn the Lights Back On,” his first new pop song in nearly 20 years, performed that track and his classic rocker “You May Be Right.” U2 performed from its residency at the Sphere, a futuristic new venue in Las Vegas.

  • During an expanded “in memoriam” segment lasting more than 20 minutes, Stevie Wonder honored Tony BennettAnnie Lennox paid tribute to Sinéad O’Connor and Fantasia Barrino-Taylor (introduced by Oprah Winfrey) sang “Proud Mary” in honor of Tina Turner.

  • Political content was scarce on the show, which largely avoided any controversial stances. Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the Recording Academy, recognized the killing of music fans at an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7, and Lennox said, “Artists for cease-fire; peace in the world.”

  • Jay-Z, accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, called out the Grammys for failing to honor Beyoncé, his wife, with album of the year, despite her 32 awards, mostly in down-ballot genre categories. “When I get nervous I tell the truth,” he said.

  • Killer Mike, a veteran Atlanta rapper and activist, won three rap awards, including best rap album (“Michael”). Shortly after, he was escorted out of the Crypto.com Arena by police officers. Later, the Los Angeles Police Department said that Killer Mike, who was born Michael Render, was booked on a misdemeanor battery charge and that he was being released.

  • The Grammys added a new category, best African music performance, which was won by Tyla, a South African singer, for the song “Water.” The show also featured a performance by Burna Boy, a Nigerian performer who is one of the biggest stars of the Afrobeats genre

Killer Mike is arrested after winning three Grammys.

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Killer Mike, wearing a black tuxedo, holds three Grammy Awards in his hands.
Killer Mike won three Grammy Awards, including one for best rap album, on Sunday.Credit…David Swanson/Reuters

 

Shortly after winning three Grammys, the rapper Killer Mike was arrested at the awards show on Sunday in connection with a physical altercation at the Los Angeles arena where the ceremony took place, the police said.

In a post on social media, the Los Angeles Police Department said that Killer Mike, who was born Michael Render, was booked on a misdemeanor battery charge and that he was being released.

Representatives for the rapper did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Recording Academy, which presents the awards, referred questions to the police.

Less than an hour before the Grammys telecast began, video posted on social media by a journalist for The Hollywood Reporter showed Killer Mike, in handcuffs, being led through the Crypto.com Arena by a police officer.

To fans and observers, the footage seemed like whiplash. The rapper had just been on the Grammys stage waving a gramophone trophy and celebrating the three awards he had won at the preshow, which is not televised, for his work “Michael,” his first solo album in more than a decade. In addition to best rap album, he received Grammys for best rap song and best rap performance for “Scientists & Engineers,” a collaboration with André 3000, Future and Eryn Allen Kane.

“You cannot tell me that you get too old, you can’t tell me it’s too late,” said Killer Mike, 48, a prolific musician from Atlanta who is also an activist and organizer.

Not long after, he was being escorted through the arena, according to the video. As fans wondered on social media about the reasons for his detainment, his X and Instagram accounts remained active, celebrating the Grammy wins.

Ben Sisario contributed reporting.

 


Q&A with Pop Music and Styles Staff

Can you please explain how voting for the Grammys works?

The Grammys are voted on by more than 11,000 music professionals — performers, songwriters, producers and others with credits on recordings — who are members of the Recording Academy. The process involves members first scanning through huge lists of submissions to vote for nominees, then, after the final ballot is set, for the winners. In the past, anonymous committees had the power to overrule members’ selections of nominees; after some controversy those were largely disbanded, though the academy still has the power to reassign submissions if necessary.

What is the difference between record, song and album of the year?

The top three Grammy prizes can be a bit confusing. Album of the year is for a complete body of work (a full LP of music); song of the year is a songwriter’s prize, awarded to the person (or people) who wrote the music and lyrics to a single song; record of the year is for the performance and recording of a song, and goes to the artist and producers who made it.

Why did some winners bring their handbags onstage to accept their Grammys?

Given the lack of pockets in Grammy outfits, it may be that a bag is the best place to secrete an acceptance speech, and since there isn’t a lot of time between when a winner’s name is called and when the music plays them off, perhaps — at least in the case of Miley Cyrus — it was simply a question of efficiency. A handbag is also often part of a total look, and since some of the artists are being dressed by brands, perhaps it is part of the deal.

The academy aired the best rap album award during the daytime ceremony. Isn’t this weird considering the commercial prominence of rap?

The Grammys have a complicated relationship with rap. Several nominees boycotted the first Grammy ceremony with a rap category in 1989 because the award wasn’t televised. Typically, the show gives out all but around nine of its 90-something trophies at a preshow. Last year, the show presented an extravaganza to celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. The lack of rap onstage this year was certainly noticed: Drake, who has stepped away from the Awards, posted a pointed Instagram story, and Jay-Z took the Grammys to task when he accepted a global impact award.

Did the Grammys get a new producer/director? I can’t remember them ever hosting it in a stadium — it feels like a real concert!

Crypto.com Arena opened in 1999 as the Staples Center, and it was designed with award shows, among other things, very much in mind. Since 2000, nearly all the Grammy ceremonies have taken place there. Hamish Hamilton, who directed this year, has worked on previous Grammys as well as other award shows and Super Bowl halftime shows. There was a major change in 2017, when the longtime Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich was replaced by Ben Winston, who is now one of the executive producers.

What did Joni Mitchell get a Grammy for?

Joni Mitchell won her 10th Grammy on Sunday: best folk album for “Joni Mitchell at Newport,” a live album recorded in 2022. Mitchell’s Grammy history goes back to 1970, when she won best folk performance for “Clouds.” She also made her first-ever Grammy performance this year, singing her classic “Both Sides Now.” It was an especially emotional moment because nine years ago Mitchell had an aneurysm that initially left her unable to speak; she has gradually recovered and returned to performing.

 

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And now, to close the show, Billy Joel is back to perform “You May Be Right.” A fitting finale for a Grammy ceremony that often got it right, and was occasionally crazy.

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Taylor Swift is onstage to accept album of the year, and brought Jack Antonoff and Lana Del Rey with her. (And seemed to blank Celine Dion, who presented the award.)

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Taylor Swift holds a Grammy award in one hand and holds the other hand to her chest while smiling in front of a microphone.
Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Celine Dion, coping with neurological disorder, presents the final Grammy.

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Celine Dion clasps her hands behind a microphone.
Celine Dion presented the Grammy Award for album of the year on Sunday.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Celine Dion, the Canadian pop superstar who announced in 2022 that she has a rare neurological disease that makes it difficult for her to sing, appeared at the Grammy Awards to present the final award of the night, album of the year.

Walking out to “The Power of Love,” Dion looked moved by the standing ovation, saying, “When I say that I’m happy to be here I really mean it from my heart.”

“Those who have been blessed enough to be here,” she went on, “must never take for granted the tremendous love and joy that music brings to our lives and to people all around the world.”

Dion, 55, first announced over a year ago that she has a condition called stiff person syndrome, which causes progressive stiffness in the body and severe muscle spasms, leading her to cancel a scheduled world tour. A five-time Grammy winner — including album of the year in 1997 — Dion has maintained a legion of fans around the world, and before the diagnosis, she was an active performer, delivering soaring hits such as “Because You Loved Me” and “My Heart Will Go On” alongside her newer music.

Last week, Dion announced a documentary following her battle against the disorder. Dion indicated in the announcement that she was aiming to return to singing, saying in a statement, “As the road to resuming my performing career continues, I have realized how much I have missed it, of being able to see my fans.”

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Taylor Swift wins album of the year, breaking a record.

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Taylor Swift, wearing a white strapless dress and several necklaces, holds up a Grammy Award with both hands while several people clap behind her.
Taylor Swift moved past Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, who had each won album of the year three times.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Taylor Swift already has more No. 1 albums than any other woman (12), as well as the highest-grossing tour in history (an estimated $1 billion and counting).

Now she can count another major achievement: four Grammy Awards for album of the year — more than any other artist in the 66-year history of the prize.

“Midnights,” Swift’s most recent LP of new material, beat out entries from SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, boygenius, Lana Del Rey, Miley Cyrus, Jon Batiste and Janelle Monáe to take the Grammys’ top album prize on Sunday. It was her second win of the night.

Earlier in the night, as she accepted the Grammy for best pop vocal album for “Midnights,” Taylor Swift announced that she would be releasing her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.

It was Swift’s sixth nomination for the prize, and fourth win, after her previous victories for “Fearless” in 2010, “1989” in 2016, and “Folklore” in 2020. With her latest win, she moves past three beloved stars who had each won the category three times: Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.

In 2014, Swift’s “Red” lost the award to Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” and in 2022 “Evermore” lost to Batiste’s “We Are.”

Last year, Beyoncé won her 32nd Grammy, more than any other artist in history. (Take that, Quincy Jones and Sir Georg Solti!) With 14 lifetime wins so far, Swift would need another 18 to match Beyoncé.

Album of the year
Taylor Swift
Wins album of the year for “Midnights.”

Pop music critic

 

It’s official — Taylor Swift has won album of the year four times, more than any other musician in history.

 

Pop music critic

 

Celine Dion, who has been out of the public eye recently after her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, is the surprise presenter for album of the year. What a night!

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Celine Dion in front of a microphone smiling and clapping.
Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Billy Joel returns to the Grammy stage with a new song.

Billy Joel, the bard of Nassau County, N.Y., has not released an album of new pop songs since 1993. Yet he has sustained a record-breaking, reliably sold-out monthly residency at Madison Square Garden, which he plans to conclude in July with his 150th concert at the arena.

As of last week, he has a new song to add to his repertoire: On Thursday, he released “Turn the Lights Back On,” a slow, waltzing ballad about rekindling a relationship. On Sunday, he debuted the song live on the Grammys stage and later performed one of his beloved older tracks, “You May Be Right.”

Joel, 74, wrote “Turn the Lights Back On” with the songwriter and producer Freddy Wexler, along with Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector. It was released on his longtime label, Columbia Records, which put out “River of Dreams,” his last pop album; in 2001, he turned to classical music on “Fantasies & Delusions.”

Joel is no stranger — see what we did there? — to the Grammys stage, first performing as part of a New York package at the 1988 ceremony, when he crooned “New York State of Mind.” From 1979 to 2001 he received 23 nominations and earned five wins in competitive categories, including record and song of the year for “Just the Way You Are.” In 1991, he was honored with a legacy award.

Joel and his Garden series have served as a successful case study in the local residency. Though he was inspired by Celine Dion’s tenure in Las Vegas, Joel was determined to stay closer to his Long Island home and demonstrated that the model can work. Other artists certainly took note: In 2022, Harry Styles performed 42 gigs in just five North American cities. The same year, the Mexican rock band Maná performed 12 shows in the United States, all at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and Adele began a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Joel played the first show of his residency in January 2014.

Though his monthly gig is ending, Joel has said that he is not retiring. At the same time, it is worth treasuring what he continues to offer. “I find myself onstage thinking: This is a young man’s job,” he told The New York Times six years ago. “What am I doing?”

