Awards
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Jay-Z shared his unfiltered thoughts about the Grammys in a new interview conducted ahead of the ceremony and published on Monday (Feb. 6), after Beyoncé lost out on album of the year for the fourth time.
“I remove myself from the process and hope they just get it right. It got to the point where I was like, it’s just a marketing thing,” he told TIDAL about the race for album of the year days before the winner was announced. “You go, you got an album out and it could help the sales go up. It got to that point, but deep down … Again, we grew up idolizing this. It was like one of the pillars for us.”
However, despite his perspective on the award, Hov still maintained that his wife deserved the top prize for her acclaimed 2022 album, Renaissance. “Look what it’s done to the culture. Look how the energy of the world moved,” the rapper argued. “They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world.”
Although album of the year ultimately went to Harry Styles for Harry’s House, Queen Bey walked away from the ceremony with four more Grammy awards — including best R&B song for “Cuff It” and best dance/electronica album. The latest awards from The Recording Academy brought her total career Grammy wins to 32, officially making her the most-awarded artist in Grammy history.
Meanwhile, Jay-Z, who’s won a total of 24 Grammys himself over the years, closed out the telecast by performing “God Did” with collaborators DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Fridayy.
It’s uncertain whether Lizzo‘s “I Love You Bitch,” the fifth song on her 2022 album Special, was written about Harry Styles — but it easily could have been. The two stars — and recent Grammy winners — are certifiably besties for the resties, as demonstrated by their adorable reunion at the Grammy Awards Sunday night (Feb. 5).
The pair was photographed wrapping each other in the biggest hug once they saw each other on the floor of Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, where this year’s ceremony was held. Though both Styles and Lizzo were competitors in the categories for some of the night’s biggest awards, they could be seen celebrating each other’s wins.
The “As It Was” singer was captured on camera beaming and excitedly clapping for Lizzo when her name was called for record of the year, which she won for her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “About Damn Time.” The feat made Lizzo the first Black woman since Whitney Houston in 1994 to win the award, something she later pointed out and celebrated on Instagram.
“I don’t take this lightly,” the Yitty founder wrote, sharing a selfie with Adele in the carousel. “Thank you.”
And when Styles was announced the winner of album of the year for Harry’s House, the “Truth Hurts” musician/flute extraordinaire could be seen holding up her own phone to record her pal as he made his way to the stage, stopping on his way up to give her a huge hug.
Lizzo also posted a couple selfies taken with the former boyband moments before he won. She also snapped pics with Adele and Beyoncé, who scored wins of their own that night.
Styles and Lizzo have been friends since 2020 and mutual fans of one another’s music before that. They’ve covered each other’s songs, complimented each other numerous times publicly and performed together onstage at Coachella 2022, when the “Watermelon Sugar” singer-songwriter invited Lizzo to join him as a guest.
See their winning moments at this year’s Grammys below:
Liam Payne and Niall Horan each took to social media on Monday morning (Feb. 6) to celebrate Harry Styles winning album of the year at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
“Wow… this image is really something to wake up to,” Payne wrote alongside a black-and-white shot of his one-time bandmate gazing in awe at the Grammy in his hands, “and when you write music like you do Harry you deserve every millisecond of that moment looking down smiling at the trophy you’ve earned. God bless you brother congratulations.”
Horan, meanwhile, posted an aerial shot from the ceremony at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles during Styles’ big win, writing, “very proud @harrystyles” with a red heart emoji on his Instagram Stories. (As of press time, the other two-fifths of One Direction — Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik — have yet to post anything publicly about Styles.)
In addition to winning the biggest award of the night, Styles also took home the golden gramophone for best pop vocal album and performed his No. 1 smash “As It Was” during the telecast.
Visibly awestruck at beating out the likes of Adele, Beyoncé, Lizzo and more in the race for album of the year, he said, “Man, I’ve been so, so inspired by every artist in this category with me. A lot of different times in my life, I listened to everyone in this category when I’m alone…This is really really kind … this doesn’t happen to people like me very often, and this is so nice, thank you very much.”
See Payne’s shout-out to Styles below and check out Horan’s here before it expires.
It’s safe to say that Lizzo had a very special night at the Grammys. Not only did the 34-year-old bop star take home the grand prize for record of the year with her chart-topping hit “About Damn Time” Sunday night (Feb. 5), but she also got to party with a star-packed group of friends — Adele, Beyoncé and Harry Styles — all of whom, by the way, also earned a golden Gramophone or two of their own.
The Yitty founder posted a handful of photos she took while at the ceremony to Twitter, and posed for several more snapped by professional photographers at the event. In one that will surely become a flagship picture of 2020s glamour one day — in the same way that black-and-white photos of Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn have lived on to symbolize old Hollywood allure — Beyoncé stands with Lizzo on her left and Adele on her right, each of them looking glossy and gorgeous in shimmering gowns.
