Last Sunday, Feb. 1, millions of people sat down in hopes to watch lots of their favorite music artists win awards for their latest music, and along with these awards came historical moments, and amazing performances.
The biggest awards of the night consisted of Album of the Year, which went to Bad Bunny’s “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.” Record of the Year went to Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther.” Shockingly, Best Song went to “Wildflower” by Billie Eilish despite being released in 2024, only to be nominated in 2025, and then reconsidered this year for the win. Best New Artist went to Olivia Dean who has recently blown up in popularity with good reason as she is currently topping charts with her song “Man I Need.” Although these were the main awards handed out that night, there are many more that deserve the spotlight too.
Best Pop Vocal Album went to Lady Gaga for her album “MAYHAM,” despite Sabrina Carpenter winning last year and being nominated again for this category, her album “Man’s Best Friend” just didn’t make the cut. Best Rock Album went to Turnstile who also won Best Metal Performance. Although being nominated only twice in the past and winning this year, The Cure finally won Best Alternative Album with their album “Songs Of A Lost World.” Even though the competition was close with Bon Iver, Hayley Williams, and Tyler, The Creator also being nominated.
Best Rap Album went to Kendrick Lamar with “GNX” with him also having swept last year’s Grammys too. This was a hard win to attain as Clipse, Glorilla, JID, and Tyler, The Creator were all nominated along with Lamar. Best Contemporary Country Album went to Jelly Roll’s “ Beautifully Broken” to go along with his first Grammy win earlier in the night. And lastly, Best Música Urbana Album went to Bad Bunny with, once again, “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
A new award was given this year called Best Album Cover, which went to Tyler, The Creator’s “Chromakopia,” which was his only win of the night.
While the awards are the best part of the show, there were some other big moments that went down Sunday night too. Such as Bad Bunny’s historical win with Album of the Year as the first all Spanish-language album to win this award. Kendrick Lamar also made history as he beat Jay-Z’s number of Grammy’s won by a rap artist going out with 27 total.
While music is the main focus, many of these award-winning artists chose to use their platform and moment of recognition as a chance to spotlight some of the political issues in the country. Many artists not only wore a plain white pin with the words “ICE OUT” on it but those who won used their voice to speak out about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids occurring here in the United States. These artists included Oliva Dean, Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny.
Not only were these very memorable moments, so were the performances that the Grammy stage held. Bruno Mars opened the night with ROSÉ to sing a very rock inspired version of their song “APT.” Though that was not the only time Bruno performed as he later performed again in the evening. All the artists nominated in the Best New Artist category also each performed a song which was quite the grand performance, yet very cohesive despite many being in differing genres. Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga and Clipse along with Pharrell Williams also performed as many of them were nominated for multiple awards that night.
The two most notable performances of the night though went to Tyler, The Creator and Justin Bieber. Tyler, The Creator sang a version of “Thought I Was Dead” from his album “Chromakopia” and “Sugar On My Tongue” from his latest album, “Don’t Tap the Glass” with things blowing up, people getting hit with a car, lots of dancing, and a cameo by actress Regina Hall. Justin Bieber performed “Yukon” while in a pair of boxers, which was actually very moving and felt intimate like a bedroom performance of sorts.
To finalize the evening, there were plenty of historical-making wins, artists using their voice to speak out and brilliantly captivating performances by some of the audience’s favorite music artists. Now it’s time to look forward to the 2027 Grammy Awards as many musical artists have already released albums that can be considered for the next show.