 

Pop music critic

 

Of all the winners, nominees and presenters tonight, only Miley Cyrus appears to be on her current plane of existence. She’s being loose, glib, bawdy and confident. It’s as if she just dropped by to sass the rest of the room and picked up a couple of trophies on the way out.

 

The Grammys’ head spoke about the fans at a music festival in Israel who were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Though news about the war between Israel and Hamas has dominated headlines for nearly four months, the first two major award shows of 2024 — the Golden Globes and the Emmys — avoided directly addressing the conflict.

That changed Sunday night at the Grammys, when the Recording Academy’s chief executive, Harvey Mason Jr., spoke about the victims at the Tribe of Nova trance festival, who were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. At least 360 people, or nearly one-third of those who died that day in Israel, were killed in an ambush at sunrise at an event featuring psychedelic electronic music. A few dozen festivalgoers were also kidnapped as hostages.

“Music must always be our safe space,” Mason said, as a string quartet played in a somber melody. “When that’s violated, it strikes at the very core of who we are.,” He cited three violent tragedies at musical events: the 2015 shooting at the Bataclan night club in Paris, where 89 were killed; the 2017 bombing at an Ariana Grande show in Manchester, England, which killed 22; a gunman’s 2017 killing of 60 at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas.

Then he added the Tribe of Nova festival to the list: “That day, and all the tragic days that have followed, have been awful for the world to bear as we mourn the loss of all innocent lives.”

He added, “Music must remain the common ground on which we all stand together in peace and harmony.”

The string quartet, he added, was composed of musicians of “Palestinian, Israeli and Arab descent,” at the Grammys “playing together.”

It was the night’s second prominent reference to the conflict. Earlier in the ceremony, Annie Lennox concluded her performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U” in tribute to Sinead O’Connor, who died in July, by declaring, “Artists for cease-fire.”

An exhibit in Tel Aviv in December featured artifacts recovered from the festival, which was held in Re’im a few miles from the Gaza border, including tents, toilet cubicles riddled with bullet holes, and a backgammon board. Despite the devastation, the event has plans to return: Its organizers’ new motto is “We will dance again.”

 

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Miley Cyrus, accepting record of the year for her sleek and relatively nondescript “Flowers”: “I don’t think I forgot anyone, but I might have forgotten underwear.” She’s just being Miley!

Miley Cyrus wins record of the year for ‘Flowers.’

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Miley Cyrus, in a sparkling one-shoulder dress, holds a Grammy Award in her right hand and a small purse over her right wrist.
Miley Cyrus won record of the year on Sunday for “Flowers.”Credit…Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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Miley Cyrus won the Grammy for record of the year on Sunday for the kiss-off anthem “Flowers,” her first win in the category.

The husky-voiced former Disney Channel star — and daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, himself a record of the year nominee in 1993 for “Achy Breaky Heart” — had never won a Grammy before Sunday night. She also won for best pop solo performance, also for “Flowers.”

During a performance of “Flowers” at the ceremony, Cyrus ad-libbed several times, shouting, “Don’t act like you don’t know this song!” and “I just won my first Grammy!”

Cyrus bested nominees from several other prominent female stars for record of the year, including Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” and SZA’s “Kill Bill.”

Record of the year
Miley Cyrus
Wins record of the year for “Flowers.”

Pop music critic

 

Here comes Meryl Streep, resplendent in white, doing a comedic bit with her son-in-law Mark Ronson, to present record of the year.

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Victoria Monét is a respected, 34-year-old pop songwriter who’s penned Grammy-nominated hits for Ariana Grande and Chloe x Halle, but she finally broke out as a solo artist last year thanks in part to her sly, slinky R&B hit “On My Mama.” As she accepted best new artist, she invoked that mama — “a single mom raising this really bad girl” — and indulged in an extended plant metaphor that resulted in her being the first winner of the night to be played off the stage. Hey, you only win best new artist once!

Best new artist
Victoria Monét
Wins best new artist

Victoria Monét is the Grammys’ best new artist.

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A smiling Victoria Monét holds up a Grammy Award in her left hand while five people celebrate behind her.
Victoria Monét was named best new artist at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

In an eclectic field, honors for best new artist — one of the Grammys’ four most coveted awards — went to the pop and R&B singer-songwriter Victoria Monét.

The win for Monét, 34, underscores her evolution from a behind-the-scenes hitmaker for performers like Ariana Grande to a decorated artist in her own right.

Monét was up against nominees from many styles and backgrounds, including the category’s oldest nominee in 25 years, the rapper turned country singer Jelly Roll, 39. Another prominent competitor was Ice Spice, the Bronx drill-meets-pop rapper whose cultural ubiquity last year extended to a Taylor Swift collaboration and a “Barbie” soundtrack appearance. The other nominees in the category were the pop-folkie Noah Kahan, the British dance producer Fred again.., the R&B singer Coco Jones, the rootsy married duo the War and Treaty, and the singer Gracie Abrams, who opened for Swift on the Eras Tour.

Monét was nominated for seven Grammys at the 2024 awards, tied for second-most overall. Her full-length debut, “Jaguar II,” won for best R&B album and for best engineered album, non-classical.

On My Mama,” the album’s third single, was up for record of the year as well as best R&B song. From the same album, “How Does It Make You Feel” was a nominee for best R&B performance, while “Hollywood,” a collaboration with Earth, Wind & Fire, scored a nod for best traditional R&B performance. “Hollywood” also features Monét’s daughter, Hazel, who at 2 years old became the youngest Grammy nominee ever.

Beyond the Grammy accolades for Monét, her longtime collaborator and “Jaguar II” producer Dernst Emile II, known as D’Mile, also got his second straight nomination for producer of the year, non-classical. D’Mile has won five Grammys, including record of the year and song of the year in 2022 for his contributions to Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” and song of the year in 2021 for H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe.”

Monét came into the 2024 Grammy season with three previous nominations for her work as a songwriter. In 2020, her Grande tunesmithing landed nominations for album of the year for “Thank U, Next” and record of the year for “7 Rings,” while in 2021 her work with Chloe x Halle was up for best R&B song for “Do It.”

“I think my entire story has been leading up to this moment,” Monét told The New York Times in November after learning she’d earned seven nominations. “I felt like an underdog for so long.”

 

Pop music critic

 

The Nigerian star Burna Boy commands the audience to get on their feet for his performance, the first by an Afrobeats performer in Grammy history.

 

Pop music critic

Burna Boy’s performance also underscored perhaps one of the lone bright spots in the pop industry’s recent reliance on very obvious samples and interpolations in current pop hits. If you sample Brandy, you can now perform that song … with Brandy. Pop is a flat circle.

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One woman wearing black and two men wearing red stand on a stage.
Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters
In Case

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Joni Mitchell, at age 80, performed at the Grammys for the first time, singing her 1968 meditation “Both Sides Now” while seated and clasping a cane; almost a decade ago, an aneurysm had left the famed songwriter unable to speak. Jay-Z, accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, gave a speech that went from rambling to eye-popping truth-telling, as he scolded the Grammys for failing to honor Beyoncé, his wife, with album of the year, despite her oodles of wins in other categories. And in keeping with the night’s theme of victorious women, Billie Eilish (along with her brother, Finneas, her “best friend”) won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” from the hit film “Barbie.”

 

Pop music critic

 

The most prominent bleeping of the night came during Travis Scott’s medley of three songs: “My Eyes,” “I Know” and “Fein.” Scott is one of hip-hop’s most dynamic live performers, so to see him compress himself into the Grammys box was striking. (His appearance also indicated he’s been fully rehabilitated from the 2021 Astroworld tragedy, in which 10 fans died during or immediately after Scott’s Houston festival.) Dressed like a post-apocalyptic umpire, Scott had intermittent energy in this rather ominous performance, which peaked with Scott tossing around folding chairs while Playboi Carti rapped in a full face mask. But the biggest shock might have been clearly hearing the voice of a star who’s largely avoided press (and who stares at the floor in most posed pictures), both in the prerecorded package and in the advertisement for his new Nike collaboration, the Jordan Jumpman Jack, that aired right after the performance.

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Travis Scott, wearing a black outfit, throws folding chairs as a fire burns behind him.
Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

Jay-Z takes the Grammys to task in his acceptance speech.

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Jay-Z holds a Grammy in his hands while smiling behind a microphone.
Jay-Z was recognized for personal and professional achievements in the music industry. Credit…Amy Sussman/Getty Images

 

During a speech at the Grammys on Sunday, Jay-Z criticized the awards show for what he described as its snubs and inconsistencies in giving out honors to Black artists, pointing out that his wife, Beyoncé, has the most Grammys but has never won for album of the year.

“Even by your own metrics it doesn’t work,” he said.

He added, “We want you to get it right — at least get it close to right.”

Jay-Z also referred to Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s boycott of the 1989 Grammys because the rap category was not televised at the time. He noted that he had boycotted the show when DMX released two No. 1 albums but was not nominated.

“Some of you may get robbed,” he said, adding, “Some of you don’t belong in the category.”

He also conceded that the process of awarding Grammys is subjective. “It’s music and it’s opinion based,” he said.

Jay-Z made the remarks during his acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, which recognizes personal and professional achievements in the music industry.

Through his record label, Roc Nation, Jay-Z has advocated social justice causes, particularly for racial equality in the United States. In 2022, he convened an inaugural summit for social justice leaders to meet in New York to raise awareness about racial justice and policy.

He has also served as an executive producer on two docuseries about the killings of Black Americans: “Time: The Kalief Browder Story” and “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story.” When George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police in 2020, Jay-Z, through Roc Nation, took out full-page ads in major newspapers that quoted a passage from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 speech in Selma, Ala.

 

Pop music critic

 

Every time I hear Joni Mitchell sing “Both Sides Now,” a different lyric jumps out with new resonance. It’s one of those songs. This time, during Mitchell’s regal rendition of the song, it was this: “But now it’s just another show.” The Grammys — music’s highest honor, ostensibly — seemed small and provincial in the presence of her imposing talent, and her awe-inspiring will to overcome challenges (the aneurysm that, nearly a decade ago, left her unable to speak) and make art of every stage of her life. She seemed to stop time in that auditorium, or maybe just to command it to move at her own tempo. What a moment.

 

Chief pop music critic

 

Joni Mitchell was flanked by potential reinforcements: Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell and the duo Lucius were all nearby to harmonize on choruses and, perhaps, jump in if she faltered. But she didn’t. Every word, every phrase, emerged both considered and new, improvisatory and steeped in experience. At the conclusion, “I really don’t know life at all,” the 80-year-old Mitchell held a smoky note and a pensive gaze. And then she laughed.

Joni Mitchell takes the Grammy stage for the first time.

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Joni Mitchell sits in a large chair and sings at a microphone, while two musicians play the guitar next to her.
Joni Mitchell performed “Both Sides Now” at the Grammys on Sunday.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

It’s hard to believe that at 80 years old, after a groundbreaking career in music, there are still new achievements left for Joni Mitchell. But on Sunday night, she did something for the first time: performed on the Grammys.