The “Truth Hurts” singer-songwriter posted a couple of these professional-grade photos to Instagram, writing, “I won.”
In her selfies, Lizzo and her famous friends look less poised, but appears they’re having a whole lot of fun. She snapped photos with Adele, whose “Easy On Me” won best pop vocal performance, big smiles on both their faces. Beyoncé can be seen standing onstage in the background accepting best dance/electronic album, which officially made her the most awarded artist in Grammys history.
“Selfie as Beyoncé casually makes herstory,” Lizzo tweeted.
In another Instagram post, Lizzo and Adele celebrated her win for record of the year. “The last time a black woman won Record of the Year was Whitney Houston for ‘I Will Always Love You’… I don’t take this lightly. Thank you,” she captioned the carousel, which featured the twosome in the second selfie with Lizzo’s trophy.
And of course, the “Good as Hell” musician had to pose for some selfies with her bestie Harry Styles, who later won album of the year for Harry’s House. In one, she makes a funny face while the “As It Was” singer, who last year had Lizzo join him as a surprise guest during his Coachella performance, smiles with his mouth wide open.
In addition to winning big and making memories with some of the biggest names in music, Lizzo delivered a stunning performance of “Special” — the title track of her fourth studio album, which was also up for album of the year Sunday night — and parts of “About Damn Time.” When her name was read off as the winner for record of the year, she tearfully thanked her family, producers and her idol, who just so happened to be right there in the audience cheering her on.
“Beyoncé,” she said from onstage. “In the fifth grade I skipped school to see you perform … You changed my life. You sang that gospel medley and the way you made me feel, I was like, I want to make people feel this way with my music. So thank you so much! You clearly are the artist of our lives.”
See Lizzo’s Grammy pictures with Adele, Beyoncé and Harry Styles below:
Stars descended on L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena on Sunday (Feb. 5) for the 65th annual Grammy Awards, with everyone from Bad Bunny and Lizzo to Harry Styles and Mary J. Blige taking the stage to perform.
And now that this year’s biggest night in music has officially come and gone, Billboard wants to know which star-studded performance still had you talking come Monday morning.
The artist otherwise known as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio opened the ceremony with a delightful mash-up of “El Apagón” and “Después de la Playa” off his bestselling album Un Verano Sin Ti, paying tribute to his native Puerto Rico with a colorful entourage of cabezudos and merengue dancers.
Ahead of her win for record of the year, Lizzo brought the house down with a joyful revisiting of “About Damn Time” and the title track off Special, just before Styles recreated the music video for “As It Was” by bringing the giant red turntable to the stage.
Of course, one of the most-talked-about moments of the night came when LL Cool J introduced the all-star tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, which brought pioneers and legends such as Salt-N-Pepa, Public Enemy, Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes together with the new guard of GloRilla, Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Baby for a 23-song medley that was nothing short of electrifying — gigantic Ruff Ryders flag flying high about the Grammys stage included.
This year’s In Memoriam segment was also particularly touching as Quavo memorialized the late Takeoff in between Kacey Musgraves‘ restrained performance of “Coal Miner’s Daughter” for Loretta Lynn and Mick Fleetwood teaming up with Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt to honor Christine McVie with “Songbird.”
Elsewhere in the telecast, Sam Smith and Kim Petras opened the gates of hell for “Unholy” after making history with their win for best pop duo/group performance, Blige belted out “Good Morning Gorgeous” looking nothing less than absolutely glam, and DJ Khaled rounded up a rogue’s gallery of Fridayy, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne John Legend and Jay-Z to close out the show with “God Did.”
Vote for your favorite musical number of the 2023 Grammys in Billboard‘s official poll below!
As he was during his acceptance speech at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday night (Jan. 5) after winning album of the year for his Harry’s House LP, after the broadcast Harry Styles was humble and gracious in talking about coming out on top over some serious competition. In a press room interview following the awards, Styles was asked by Billboard about the many headlines going into the night focused on the possibility that Beyoncé would finally score an album of the year prize for her dance-heavy Renaissance collection.
“I think… you never know with this stuff… I don’t think you can look at any of the nominees and not feel like they’re deserving,” said Styles while cradling his golden gramophone in his left hand. “When I look at this category it’s all people who’ve inspired me at different times. It’s not like.. you would understand anyone winning. I’m really grateful they chose us.”