Joined by Brandi Carlile, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Blake Mills, Allison Russell and SistaStrings, the singer-songwriter played “Both Sides Now.”

Carlile, one of Mitchell’s most high-profile champions, is largely responsible for bringing her hero back to the stage, and she introduced Mitchell, who earlier won the Grammy for best folk album for “Joni Mitchell at Newport.” Nine years ago, Mitchell had an aneurysm and largely vanished from the public eye; her legions of fans feared that her singing days were complete.

But the writer and unmistakable soprano behind classics like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “A Case of You” was not finished. She made a surprise appearance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival alongside Carlile, as well as musicians including Wynonna Judd and Marcus Mumford.

Mitchell followed that performance with an almost three-hour set at Carlile’s Echoes Through the Canyon Festival in George, Wash., last spring. (Two more performances from Joni Mitchell & the Joni Jam are scheduled for October at the Hollywood Bowl.) “To hear Mitchell hit certain notes again in that inimitable voice was like glimpsing, in the wild, a magnificent bird long feared to have gone extinct,” Lindsay Zoladz wrote in a New York Times review of the Washington show.

Mitchell’s recording career, which began in the 1960s, has included her early folk music, the autofiction of her classic albums “Blue” and “Court and Spark,” and the jazz that followed. Decades later, in 1996, Mitchell, then 52, won the Grammys for best pop album and best recording package for “Turbulent Indigo,” her 15th release. “I’ve been contemplating whether to quit music and go into painting, and perhaps I will now,” she said that night.

 

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Joni Mitchell. Sublim

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Taylor Swift loses song of the year for a seventh time.

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A woman in a sparkly leotard and matching boots stands onstage, her hands brought together before her, holding a microphone.
Taylor Swift came into the 2024 Grammys with six nominations, including the top three categories: album, record and song of the year.Credit…Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times
Taylor Swift has been a guitar-cradling country ingénue. A crossover pop queen. An indie-folk fantasist. A billion-dollar concert juggernaut. A cat. Maybe even a political force.

Yet at her core she has always been a songwriter, perhaps the most influential one of the 21st century. Still, the Grammys’ top honor for songwriting continues to elude her: On Sunday she lost song of the year for a seventh time as “Anti-Hero,” the top single from her 2022 album “Midnights,” fell to Billie Eilish, who won for “What Was I Made For?” from the “Barbie” soundtrack. A clearly surprised Eilish accepted the award with her brother and the song’s co-writer, Finneas.

Swift, who was nominated alongside her co-writer Jack Antonoff, was competing with the writers behind SZA’s “Kill Bill,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” Lana Del Rey’s “A&W,” Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers,” Jon Batiste’s “Worship” and Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” another song from the “Barbie” soundtrack.

That Swift has still never taken the song of the year prize remains one of the mysteries of the modern Grammys. She would seem to be a perfect candidate for the prize: an intentional and famously personal writer, serious and respectful of the craft, both an innovator and a traditionalist. The role of songwriter has been key to her identity as an artist since the beginning.

And she has clearly been a Grammy favorite, at least in one other important category: album of the year. She has accepted that prize three times, which ties her with no less than Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon for the record.

Yet song of the year keeps slipping away from her, in hit after epochal hit. In 2010, “You Belong With Me” lost to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Five years later, “Shake It Off” fell to Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.” In 2016, “Blank Space” went up against Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” Guess which won? In 2020, “Lover” gave way to Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” The following year, “Cardigan” lost to H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe.” And last year, her extended remake “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” wilted before Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That.”

For an artist so associated with winning, song of the year has represented Swift’s most egregious and puzzling losing streak.

Grammys continue as planned despite the dangerous storm outside.

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MIley Cyrus wearing a gold dress, looking into a photographer's camera.
Miley Cyrus at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Even as the mayor of Los Angeles urged people to stay home and avoid danger from the heavy rainfall that deluged Southern California on Sunday, the Grammy Awards ceremony continued at the downtown Crypto.com Arena in all of its usual grandeur.

Celebrities shed their umbrellas before entering, while the red carpet was protected by overhead tents. The rain is expected to continue even as attendees depart, and another several inches could fall in the region, according to National Weather Service forecasters. Los Angeles County is under a flash flood warning until midnight local time.

Despite traffic and flight cancellations, the ceremony started on time — although Miley Cyrus, who clinched the first win of the night for best pop solo performance, said she nearly missed the start of the show.

“Oh my God, I just got stuck in the rain in traffic and thought I was going to miss this moment,” she said at the start of her acceptance speech.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California declared a state of emergency for eight counties, including Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass warned earlier that Sunday’s storm had the potential to be “historic,” bringing intense winds, thunderstorms and the threat of tornadoes.

“If y

Pop music critic

 

Billie Eilish, deservedly, wins song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” her song from the “Barbie” soundtrack. Will “Barbie” have a better night at the Grammys than at the Oscars? TBD!

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Lionel Richie, holding a Grammy award, hugs Billie Eilish as Finneas O'Connell stands behind them.
Credit…Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

Pop music critic

“Thank you to Greta Gerwig, for making the best movie of the year,” says Eilish. The camera cuts to Taylor Swift, nodding approvingly.

 

Pop music critic

 

Jay-Z was the winner of the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, an award seemingly largely designed to ensure that a star of Jay-Z’s stature will show up to the Grammys. But Jay-Z took the occasion to underscore what the Grammys have gotten wrong, not right. He mentioned DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s boycott of the 1989 Grammys, the first year rap was honored, because the category was not televised. He alluded to a similar sit-out he opted for the year DMX released two No. 1 albums and wasn’t nominated. “We want you to get it right,” he said, adding, not wholly convincingly, “Obviously it’s subjective.” But maybe not that subjective — he underscored the fact that his wife, Beyoncé, has won the most Grammys ever, but never album of the year. (This, in a year in which Taylor Swift might win her fourth in that category, which would be the record.)

 

Pop music critic

He appeared nervous, maybe a touch antsy. “Some of you may get robbed,” he conceded, then added, “Some of you don’t belong in the category.” The crowd, perhaps unused to streaks of unvarnished transparency, gasped and giggled and just generally murmured. “When I get nervous, I tell the truth,” he said. In conclusion, Jay-Z loudly amplified the case that Black musicians who have been systemically overlooked at the Grammys for decades have been making, advocating agitating for your respect “until they call you chairman, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time.”

Song of the year
Billie Eilish O’Connell and Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)
Wins song of the year for “What Was I Made For?”

 

Pop music critic

 

Legends coming out of the woodwork to deliver some excellent performances, awards going to well-deserved female artists, A-listers going off-script and providing some genuinely surprising moments — guys, is this one of the best Grammy ceremonies ever

Chief fashion critic

 

While Jay and Blue are on stage, Beyoncé is in the audience in Louis Vuitton — men’s wear. Straight from Pharrell Williams’s most recent collection, inspired in part by the Black cowboy.

 

Pop music critic

 

Jay-Z, accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, brings his 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy onstage. She got tall!

 

Pop music critic

Jay is telling some hard truths in this speech!

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Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

Tina Turner receives a tribute from Fantasia Barrino-Taylor.

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Fantasia Barrino-Taylor throws her head back and spreads her arms wide, as she wears a gold tasseled and sequined bodysuit. Two similarly dressed dancers flank her and an audience looks on.
Fantasia Barrino-Taylor paid tribute to Tina Turner, performing a fiery rendition of “Proud Mary.” Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

 

Decked out in sparkling fringe and with a cast of backup dancers behind her, Fantasia Barrino-Taylor paid tribute to Tina Turner at the Grammys, performing a fiery rendition of “Proud Mary,” a rollicking hit for Turner.

Turner, the magnetic performer who was one of the most successful recording artists of all time, died in May at 83 years old. “Proud Mary,” a version of which was originally performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival, won Turner her first Grammy, in 1972, for best R&B vocal performance by a group.

The track is one of Turner’s most celebrated songs from her time performing alongside her first husband, Ike Turner, and it is a go-to track for tributes, including one by Beyoncé at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005.

Like Turner, Barrino-Taylor — who rose to fame as the Season 3 winner of “American Idol” and recently starred in the film adaptation of “The Color Purple” — started off singing gospel in the Baptist church, developing a multidimensional voice that can be both gravelly and soaring.

Singers have been paying tribute to Turner — directly or not — for decades. It’s something she’d become used to, she told Amanda Hess in a 2019 profile. She’d see a young singer in her mold and remark, “She’ll make a good Tina.” (Her response to being told Beyoncé had released a song that referenced her? “Yeah, I’m not surprised.”)

Turner’s perseverance and pure talent were an inspiration to many, but she said she often didn’t relate to her role as a symbol. “I don’t necessarily want to be a ‘strong’ person,” she told The Times. “I had a terrible life. I just kept going. You just keep going, and you hope that something will come.”

The in memoriam segment at the Grammys acknowledged the music industry luminaries that have died since the last awards show, including Burt Bacharach, the pop composer and producer, who received a video tribute, and Clarence Avant, the influential record executive, who received a tribute performance from Jon Batiste.

 

 

Chief fashion critic

 

So many of the Grammy attendees have changed clothes between the red carpet and the actual auditorium, I wonder if they have a host of secret dressing rooms inside.

Annie Lennox honors Sinead O’Connor with a powerful performance.

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Behind musicians on a stage is a large photo of Sinead O’Connor, holding a microphone to her right while looking down.
Annie Lennox performed Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” at the Grammys on Sunday.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

In an emotional ode to Sinead O’Connor at the Grammys, Annie Lennox performed “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the Irish singer-songwriter’s cover of the Prince original that became a No. 1 hit.

A forceful performer known for her lilting voice and her political provocations, O’Connor died in July at 56. Her rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” her best-known track, highlighted her ability to veer from breathy high notes to penetrating, heavy vocals, delivering performances with an emotional gut punch.

There was a bit of irony in Lennox’s performance: In 1991, the year that O’Connor won the Grammy for best alternative music performance — for the album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” which featured “Nothing Compares 2 U” — she boycotted the ceremony over what she called the show’s excessive commercialism.

In a fitting tribute, Lennox took a moment at the end of her performance for an antiwar statement, saying, “Artists for cease-fire,” in reference to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

O’Connor had a tendency of turning public performances into headlines, famously ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II on “S.N.L.” in protest of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. As Amanda Hess wrote in a 2021 profile of O’Connor, the act was more personal than it may have seemed. Her mother, who the singer said in her memoir had physically abused her, died when O’Connor was 18. It was her mother’s photo, plucked from a bedroom wall, that O’Connor destroyed on national television.

“I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she said. “But it was very traumatizing.” Her career never recovered, but she felt a sense of freedom. “I could just be me,” she wrote in her book, “Rememberings.” “I’m not a pop star. I’m just a troubled soul who needs to scream into mikes now and then.”

In the days and months following O’Connor’s death, which a coroner later said was the result of natural causes, scores of artists spoke of her bravery and pure talent.

Lennox, a Scottish singer-songwriter who started her own solo career around the time of O’Connor’s rise, posted to social media a moving tribute to the singer after she died, calling her raw, fierce and brilliant.

Pop music critic

 

Accompanied by Wendy & Lisa of Prince’s Revolution, Annie Lennox gives one of the most stunning vocal performances of the night — and in a night not lacking them. The trembling intensity of her interpretation of “Nothing Compares 2 U” — and the personal conviction of her political statement — did Sinead O’Connor proud. Plus: Annie, Wendy and Lisa were all present at this summer’s Joni Jam. Might we be seeing them again later?

Taylor Swift announces new album during Grammy win.

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Taylor Swift holds a Grammy in gloved hands while speaking into a microphone.
Taylor Swift made the surprise announcement while accepting the Grammy for best pop vocal album for “Midnights.”Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

As she accepted the Grammy for best pop vocal album for “Midnights,” Taylor Swift announced that she would be releasing her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.

“I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans, so I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years,” Swift said. “Which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19. It’s called ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’”

Swift said she would post the album’s cover from backstage when she was done accepting the prize.

Going into the night’s awards show, Swift fans had noticed that the artist had changed her profile picture on X, Instagram and Facebook to a black-and-white version, and many interpreted this as a hint that Swift would announce a new “Taylor’s version” of her “Reputation” album, which has a black-and-white cover.

Swift received six Grammy nominations, including nods for “Anti-Hero” in the best song and record of the year categories and a nomination for “Midnights” in the album of the year category.

“This is my 13th Grammy,” Swift said in her speech. “This is my lucky number, I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that.”

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Annie Lennox, at the end of a rawly emotional tribute to Sinéad O’Connor, made the only comment of the night so far even approximating a political statement, saying, “Artists for cease-fire; peace in the world.”

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Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Stevie Wonder memorializes Tony Bennett, a onetime duet partner.

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Musicians play the piano, drums and other instruments while a large image of Tony Bennett singing is shown behind them.
At the Grammy Awards on Sunday, Stevie Wonder sang “For Once in My Life” with a video of Tony Bennett.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Tony Bennett, who died in July at 96, had a remarkably productive late period in his recording career with duets that saw the crooner, who won his first Grammy during the Kennedy administration, team up with younger (sometimes much younger) artists.

Entire albums were given over to collaborations with K.D. Lang, Diana Krall and, of course, Lady Gaga. (There were two albums with the pop superstar). On “Duets: An American Classic” (2006) and the chart-topping “Duets II” from 2011, Bennett was paired with an eclectic cast of singers — Queen Latifah and Willie Nelson, Barbra Streisand and Bono, Andrea Bocelli and Mariah Carey — on songbook standards.

Both albums won Grammys for best traditional pop vocal album and produced tracks that took home Grammys, too: his rendition of “Body and Soul” with Amy Winehouse on “Duets II,” and “For Once in My Life,” a Motown standard made famous by Stevie Wonder, who shared the 2006 track with him.

On Sunday, Wonder — a Grammy powerhouse with 74 nominations and 25 wins over his career — honored Bennett with a duet of “For Once in My Life,” with Wonder singing at the piano and Bennett displayed on a video behind him, the two trading lines.

Before beginning his performance, Wonder recalled how as a teenager he had heard Bennett sing the track. He also praised Bennett’s “love for civil rights.”

After the Bennett tribute, Wonder sang “The Best Is Yet to Come,” another jazz standard favored by Bennett, while the names and images of members of the music industry who recently died were displayed behind him. Those honored included Harry BelafonteRobbie Robertson, the lead guitarist of the Band; Jerry Moss, an executive; and Bill Lee, a celebrated bassist (and father of Spike).

The duets albums brought Bennett’s talents to the attention of new generations of fans, but they also brought new generations of talent to the attention of Bennett, he told The New York Times in 2006. “Everybody my age can’t help but have an attitude about how much better it was in the old days,” he said. “What I’ve learned from this is the professionalism of the people more than 10 years younger than I amMENT

U2 beams in from the Sphere.

As the recording industry’s premier annual event, the Grammys generally expects musical acts to make the trip to the ceremony itself. An exception, however, was made for U2 on Sunday for a site-specific performance from a very specific site: the Sphere, the new, state-of-the-art Las Vegas venue that the Irish rockers christened last year as part of a residency featuring performances of their 1991 album, “Achtung Baby.”

The Sphere is a 366-feet tall, $2.3 billion venue masterminded by James L. Dolan, the sports and entertainment mogul who owns controlling stakes in Madison Square Garden and its most famous tenants, the Rangers and the Knicks.

The venue was inspired by a Ray Bradbury short story in which children’s dreams are projected onto the walls of their nursery. In Las Vegas, the audience in the 17,600-seat venue sees whatever images the band and its art directors choose to show on the 160,000-square-foot LED media plane as the music is blasted through 167,000 speakers. (In U2’s case, The Times critic Jon Caramanica compared some of the wall art to material that an artificial intelligence program might cook up.)

At the Grammys, the band played “Atomic City,” a single released to coincide with the residency. Host Trevor Noah said it was the first time television cameras had broadcast from its interior.

After the performance, frontman Bono introduced the nominees for the best pop vocal album Grammy. U2’s guitarist, the Edge, handed the envelope to Bono who announced the winner: Taylor Swift, for “Midnights.”

U2’s time at the Sphere ends March 2, and the venue will host Phish in April, and Dead & Company May 16 through June 22.

The band’s Grammy performance was an opportunity to show off the venue to audiences contemplating a trip to see the space firsthand. And as “experience” becomes a watchword of the entertainment industry, one-of-a-kind setups such as the Sphere, which Dolan has indicated he would like to replicate in other cities, might point toward a lucrative future for musical acts — especially ones that like to stay put rather than hit the road.

 

Pop music critic

 

Winning Grammys? Sure. Nice. Fine. Taylor Swift just won her 13th. And she seemed excited — she practically squeezed the stability out of Lana Del Rey. But when she got on stage, she turned her acceptance speech into an announcement for her new album, called “The Tortured Poets Department.” Most fans have been anticipating the re-recorded version of “Reputation,” her most attitudinal album. But instead, she took a page from that era and decided that all of her pop-star peers would be reduced to a press conference audience. She loves the drama, and the drama loves her.

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Taylor Swift stands with her mouth open while holding a Grammy award.
Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Lest you forget it, Taylor Swift is all business, announcing during her win for best pop vocal album that her next album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” will be released April 19.

Best Pop Vocal Album
Taylor Swift
Wins best pop vocal album for “Midnights.”
In Case You Missed It

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Women were always going to be a big part of this Grammys show, but so far they have it locked down: Every winner during the televised portion of tonight’s ceremony has been a woman. Lainey Wilson took best country album, thanking Jesus and the Recording Academy in a thick Louisiana drawl. SZA won best R&B song for “Snooze,” and offered a breathless speech ending: “I’m not an attractive crier. Have a good evening!” Miley Cyrus gave a very Tina Turner rave-up performance of “Flowers,” and Olivia Rodrigo sang “Vampire” in a blood-red dress, with red fluid oozing from a wall behind her. But a few boys made it in: U2 performed a taped segment from their residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

 

Pop music critic

 

Hello, hello … this U2 performance from the Sphere is giving me vertigo.

 

Pop music critic

 

A literalist and effective reading of “Vampire” from Olivia Rodrigo, who nailed all the sections of the song, from the poignant piano opening to the punkish shouted outro. She’s a professional, in voice and in character — beginning the song pristine and ending it yowling with blood smeared across her face and neck, but seeming just as calm as when she began.

Lizzo, left, presents the award for best R&B song to SZA for “Snooze.”

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SZA, wearing a light purple dress, embraces Lizzo who is wearing a black leather dress.
Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

Olivia Rodrigo performs her No. 1 hit ‘Vampire.’

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A woman in a pink dress sings into a microphone with her eyes closed and her hands held up to her neck.
Olivia Rodrigo sang “Vampire,” from her sophomore album, “Guts,” at the Grammys on Sunday night.Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

Olivia Rodrigo returned to the Grammys stage on Sunday night with a performance of “Vampire,” her multipart suite about an unworthy ex from her second album, “Guts.”

“Vampire” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in June. Rodrigo told The New York Times that at first she was hesitant to write a song about a partner exploiting her celebrity because she feared the experience was self-indulgent. “I’ve always tried to write about the emotions rather than this weird environment that I’m in,” she said. But the point of songwriting “is to distill all of your emotions into their simplest, purest, most effective form.”

The rock-leaning singer and songwriter entered the ceremony with six nominations, locked in a tie with Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus, the indie supergroup boygenius and the genre-blending bandleader Jon Batiste. (They all trailed SZA, with nine, and Victoria Monét and boygenius’s Phoebe Bridgers, who had seven apiece.)

Notably, Rodrigo scored nominations in all three of the Grammys’ big all-genre categories. “Guts” is up for album of the year, part of a field that also includes SZA’s “SOS” and Swift’s “Midnights.” In record of the year and song of the year, “Vampire” is competing against Swift’s “Anti-Hero” and SZA’s “Kill Bill.”

For best pop vocal album, “Guts” went up against Swift’s “Midnights” (which won the award) and Cyrus’s “Endless Summer Vacation” as well as Kelly Clarkson’s “Chemistry” and Ed Sheeran’s “-” (called “Subtract”).

Rodrigo also nabbed a nomination for best rock song, where her “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” faced off against the Rolling Stones’ “Angry,” in a matchup between one of the Grammy’s youngest nominees (Rodrigo is 20) and some of the oldest (the Stones’ average age is about 78). (“Not Strong Enough” by boygenius won that prize.)

Indeed, although Rodrigo operates in the high-stakes realm of pop stardom, “Guts” tilts heavily toward rock. Rodrigo told The Times that she has “always loved rock music, and always wanted to find a way that I could make it feel like me, and make it feel feminine and still telling a story and having something to say that’s vulnerable and intimate.”

Daniel Nigro, the producer who worked with Rodrigo on “Guts,” also received a nomination for producer of the year, non-classical.

Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour starts in Palm Springs, Calif., on Feb. 23. Her global trek has more than 60 stops, heading across the United States, Canada and Europe before wrapping up in Los Angeles with four shows ending Aug. 17. Set to open in various cities are the Breeders, Chappell Roan, PinkPantheress and Remi Wolf.

At the 2022 Grammys, Rodrigo was nominated for seven awards and won three, including best new artist.

 

Pop music critic

 

An emotional SZA, with maybe the acceptance speech line of the evening so far: “I’m not an attractive crier, have a good evening!”

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SZA, wearing a light purple dress with black rhinestones, smiles into a microphone, holds a Grammy award in one hand and holds the other hand up.
Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

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Best R&B Song
Kenny B. Edmonds, Blair Ferguson, Khris Riddick-Tynes, Solána Rowe and Leon Thomas, songwriters (SZA)
Win best R&B song for “Snooze.”