Styles won out over albums from Bey, Adele (30), a rebooted ABBA (Voyage), Bad Bunny (Un Verano Sin Ti) Mary J. Blige (Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe), Brandi Carlile (In These Silent Days), Coldplay (Music of the Spheres), Kendrick Lamar (Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers) and Lizzo (Special). Styles also took home the best pop vocal album award for House. And though Queen Bey was thwarted a fourth time in her bid for an AOTY honor, she became the most-decorated artist in Grammy history when she scooped her 32nd trophy for best dance/electronic album on Sunday; her win vaulted the singer over late conductor Georg Solti for most Grammy wins of all-time.
At the same press appearance, Styles was asked if he and his co-producers (Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson) have begun work on the follow-up to Harry’s House. “We’ve always tried to not really stop writing because it feels like you have this big stop and then you come back to it and it can feel like you’re either trying to prove something or trying to follow something up, so we’re kind of just always writing.”
Check out Harry’s answer below.
Kim Petras may “never cause no drama,” but she’s certainly ready to put an end to it.
At Sunday night’s Grammys (Feb. 5), Petras and Sam Smith took home the award for best pop duo/group performance, making Petras the first transgender winner in the category. In a press conference following her win, the pop singer said that she couldn’t help but think about the people who told her she wouldn’t make it.
“All these years are going through my head of people saying I would be a ‘niche artist’ because I’m transgender and my music would only ever play in gay clubs,” she said, adding that gay clubs “raised” her. “Now, I got a Grammy for making gay club music with my friend, and that’s the best feeling in the world.”
When asked what she hoped people watching could take away from her historic victory, Petras offered up a plea for greater understanding. “Honestly, I just think people need to judge less,” she said. “I hope that there’s a future where gender and identity and all these labels don’t matter that much. I hope all the kids that saw this that are special or different or feel like they don’t belong … feel inspired that, ‘Yes, you can be yourself and get rewarded for your talent rather than your gender or your sexuality.’”
While many watching were excited by the prospect of Petras earning her first Grammy, others online were getting fired up over her performance with Smith. Conservatives online referred to the pair’s fire-and-brimstone performance as “satanic,” with Senator Ted Cruz even weighing in to call the live number “evil.”
As Petras tells it, that was very much the point of their presentation. “It’s a take on not being able to choose religion, and not being able to live the way that people might want you to live,” she said matter-of-factly. “I think a lot of people have labeled what I stand for and what Sam stands for as ‘religiously not cool.’ I personally grew up wondering about religion and wanting to be a part of it, but then slowly realizing it doesn’t want me to be a part of it.”
Petras saved her kindest words backstage for Smith, referring to the singer as “a very special friend” and thanking them for their support since the outset of her career. “It’s really special to share this with someone who’s given me such important advice in my life, who has helped me in dealing with the opinions of people,” she said. “So, yeah, Sam will never get rid of me and we will always sing this song for eternity.”
Check out Petras’ full backstage press conference at the 2023 Grammys above.
While the In Memoriam performance at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5) paid tribute to the passing of many music stars in 2022, several notable omissions left fans irate, most notably the absences of Gangsta Boo and Lil Keed.
Boo, born Lola Chantrelle Mitchell, died on New Year’s Day this year. She rose to prominence during her teenage years and played an integral role in creating Three 6 Mafia. At the time of her death, Memphis Police Department said in a statement that there were no immediate signs of foul play and the investigation into her death was ongoing. She was 43.
Despite a gripping performance delivered by Quavo for his Migos bandmate and nephew, Takeoff, hip-hop fans chirped on social media about Boo’s exclusion. “Leaving out Gangsta Boo, one of the pioneers of Southern female rap, from the GRAMMY memoriam segment is a sin and a shame,” said one fan. “Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop tonight and forgetting to include Gangsta Boo in the memorial video is disrespectful af @RecordingAcad,” tweeted another.
Viewers also had something to say about the omission of YSL’s Lil Keed,” who died last May. “Grammy’s really didn’t honor Lil Keed. Scum,” said a viewer on Twitter.
According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, Keed’s cause of death stemmed from eosinophilia. Eosinophilia is a rare condition in which the number of eosinophils — a type of white blood cell — is greatly increased, according to cancer.gov.
Billboard has reached out to the Recording Academy for comment about the omissions.
Take a look at some of the tweets reacting to Boo and Keed’s omissions below.
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop tonight and forgetting to include Gangsta Boo in the memorial video is disrespectful af @RecordingAcad.— K E I S H (@MikeishaDache) February 6, 2023
Leaving out Gangsta Boo, one of the pioneers of Southern female rap, from the GRAMMY memoriam segment is a sin and a shame.— AGD. (@TheLexGabrielle) February 6, 2023
Grammy’s really didn’t honor Lil Keed. Scum— dan (@D_Gallagher9) February 6, 2023
Woww they really left Lil Keed and Gangsta Boo out of the #GRAMMYs tribute.😪— Shh the TV On (@shhthetvon) February 6, 2023
How did the Grammys not honor Gangsta Boo during the memorial part of the show?? Unacceptable and so disrespectful.— HXV (@WE_ARE_HXV) February 6, 2023
#GRAMMYs Why was Gangsta Boo not in the tribute to artist we lost? With this being 50 years of hip hop they should have added her picture.— Mzredmoma@gmail.com (@mzredmoma) February 6, 2023
Wow, y’all really gangsta boo off the tribute? Memphis being disrespected left and right this year. #GRAMMYs— Random, naked hoes stop following me!😷 (@WandaNon) February 6, 2023
You know it’s not the same as it was, but we remember it all too well. It’s been more than a decade since Harry Styles and Taylor Swift dated and called it quits, leaving millions of heartbroken fans feeling akin to children of divorced parents. But at the Grammy Awards Sunday night (Feb. 5), the two singers proved that, though long broken up, Mom and Dad are on great terms, taking time to chat and support one another during the ceremony.
In an onsite video captured during Steve Lacy’s performance of “Bad Habit,” Swift can be seen making her way over to Styles’ table in her glitzy, midnight-blue two-piece gown. The “As It Was” singer, who took home the coveted album of the year award and best pop vocal album for Harry’s House that night, stands up to greet her with a hug.
As Lizzo dances along to Lacy’s performance a few chairs down, the former pop power couple talk for about a minute before Swift glides elegantly away. Did she congratulate her “ex man” (to quote “Shake It Off”) on his wins? Did they discuss the best ways to co-parent their joint fanbase? It remains to be known what their brief conversation was about, but whatever it was, they were all smiles throughout.
The moment mirrors Swift and Styles’ reunion at the Grammys two years ago, when it was Swift who was honored with album of the year for Folklore. Just like this year, the two were also spotted on video having a friendly conversation at the 2021 awards, except Harry was the one to approach Taylor.
The “Anti-Hero” singer — whose “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” was nominated for song of the year, which went to Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” — was also filmed passionately applauding Styles after his performance of “As It Was,” giving him a standing ovation. Now that snowmobile accidents, paper airplane necklaces and dozens of songs rumored to have been written about each other (looking at you, “Style” and “Two Ghosts”) are simply things of the past, fans can rest easy knowing that the two pop stars are friendly than ever.
Watch Harry Styles and Taylor Swift reunite at the 2023 Grammys below:
Now this is a another historic #Grammys moment. During Steve Lacy’s performance, Taylor Swift snuck over to talk to Harry Styles. They hug + talk for a long time over his table. pic.twitter.com/MX75UmcxJM— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) February 6, 2023
As if people weren’t mad enough at the results of the 2023 Grammys, now conservatives are fired up over two performers wearing devil costumes during the annual telecast. During the ceremony on Sunday (Feb. 5), Sam Smith and Kim Petras offered a rousing performance of their hit single “Unholy,” in which the Petras performed alongside drag stars Violet Chachki and Gottmik dressed in devil costumes, while Smith was in a bright red top hat with devil horns sticking out from it for the final chorus.
Instead of celebrating the fact that the pair made history for the LGBTQ community that night, conservative viewers slammed the performances for promoting the worship of Satan. “I know we on the right probably use the word satanic too often but this performance from Sam Smith is literally a tribute to Satan,” wrote one viewer. Another added some conspiracy-baiting into the mix, saying Madonna (who introduced the performance) looked like a statue erected in New York City that conservatives have called “satanic” as well.
Eventually, right-wing senator Ted Cruz decided to weigh in. Retweeting a video of the performance captured by conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler (who wrote that “demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan”), Cruz simply wrote, “This…is…evil.”
Neither Smith nor Petras have publicly responded to the backlash yet. Billboard has reached out to their reps for comment.
The pair took home the Grammy award for best pop duo/group performance, and Smith gave Petras the stage to celebrate being the first transgender woman to win in the category. “I just want to thank all the incredible transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so I could be here tonight,” she said during her speech, especially thanking the late SOPHIE for her constant support. “Everyone who believed in me to this point, I love you so much.”
Check out some of the reactions to Smith & Petras’ “Unholy” performance below:
Last night at the Grammys the satanic ritual performed by Sam Smith was introduced by MadonnaWho “coincidentally” looked like the new pagan statue in New York City pic.twitter.com/TPq8NjecYR— Vision4theBlind (@Michael3147) February 6, 2023
Sam Smith’s satanic performance at the Grammy’s ended with a Pfizer commercial. You can’t get it more on the nose than that. Pfizer and Hollywood deserve each other. pic.twitter.com/4HhFQemiCi— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 6, 2023