 

Pop music critic

 

“Flowers” isn’t one of Miley Cyrus’s most exciting or adventurous hits, but tonight she cracked it open and made it expansive enough for her one-of-a-kind personality. Her of-the-moment ad-libs were not only casual proof that Cyrus was singing live, but they showed her relishing her moment as a first-time Grammy winner. If only that Tina Turner-esque breakdown (which she totally nailed, by the way) were part of the recorded song!

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Miley Cyrus, wearing a purple and silver fringe dress, holds a microphone and its stand and sings into it.
Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters
Best Country Album
Lainey Wilson
Wins best country album for “Bell Bottom Country.”

 

 

Pop music critic

 

Miley Cyrus vamping her way through “Flowers” — now THIS is how you do dinner theater!

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

Miley Cyrus, ad-libbing in a Tina Turner-slash-disco-queen sequined dress: “Don’t act like you don’t know this song!” and “I just won my first Grammy!”

 

Chief pop music critic

Switching up from Donna Summer disco to a Tina Turner-style outro at the end was nice … and rough!

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Miley Cyrus is now in her third outfit of the night.

 

Pop music critic

 

Maybe the most striking thing about Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” — a song written for the over-$1 billion-grossing motion picture “Barbie” — is how much it has in common with her earliest releases, songs like “Ocean Eyes.” She is a precise traditionalist masking as a cool avant-gardist, and her performance here was Grammy-moment manna. Her, dressed in a headscarf and a bright tweed jacket, singing in both her sweet false register and her potent husky one. Finneas, her brother, at the upright piano behind her, radiating seriousness of purpose. The song is slow, casually emphatic, gravitational. No notes.

Billie Eilish performs her wrenching ‘Barbie’ ballad.

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Billie Eilish sang “What Was I Made For?,” from the movie “Barbie,” at the Grammys on Sunday night. She wrote the song with her brother, Finneas, who played the piano.Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press
A group of string players sits around a small circular stage that holds a pianist and a seated singer.

 

With all due respect to the music industry, with its billions of streams, its global array of genres and its Time magazine person of the year, the most inescapable cultural artifact of 2023 was neither a song nor an album. It was a movie about a doll.

So it is perhaps no surprise that “Barbie,” with a box office take of nearly $1.5 billion, made a mark on the Grammys as well.

“Barbie: The Album” racked up 11 nominations — more than the film’s eight Oscar nods — including two for song of the year and four of the five contenders in best song written for visual media. Billie Eilish could win her third record of the year Grammy, for “What Was I Made For?,” a forlorn ballad she wrote with her brother, Finneas, for one of the movie’s most powerful scenes: when Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets her inventor, Ruth Handler (Rhea Pearlman).

Eilish and her brother were shown the scene and told, Eilish recalled in an interview with The Times, to make “Barbie’s heart song.”

“I never would have been able to write any of that song if I had tried to be vulnerable about my own life and experience,” Eilish said, “so it was really a perfect vessel.”

Onstage at the Grammys, Eilish sat on a stool next to the piano, where Finneas accompanied her along with a group of string players, as her parents watched from the audience.

When they were approached to work on the song, Eilish and Finneas were supposed to be working on a new album, and the “Barbie” gig provided an inviting respite. The two wrote “What Was I Made For?” in a half-hour. Five of Eilish’s six Grammy nominations this year were for the spare track.

“What Was I Made For?” reached No. 14 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and won a Golden Globe last month. Now it has the potential to win best original song at the Academy Awards, where it is competing with tracks from “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Flamin’ Hot,” “American Symphony” and a second “Barbie” song, “I’m Just Ken,” for which, let’s face it, even being nominated was Kenough.

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

A couple of the Grammys’ pandemic-era production adaptations that have stayed with the show: bistro-style seating for the stars, and filmed packages introducing some of the major nominees. They work well, so no reason to lose them.

 

Chief pop music critic

 

Música urbana is tucked way down among the Grammy categories — No. 57 — and while it’s one of the most active and popular styles in the world, the Grammys only mananged to find three albums to nominate. But one of them, Karol G.’s “Mañana Será Bonito” (“Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful”), debuted at No. 1 on the all-genres Billboard album chart, and apparently the Grammys woke up enough to push the category into prime time. Karol G. accepted giddily and graciously: “I promise you to give my best always,” she declared.

 

Pop music critic

 

SZA, the night’s most nominated artist, performed two of the smash hits from her album “SOS,” “Snooze” and “Kill Bill.” The performance felt a little too high-concept for its own good: The sword-wielding assassins were visually spectacular (even if one of them almost killed Phoebe Bridgers instead of Bill) but took emphasis away from the song. At times, it was giving dinner theater. SZA’s vocals were also too muddy in the mix, which didn’t help matters, either.

Feb. 4, 2024, 8:40 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

 

SZA, the night’s most nominated artist, takes the stage.

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SZA performed “Snooze” and “Kill Bill” at the Grammys on Sunday night.Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images
A woman wearing a long trench coat and hat sings into a microphone, with trash cans and a burning dumpster behind her.

 

SZA, the artist who arrived at the 66th annual Grammy Awards with the most nominations, took the stage on Sunday night to perform “Snooze” and “Kill Bill.”

The rap-leaning R&B singer and songwriter born Solána Rowe had nine nods for her album “SOS,” which topped the Billboard 200 for 10 weeks and ranked first on many critics’ year-end lists.

In a field led by young women, SZA will face off with Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Miley Cyrus in each of the Grammys’ three top categories. “SOS” is up for album of the year, and its No. 1 single, “Kill Bill,” is competing for both record and song of the year.

Outside of the big all-genre categories, SZA has already won best pop duo/group performance for “Ghost in the Machine,” her “SOS” collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers of the indie-rock trio boygenius, as well as best progressive R&B album.

SZA was no stranger to accolades from the Recording Academy. Before the 2024 awards season, she had already received 15 nominations overall, including for best new artist in 2016 and record of the year and song of the year in 2019 for “All the Stars,” her “Black Panther” collaboration with Kendrick Lamar. She had won one previous Grammy, for best pop/duo group performance in 2022 for “Kiss Me More,” a collaboration with Doja Cat.

In her songs, SZA portrays melancholy with its everyday messiness. “Sad-girl energy has always been my energy,” she told The New York Times Magazine.

Last year, SZA mounted a sought-after arena tour, and her tour stop in Brooklyn recently became available to watch on demand on both Apple Music and Apple TV+.

 

Best Música Urbana Album
Karol G
Wins best música urbana album for “Mañana Será Bonito.”
In Case You Missed It

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

It’s been an eventful first half-hour at the Grammys. Miley Cyrus won the first Grammy of her career — best pop solo performance for her retro hit “Flowers” — and Dua Lipa opened the show with an aerobic dance medley of her songs “Training Season,” “Houdini” and “Dance the Night,” from “Barbie.” But the most emotionally powerful moment was Tracy Chapman making an extremely rare public appearance, joining Luke Combs for a tender and uplifting peformance of her 1988 song “Fast Car,” which became an unexpected cross-generational smash for Combs; Taylor Swift and Oprah cheered along as superfans.

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Feb. 4, 2024

 

Tracy Chapman returns to the Grammy stage for ‘Fast Car’ duet.

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A woman with a guitar and a man stand behind microphones and in front of many lights onstage.
Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs performed “Fast Car” at the Grammys on Sunday.Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

 

In a major coup for the Grammys, an influential artist who walked away from the spotlight made a grand return to the awards stage on Sunday night: Tracy Chapman.

Chapman, 59, released eight albums between 1988 and 2008, starting with her blockbuster debut — the self-titled album that featured “Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution,” “Baby Can I Hold You” and what is perhaps her signature song, “Fast Car.” She won the Grammy for best new artist in 1989, and “Fast Car” was nominated for both record and song of the year.

While the song has had notable staying power — it’s inspired dance covers, was sampled by Nicki Minaj and has been strummed in dorm rooms for decades — the country star Luke Combs’s faithful cover, which became a hit last year, has helped bring it a kind of renaissance.

On Sunday night in Los Angeles, Chapman and Combs shared the steering wheel at the Grammys with their first-ever duet performance of the track. Chapman opened the performance playing the song’s signature riff on an acoustic guitar, as she and Combs exchanged verses before joining together on the chorus. Many in the audience could be seen standing and singing along throughout, including Taylor Swift. Combs bowed to her at the conclusion of the song as they received a standing ovation from those in the arena.

Combs’s “Fast Car” — which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 as a single from his 2023 album, “Gettin’ Old” — was up for a Grammy for best country solo performance (and lost to Chris Stapleton’s “White Horse”). Surprising many in the industry, however, “Fast Car” missed out on a nomination for record of the year. (The cover was not eligible for song of the year, an award that goes to songwriters, because it was already nominated in that category in 1989.)

Chapman has made few public appearances since her most recent tour ended in 2009, mostly taking the stage on late-night shows. In 2015, she covered “Stand by Me” as David Letterman prepared to retire from the “Late Show,” and in the lead-up to the 2020 election, she performed “Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution” on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

Combs’s meticulously faithful take on Chapman’s working-class anthem, delivered with unassuming earnestness, has crossed eras like a time-traveling DeLorean. In November, thanks to the cover, Chapman won song of the year at the Country Music Awards for “Fast Car,” becoming the first Black songwriter to clinch the honor.

In a statement at the time, Chapman apologized for not attending the country awards ceremony in Nashville. “It’s truly an honor for my song to be newly recognized after 35 years of its debut,” she said in the statement.

Combs described “Fast Car” as “one of the best songs of all time,” in his own C.M.A.s acceptance speech for single of the year. “I just recorded it because I love this song so much,” he added. “It’s meant so much to me throughout my entire life.”

The original “Fast Car” hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1988 and earned three Grammy nominations. Chapman won for best female pop vocalist at the 1989 Grammy ceremony. There, too, she performed “Fast Car.”

“Fast Car” was a fan-favorite staple of Combs’s live shows long before he recorded it in the studio. Asked in July about the potential to duet on the song with Chapman, Combs’s manager, Chris Kappy, told Billboard, “We would be more than excited if the opportunity arose for Tracy and Luke to perform the song together.”

At the same time, Chapman told Billboard that she was “happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 8:30 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

 

Mariah Carey presents Miley Cyrus with her first Grammy.

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Mariah Carey, wearing a gold dress, hands a Grammy Award to Miley Cyrus, wearing a black shimmering dress.
Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 8:28 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Pop music critic

 

On paper, Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs make unlikely duet partners. Chapman sings with quiet authority and real nerve. Combs is a powerhouse, sometimes obliterating the borders of his melodies. Somehow, on this much-anticipated rendition of “Fast Car,” they’ve found a middle ground. Chapman looks and sounds resplendent, and also appears comfortable, as if she hasn’t been largely away from the spotlight for the last two decades or so. Combs, without a customary ballcap, is visibly excited, calming his voice and letting his eyes do the loudest talking.

Best Pop Solo Performance
Miley Cyrus
Wins best pop solo performance for “Flowers.”

Pop music critic

 

It’s moving how overwhelmed Luke Combs seems as he duets with Tracy Chapman during this historic performance.

Chief fashion critic

 

Tracy Chapman returning to the Grammys in jeans is the ultimate flex.

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Taylor Swift singing along to Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs performing “Fast Car” is some kind of apotheosis of 2023 in music.

Pop music critic

 

Wow. Tracy Chapman receives a rousing ovation as the opening notes of “Fast Car,” her 1988 hit that became a huge 2023 hit for Luke Combs, ring out. Her voice, so missed from the pop landscape for so long, sounds m

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

This is Miley Cyrus’s first Grammy win of her career.

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Miley Cyrus, wearing a black shimmering dress, holds a Grammy Award and speaks into a microphone.
Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

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Feb. 4, 2024, 8:17 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Pop music critic

 

A bejeweled Mariah Carey presents the first award of the night, best pop solo performance, to Miley Cyrus for “Flowers.”

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Mariah Carey, wearing a gold dress, stands in front of a microphone and in front of a back drop with a picture of herself.
Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

 

Pop music critic

Miley says she got stuck in the rain before the ceremony, but luckily she’s got enough Aqua Net in her hair that it wasn’t a problem.

Feb. 4, 2024, 8:14 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Music biz score-settling makes its way to Trevor Noah’s host monologue: “Shame on you, TikTok, for ripping off all these artists. How dare you do that? That’s Spotify’s job.”

Feb. 4, 2024, 8:11 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Pop music critic

 

Apparently Beyoncé and Jay-Z are there tonight, too — that’s a surprise.

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 8:09 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Pop music critic

 

Dua Lipa’s medley ended with a listless and not-fully-liquid performance of one of her better recent singles, “Houdini.” Trevor Noah just called her “one of the best performers of a generation” in his monologue, and I could see the sadness in his eyes.

Pop music critic

 

Meryl Streep — producer Mark Ronson’s mother-in-law — is in the house!

Pop music critic

 

Lipa’s medley concludes with her most recent solo single, “Houdini” — curiously, not “Dance the Night Away,” her crowd-pleasing “Barbie” song, which is up for song of the year tonight.

 

Pop music critic

 

Here we go! Dua Lipa kicks off the show with the debut performance of her new single, “Training Season.” She’s getting physical!

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Dua Lipa, wearing a black leather outfit and black leather boots, sings into a microphone.
Credit…Kevin Winter/Getty Images

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Taylor Swift is looking very old Hollywood in white Schiaparelli, complete with train.

 

Pop music critic

 

Meet the 8 best new artist nominees.

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A woman with a mop of curly hair wears a leather 8-ball jacket in red, black and white, and turns to the side, about to rap into a microphone.
Ice Spice had a breakout year, and earned a nomination for best new artist.Credit…Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

 

Don’t be like those people who were asking “who is Bonnie Bear?” when the Grammy for best new artist went to Bon Iver in 2012. Here’s a guide to the eight acts vying for the prize on Sunday night.

1. Victoria Monét: “On My Mama”

The R&B singer and songwriter Victoria Monét has been a behind-the-scenes presence in pop for well over a decade — she’s been nominated for Grammys for her work on hits recorded by Ariana Grande and Chloe x Halle. She has seven nods as a solo artist this year, including two for her breakout album “Jaguar II,” which features the sleek, sultry hit “On My Mama.”

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

2. The War and Treaty: “Lover’s Game”

The War and Treaty is the husband-and-wife duo of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, two accomplished Nashville-based musicians with tremendous voices that blend in beautiful harmony. Their sound is a mix of country, blues and soul, but this fiery title track from their 2023 debut album shows off their rock-star potential.

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

3. Jelly Roll: “Son of a Sinner”

The rapper-turned-country-phenom Jelly Roll — who has scored a series of recent, raw-voiced radio hits about sin and redemption — has an opportunity to make Grammy history: At 39, he could become the oldest solo act ever to win best new artist.

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube

4. Noah Kahan: “Stick Season”

A proud Vermonter who seems destined to have his own Ben & Jerry’s flavor, the rising star Noah Kahan’s music blends a kind of wordy, breakneck-paced delivery with the lyricism of an unabashed romantic. On his signature hit “Stick Season,” he sounds like Mumford’s most irreverent son.

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

5. Ice Spice: “In Ha Mood”

Ice Spice may be the most famous name on this list, thanks to her recent pop cultural ubiquity, her appearance on the remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma,” and her eye-catching, rap-game-Little-Orphan-Annie ’do. The thumping “In Ha Mood” is one of many recent singles that shows off the 24-year-old M.C.’s effortless charisma and her dexterous, unbothered flow.

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

6. Coco Jones: “ICU”

The 26-year-old R&B singer-songwriter and actress Coco Jones currently stars as Hilary Banks on “Bel-Air,” Peacock’s reimagining of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” but she’s also a prolific musical talent with a lush, rich voice. Her range is on full display on “ICU,” a velvety ballad also nominated for best R&B performance and best R&B song.

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

7. Gracie Abrams: “Difficult”

Gracie Abrams’s breathy, hyper-personal pop has fans in high places. (Count Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo among them.) There’s a rushing kineticism to the quarter-life-crisis anthem “Difficult,” a standout from her 2023 debut full-length, “Good Riddance.”

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

8. Fred again..: “Delilah (Pull Me Out of This)”

The 30-year-old English producer Fred again.. makes uncommonly emotional dance music, building strobe-lit hooks from found sounds, random digital ephemera, and sometimes even snippets from chats with his friends that he records on his iPhone.

▶ Listen on SpotifyApple Music or YouTube

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Summer Walker in matching white feathered dress and hat looks like she took a wrong turn on her way to “Swan Lake.”

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Summer Walker wearing white feathered dress with a matching feathered hat, poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Jon Batiste is in an “intergalactic mashup,” according to his stylist. I feel this could be the name of a song.

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

It makes me think that what fashion needs now is a dose of Sun Ra’s Arkestra.

 

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

Speaking to reporters backstage, Jack Antonoff, who just won producer of the year, non-classical, for the third time in a row, and also plays in the band Bleachers, was asked about the recent takedown of music (including his) from TikTok: “I’d like it to go back up!” he said. “We’ve got a whole industry that’s like, ‘You’ve got to do everything! You’ve got to do everything!’ And then one day it’s like, poof!” He added, “At the very least we should have known.”

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Chrissy Teigen is wearing a rose as a skirt.

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John Legend, wearing a black satin suit, and Chrissy Teigen, wearing a black velvet dress with a rose detail, pose on a red carpet.
Credit…Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Olivia Rodrigo is just out of her teens, but she might win the award for oldest dress in 1995 Versace.

Reporting from the Grammy Awards

 

boygenius, SZA and ‘Barbie’ songs are among early winners.

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Three women in matching white suits stand at a microphone, accepting an award.
From left: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus of boygenius. The trio won three prizes before the main Grammys ceremony.Credit…Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Of this year’s 94 Grammy categories, all but nine were given out during a fast-paced, nontelevised ceremony, where some stars (Billie Eilish, Joni Mitchell, boygenius) showed up to accept their awards, but many others (SZA, Michelle Obama) didn’t.

The tallies for the early awards gave no clear advantage to any artist. SZA, the night’s most nominated artist, with nine citations, won two (progressive R&B album and pop duo/group performance, with Phoebe Bridgers) but lost three, which puts her in a challenging position going into the main ceremony.

The indie-rock trio boygenius won three early prizes, including best rock song, rock performance and alternative music album (for “The Record”). Dressed in identical white suits, with black ties and pink carnations, the band’s three women ran excitedly to the podium and gave emotional speeches.

“We were all delusional enough as kids to think this might happen to us one day,” Lucy Dacus, one group member, said.

Songs from “Barbie” — which logged 11 nominations total, including some multiple nods in individual categories — took two prizes early in the night. Eilish and her brother, Finneas, were present to accept the award for best song written for visual media, for “What Was I Made For?”

“I want to thank our parents,” Finneas said. “Our dad who worked as a construction worker at Mattel Corporation for much of our childhood to keep food on the table. That’s very sick. Thank you for parenting us.”

Jack Antonoff — the producer of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and other stars — won producer of the year, non-classical, for the third year a row.

Although this nontelevised segment is seen by few fans, it can feature notable, heartfelt speeches. Mitchell, 80, accepting the award for best folk album, for “Joni Mitchell at Newport,” a live recording of her surprise comeback appearance in 2022, said: “We had so much fun at that concert, and I think you can feel it on the record. It’s a very joyous record because of the people that I played with and the spirit of the occasion was very high. And it went onto the record. Even the audience sounds like music.”

Killer Mike, the Atlanta rap veteran and political activist, was up for three awards in the rap field for music from his album “Michael” — rap album, performance and song — and he won all three.

In a passionate series of speeches, his head covered in sweat, he exhorted: “For all the people out there that think you get too old to rap, [expletive]!” He added: “Dreams come true! It is a sweep! It is a swe

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Paris Jackson’s vanishing act: How to make 80+ tattoos disappear.

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Paris Jackson, wearing a black cutout dress, poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Brandi Carlile appears to be exploring the creamsicle palette.

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Brandi Carlile, wearing a dark yellow suit with a pink satin shirt underneath, poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Lenny Kravitz mix-’n’-matching his brands and his black leathers in vintage Dior, Chrome Hearts AND Rick Owens. Now, that’s independent dressing.

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Lenny Kravitz, wearing black sunglasses and a black lace jacket, poses in front of a black backdrop.
Credit…Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Contemporary composers — ‘the voices of our time’ — win big in the classical field.

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An opera singer playing a boxer stands in a ring on stage, holding his gloved hands up in victory, with another man lying on the floor.
The Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Terence Blanchard’s “Champion,” conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, won best opera recording. Ryan Speedo Green, center, played the boxer Emile Griffith as a young man. Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Contemporary composers were front and center on Sunday among the Grammy winners in the classical field.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the baton of its music and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel, won for best orchestral performance, for a recording of Thomas Adès’s evening-length “Dante,” which had its United States premiere in 2022.

Terence Blanchard’s “Champion,” a jazz-inflected work about the boxer Emile Griffith, won best opera recording, in a performance by the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus that was led by the Met’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. It had its Met premiere last year. The opera tells the real-life story of Griffith, a closeted boxer whose ferocious attack in the ring on an opponent who had taunted him with a gay slur resulted in the man’s death 10 days later.

“It takes more than a village in opera,” Nézet-Séguin said in accepting the award. “This goes to Terence Blanchard and all the voices of our time.”

The composer Jessie Montgomery won best contemporary classical composition for “Rounds,” a piano concerto. Imani Winds, a quintet based in New York, and the Harlem Quartet won best classical compendium, for “Passion for Bach and Coltrane,” an oratorio by Jeffrey Scott that draws on classical and jazz. Roomful of Teeth, an a cappella ensemble founded in 2009, won for its album, “Rough Magic.”

Other classical stars were also honored, including the pianist Yuja Wang and the conductor and composer Teddy Abrams, who leads the Louisville Orchestra, for “The American Project.” The album features a piano concerto by Abrams, performed by Wang and the orchestra, as well as a solo piano piece written for Wang by the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

Abrams praised Wang on Sunday, calling her “one of the most talented musicians on the face of the earth right now.” He also praised the orchestra, noting its history of performing music by living composers

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Coi Leray wearing “archive” Saint Laurent. From 2019.

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Coi Leray, wearing a black leotard and holding a lime green jacket, poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

 

Chief fashion critic

“Archive” is what you apparently now call old clothes that aren’t actually old enough to call “vintage.”

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Jordin Sparks, describing her dress: “I’m a flower, but don’t mess with me.”

How the ‘Barbie’ soundtrack became a juggernaut.

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A woman in a pink shirt and tie stands with her arms out in front of a backdrop that says “Barbie.”
Billie Eilish’s “Barbie” ballad had five of her six nominations on Sunday.Credit…Michael Tran/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“Barbie: The Album,” the soundtrack to the director Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster, entered Sunday’s Grammy ceremonies with 11 nominations across seven categories. The film charmed viewers at the box office with grosses of $1.4 billion worldwide, became one of last year’s inescapable cultural touchstones and scored eight Oscar nominations. How did its soundtrack become a powerhouse, too?

In terms of attracting talent, “It was Greta, hands down,” said Mark Ronson, one of the soundtrack’s producers, explaining how he conscripted an A-list roster that includes Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj, Lizzo and Sam Smith. “Everybody admired her work — I feel like there wasn’t anyone who hadn’t seen ‘Lady Bird’ or ‘Little Women’ and didn’t love both of those films.”

Working with Gerwig was certainly part of the allure for Eilish, who first met the director when they were grouped together at a 2019 gala dinner. “I remember being like, ‘Greta Gerwig sitting next to us is so cool,’” she said in an interview. “‘She seems like somebody I would be friends with already.’” (Eilish’s wrenching “Barbie” ballad “What Was I Made For?” is up for record and song of the year.)

Gerwig may have provided the spark, but the “Barbie” soundtrack — which narrowly missed a No. 1 debut on the Billboard chart — is an unusually loaded record that achieves a rare synergy with the film itself. The movie was last year’s biggest pop culture phenomenon not named Taylor Swift, and the music reflects its broad, cross-genre appeal, including songs from rappers (Ice Spice, Minaj), a psych-rock band (Tame Impala), a Latin music superstar (Karol G) and a poppy indie trio (Haim).

On some level, the vision was simple: Sign up great musicians to record songs that were of a part with the movie itself. “As lip service as it sounds, it was really just about: ‘Who are our favorite artists who are going to see this film and understand some of the depth?’” Ronson said. After he was hired by the music supervisor George Drakoulias, Ronson recruited the musician Andrew Wyatt, one of his partners on the Oscar-winning Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper song “Shallow” from the 2018 film “A Star Is Born.”

Often, movie soundtracks are generated through a “brief-based approach,” said the musician Mark Nilan Jr., who has worked on albums for movies including “A Star Is Born” and “Fast X.” A desired song is described in direct, referential terms (say, “a high-energy, Eminem-type song” for a car chase scene) before the movie has been finished. But Gerwig and Ronson were able to screen chunks of the filmed movie for artists — sometimes in person, sometimes over high-security video streams — and asked them to write what came to mind. This approach allowed them to avoid boxing artists into a pre-established idea, and, in turn, created more flexibility for how the music would flow back into the movie itself.

“We really strove to do something that artistically had merit in the way that the film does,” Ronson said. “So it’s nice, certainly, to be recognized.”

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Miley Cyrus immediately breaking the internet in a Maison Margiela metallic bare-all dress and giving Veruschka vibes with her tawny lion coiffure.

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Miley Cyrus, wearing a gold chainmail dress, poses on a red carpet.
Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

 

Chief fashion critic

This may turn out to be the dress of this show, the way the designer John Galliano’s last Margiela show became the talking point of couture week.

 

Chief fashion critic

 

There’s definitely a trend toward more vintage on the red carpet happening. Aside from Laverne’s Cox’s 2015 Comme des Garçons and Billie Eilish’s upcycled Chrome Hearts jacket, Caroline Polachek is in gothic Olivier Theyskens from 1998, complete with embroidered red veins.

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Caroline Polachek, wearing a black dress with red detailing, poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Kylie Minogue and Laverne Cox were having a verklempt “Padam″ moment in dueling red gowns.

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Kylie Minogue, wearing a long red gown, smiles and poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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Laverne Cox, wearing a red dress, poses with her hands on her hips on a red carpet.
Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

The Mexican singer Peso Pluma is wearing a Norteño-style embroidered cowboy tuxedo designed by Pharrell Williams and straight off the recent Louis Vuitton runway.

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Peso Pluma, wearing a black suit with white embroidery, and Nicki Nicole, wearing a blue satin dress, pose on the red carpet.
Credit…Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

 

Chief fashion critic

Whoops, joint faux pas narrowly averted: Peso Pluma almost forgot his brand name-check. “What are you wearing?” said Laverne Cox, and he answered “I don’t know” before remembering it was Louis Vuitton. Maybe he was distracted by having already won his Grammy

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

The nominee Gracie Abrams (daughter of J.J. Abrams) already wins Nepo Newcomer in Chanel.

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Gracie Abrams, wearing a black sleeveless top, poses in front of a black backdrop.
Credit…Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images For The Recording A

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

This is no fashion observation, but the obvious demographic similarity of the ad buys for the Grammys red carpet show on E! (toilets, Mercedes Benz, menopause drugs, vitamin supplements) is not encouraging for the future of the awards.

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Miley Cyrus is now in her Cleopatra era!

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Turns out Billie Eilish’s “Barbie” jacket is a reworked vintage number from Chrome Hearts.

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Billie Eilish, wearing a black and pink jacket with the "Barbie" logo on it, smiles at the camera and stands in front of a black backdrop.
Credit…Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Chief fashion critic

 

Jelly Roll, in white T-shirt and suede lumberjack coat, is emphatically not part of the tux brigade.

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Jelly Roll, wearing white t-shirt and tan jacket, poses in front of a black backdrop.
Credit…Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 6:43 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Kat Graham is looking meme-ready in her Post-It dress.

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Kat Graham, wearing a white gown, poses on the red carpet.
Credit…Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

Chief fashion critic

She reminds me of a kinky sci-fi royal nun.

 

Chief fashion critic

 

More black-on-black action thanks to Mark Ronson in Gucci. Three’s a trend.

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Mark Ronson, wearing a brown suit, poses next to Grace Gummer, wearing a black velvet dress, pose on the red carpet.
Credit…Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

Ronson always a fashion leader, and here wearing not only tone-on-tone in black but the obligatory T-shirt with his suit.

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Fantasia Barrino-Taylor is wearing a jeweled labret piercing, or illusion of same. Does anyone remember when body mod was radical?

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Fantasia Barrino poses while wears a prominent lip ring.
Credit…Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

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Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Old-timer Billy Joel and newcomer Noah Kahan both got the black-on-black-on-black wardrobe memo.

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A woman, wearing a silver and black dress, a man wearing a black suit and black sunglasses and two young girls pose on the red carpet.
Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Noah Kahan’s date is his mom.

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Noah Kahan, wearing an all back suit, poses on the red carpet next to his mother, wearing a black outfit with gold detailing.
Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

 

Editor covering the arts

 

Joni Mitchell shocked attendees of the early show by collecting her award for best folk album in person. Lots of phones out and a standing ovation.

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Three people stand on a stage — the woman in the middle, Joni Mitchell, smiles in front of a microphone.
Credit…Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

Chief fashion critic

 

To the earlier point about politics, the members of boygenius are all wearing “artists for ceasefire” pins on their white trouser suits.

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The band boygenius, all wearing white suits with pink flowers, pose in front of a black backdrop.
Credit…Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

Also politically charged, the heavily referenced gender play: the white satin moire suits with pink carnations giving prom-meets-Rat Pack vibes.

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 6:22 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Chief fashion critic

 

Billie Eilish is sporting (haha) a “Barbie” baseball jacket. I do appreciate the continued devotion to the film by all involved.

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Billie Eilish, wearing a pink and black jacket with the "Barbie" logo on it, poses with her hands in her pockets on a red carpet.
Credit…Jordan Strauss/Invision, via Associated Press

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 6:20 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

All year men have been stealing the spotlight from women on the red carpet, and I expect no less at the Grammys: guys flossing in every permutation of suiting, from cowboy to classic to shorts.

 

 Friedman

Chief fashion critic

 

Victoria Monét has accessorized her bronze Versace with her young daughter, Hazel. So much better than a bag!

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Victoria Monet, wearing a bronze gown and John Gaines, wearing a dark green suit pose with their daughter Hazel Monét Gaines on a red carpet.
Credit…Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

Given the introduction of a robot baby at the recent Schiaparelli haute couture show, it’s a relief to see a mother clutching her flesh-and-blood daughter.

‘Some Like It Hot’ wins for best musical theater album.

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Couples in gowns and tuxedos dance onstage.
Adrianna Hicks, left, and Christian Borle in the musical “Some Like It Hot” at the Shubert Theater.Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

 

“Some Like It Hot,” a new jazz age musical adaptation of the classic 1959 Billy Wilder film, won a Grammy Award on Sunday for best musical theater album.

It was adapted from the classic movie comedy in which Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play two musicians who dress as women to escape the mob.

The show, a big and lush production, had a hard time on Broadway and closed in December at a loss after a one-year run. But the score was praised, with the New York Times theater critic Jesse Green writing that the first-act songs “are pretty much all knockouts.”

The award was given to the show’s principal vocalists, Christian Borle, J. Harrison Ghee, Adrianna Hicks and NaTasha Yvette Williams; the songwriting team of Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman; and five album producers. Wittman and Shaiman also won a musical show album Grammy in 2003 for “Hairspray.”

This year’s five Grammy-nominated cast albums were all for musicals that opened on Broadway during the 2022-23 season.

The other nominees were “Kimberly Akimbo,” a poignant comedy about a high school student with a genetic disorder and a criminally dysfunctional family; “Parade,” a revival of a 1998 musical exploring the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager who was lynched in early 20th-century Georgia; “Shucked,” a romantic comedy with a country sound and a lot of corn-based puns; and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” a revival of the 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical about a wronged barber who conspires with an amoral baker on a giddily gruesome vengeance spree.

“Kimberly Akimbo” won last year’s Tony Award for best musical, and “Parade” won the Tony for best musical revival.

Only “Kimberly Akimbo” and “Sweeney Todd” are still running on Broadway, and if you want to see them in New York, now’s the time: “Kimberly Akimbo” has announced plans to close on April 28 and “Sweeney Todd” is expected to end its run on May 5.

“Kimberly Akimbo” is planning a national tour that is scheduled to start in Denver in September. A “Shucked” tour is to begin in Nashville in November, and a “Parade” tour is to begin in January in Schenectady, N.Y., and then Minneapolis. “Some Like It Hot” had announced an intention to tour starting this fall but has not announced any venue

 

Feb. 4, 2024, 6:07 p.m. ETFeb. 4, 2024

Feb. 4, 2024

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Does Laverne Cox look like her pneumatic red strapless dress ought to come with a pressure gauge?

 

Chief fashion critic

OK, Laverne has now explained her archival Comme des Garçons dress — it’s about “blood and roses.”

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Laverne Cox, wearing a red dress, poses with her hands on her hips on a red carpet.
Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Dua Lipa seems to be channeling “Armor Mermaid Barbie” in silver scaley Courrèges plus a fishy diamond Tiffany necklace. She says the dress is very heavy.

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Dua Lipa, wearing a silver textured dress, poses on a red carpet.
Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

 

Styles reporter and men’s wear critic

 

Unlike at other award shows, artists at the Grammys can showcase politics through clothes. Billie Eilish wearing Willy Chavarria’s oversized “pachuco” shirt and boxer shorts is emphatically a statement.

 

Chief fashion critic

 

One early point: I think this is the first actual red (as opposed to beige or silver) carpet we’ve seen at an awards show so far this year.

Who could break a record tonight?

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A woman in a blue hockey jersey with the letter S printed on its front sits on the edge of a diving board onstage, singing into a microphone.
SZA could become the first Black woman to win album of the year in 25 years.Credit…Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

A few artists have the potential for landmark wins at the Grammys on Sunday night.

The biggest is Taylor Swift, who could set a formidable new record in the album of the year category. She has already won it three times, for “Fearless” in 2010; “1989” in 2016; and “Folklore” in 2020. That ties her with three of music’s most beloved figures (all of them men): Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. If Swift’s “Midnights” is victorious, she will be the first artist to ever claim the prize four times.

It is an impressive run for any artist, but Swift, even at 34, is not the youngest collector of album of the year Grammys: When Wonder took the prize for the third time — in 1977, for “Songs in the Key of Life” — he was just 26.

SZA could make another big splash in the album of the year category. If her “SOS” wins, she would be the first Black woman to take home the prize in 25 years — since Lauryn Hill, for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Only two other Black women have won it: Natalie Cole, for “Unforgettable … With Love” in 1992, and Whitney Houston, for the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard” in 1994.

In the record of the year category, Billie Eilish is up for “What Was I Made For?,” her soul-searching “Barbie” ballad. If she wins, Eilish would be the first woman to take the prize three times, after her earlier wins for “Bad Guy” in 2020 and “Everything I Wanted” in 2021.

Two other artists, both men, also have three wins in the category. Paul Simon won for “Mrs. Robinson” in 1969 and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in 1971 with Simon and Garfunkel, and “Graceland” in 1988 as a solo artist. Bruno Mars won for “Uptown Funk,” with Mark Ronson in 2016; “24K Magic” in 2018; and “Leave the Door Open,” with Silk Sonic in 2022.

 

Chief fashion critic

 

Hello from your friendly neighborhood red carpet critics, Vanessa Friedman and Guy Trebay, as the Grammys entrances begin. The nice thing about this event, as opposed to, say, the others we’ve seen thus far, is that (K-popsters aside) many of the artists don’t have fashion deals. That means the finery they wear tends to reflect their own taste — as fabulous, or foolish, as that may be. Which is fun!

Hear a dozen notable nominees beyond the top categories.

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Kylie Minogue, in a sparkly gold dress, is flanked by dancers in white onstage.
Kylie Minogue delighted clubs with “Padam Padam,” which was nominated for pop dance recording.Credit…Maggie Shannon for The New York Times

 

The one thing that makes me indulge the Grammys is an aspect that infuriates some other Grammy observers: the chronic sprawl of its categories. There are 94 this year. The Recording Academy is forever trying to trim and adjust them, consolidating or renaming or expanding the list. But music keeps eluding them, changing styles and constituencies and keeping the music business guessing.

Here are a dozen down-category Grammy nominees. They may be unlikely to show up in prime time — all but a few Grammy Awards are actually presented Sunday afternoon at a preshow — but they made recordings worth noticing.

1. Kylie Minogue: “Padam Padam” (pop dance recording)

Kylie Minogue conquered dance floors yet again in 2023 with “Padam Padam.” The title is a heartbeat rhythm, the production uses reverb to play with space and Minogue breezily asserts, “I know you wanna take me home.” (Listen on YouTube)

2. Killer Mike featuring André 3000, Future and Eryn Allen Kane: “Scientists & Engineers” (rap performance)

Multifaceted ideas about creativity — as a calling, a compulsion and a career — unite Killer Mike and his guests in this ambitious, changeable track. (Listen on YouTube)

3. Allison Russell: “Eve Was Black” (American roots performance)

Racism and misogyny are Allison Russell’s direct targets in “Eve Was Black,” which transforms itself from Appalachian toe-tapper to eerie rocker to jazz excursion to gospel incantation. (Listen on YouTube)

4. Jason Isbell: “Cast Iron Skillet” (American roots song)

A tangle of bleak, likely interconnected narratives — murder, death in prison, a family shattered by interracial romance — mingles with homey advice in this modest-sounding but far-reaching ballad. (Listen on YouTube)

5. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway: “El Dorado” (bluegrass album)

The songwriter and flatpicking guitar virtuoso Molly Tuttle spins a brisk, minor-key chronicle of the Gold Rush, singing about desperate characters and wondering, “Was it worth the blood and dirt to dig our lives away?” (Listen on YouTube)

6. Bettye LaVette: “Hard to Be a Human” (contemporary blues album)

The gritty-voiced, 77-year-old soul survivor Bettye LaVette embraces 1970s-style Nigerian Afrobeat, with its chattering saxophone and curlicued guitars, as she ponders humanity’s irredeemable flaws in this song by Randall Bramblett and Davis Causey. (Listen on YouTube)

7. Blind Boys of Alabama: “Work Until My Days Are Done” (roots gospel album)

The Blind Boys of Alabama, a gospel institution since the 1940s, bring their vintage-style harmonies to a traditional song that’s more about sweat and diligence than worship. (Listen on YouTube)

8. Tainy featuring Bad Bunny and Julieta Venegas: “Lo Siento BB:/” (música urbana)

Julieta Venegas and Bad Bunny sing about her infatuation versus his refusal to commit, as Tainy juxtaposes cushy electronics and a blunt beat. (Listen on YouTube)

9. Natalia Lafourcade: “De Todas las Flores” (Latin rock or alternative album)

The Mexican songwriter Natalia Lafourcade’s album “De Todas las Flores” isn’t remotely rock, Latin or otherwise. It’s richly retro pop that harks back decades, with acoustic instruments and subdued choral backup as Lafourcade sings about how love and passion can fade. (Listen on YouTube)

10. Davido featuring Musa Keys: “Unavailable” (African music performance)

Davido, a Nigerian hitmaker, infuses Nigerian Afrobeats with a South African style, amapiano, and he’s joined by the South African singer Musa Keys. They’re both playing hard to get. (Listen on YouTube)

11. Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society: “Dymaxion’” (large jazz ensemble album)

The composer Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society is an 18-piece big band that stokes suspense with dissonance, pinpoint timing and an arrangement that gets denser and denser throughout most of “Dymaxion.” (Listen on YouTube)

12. Olafur Arnalds: “Woven Song (Hania Rani Piano Rework)” (new age, ambient or chant album)

“Woven Song” originally was released with an eerie, sliding, untempered vocal. The Polish pianist and singer Hania Rani makes it cozier and more consonant in her “rework,” but the ghost-waltz spirit of the original persists. (Listen on YouTube)

Who’s nominated and who’s performing?

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SZA, in a purple and white jersey that reads S in the middle, singing into a microphone onstage.
SZA is the most nominated artist at the Grammys on Sunday, with nine nods.Credit…Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

The 2024 Grammys honor recordings released from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 15, 2023. SZA is the top nominee, with nine nods for her album “SOS,” which topped the Billboard 200 for 10 straight weeks.

The R&B singer Victoria Monét and the indie rocker Phoebe Bridgers of boygenius both have seven, while Jon Batiste, boygenius, the Americana singer-songwriter Brandy Clark, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift have six nods apiece.

Swift, who rocked the entertainment world with her record-breaking Eras Tour; Rodrigo, the 20-year-old singer-songwriter with a proclivity for rock; Cyrus, the child star turned hitmaker; and Batiste, the New Orleans musical scion, are competing with SZA for the three major all-genre categories: best album, record and song. SZA’s “Kill Bill,” Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” from the “Barbie” soundtrack and Cyrus’s “Flowers” are up for both record and song of the year. (Batiste’s “Worship” is up for record, and “Butterfly” for song, a songwriter’s award.)

The other best album contenders are boygenius’s “The Record,” Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” and Janelle Monáe’s “The Age of Pleasure.” Best record is rounded out by boygenius’s “Not Strong Enough” and Monét’s “On My Mama,” while song’s other entrants are Del Rey’s “A&W” and Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night.”

The biggest winner of the night could be the musicians behind the movie “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig’s meditation on what it means to be a woman today. The film’s soundtrack garnered 11 nominations across seven categories, with an eclectic mix of artists that includes Eilish, Lipa, Nicki Minaj and Sam Smith.

The show will feature performances from nominated artists, including Eilish, SZA, Lipa, Rodrigo, Travis Scott, U2, Luke Combs, Miley Cyrus, Burna Boy and Joni Mitchell, who will be making her Grammy debut. Billy Joel will perform his first pop song in nearly two decades, “Turn the Lights Back On.” Stevie Wonder will honor Tony Bennett, Annie Lennox will sing for Sinead O’Connor, Fantasia Barrino-Taylor will perform a tribute to Tina Turner and Jon Batiste will lead a memorial for the music executive Clarence Avant.

Trevor Noah, formerly host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, will return as host for the fourth straight year.

This year’s presenters include Christina Aguilera, Lenny Kravitz, Lionel Richie, Mark Ronson, Maluma, Meryl Streep, Samara Joy, Taylor Tomlinson and Oprah Winfrey.

How to watch the 66th annual Grammy Awards.

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Trevor Noah stands on a small circular platform in the middle of a theater, his back to the camera, with dressed-up attendees of an event surrounded him.
Trevor Noah, seen here hosting the 2023 Grammys, is returning again for the 2024 ceremony on Sunday.Credit…Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press

 

The 66th annual Grammy Awards will air live from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, at 8 p.m. Eastern time (5 p.m. Pacific time) on CBS and stream on Paramount+. Subscribers to Paramount+ with Showtime will have access to the real-time stream via the live feed of their local CBS affiliate on the service, as well as on demand in the United States, while Paramount+ Essential subscribers will only have access to on-demand the day after the special airs.

A majority of the awards are given out before the prime-time event at the premiere ceremony, which takes place at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time (12:30 p.m. Pacific time) and can be seen via live.grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel. That ceremony is being hosted by the songwriter Justin Tranter and features performances from Brandy Clark (a six-time nominee this year), Robert Glasper and Laufey, among others.

E!’s red carpet coverage starts at 7 p.m. Eastern time. The Grammys’ own red carpet show will stream on live.grammy.com.

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Kanwal Nijjar Sodhi

Kanwal Sodhi am The Creator Editor of ReviewFitHealth.com.

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