Awards
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At Sunday night’s ceremony, the top prizes were won by Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar.
Music’s biggest night wouldn’t be complete without, well, music — something the 2025 Grammys had in abundance with Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Doechii and more stars delivering buzzy live performances in between the presentation of awards Sunday (Feb. 2).
The show kicked off with Dawes, Brad Paisley, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brittany Howard and St. Vincent paying tribute to Los Angeles — where the ceremony streamed live from the city’s Crypto.com Arena — with an all-star performance of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” honoring victims and first responders affected by the disastrous wildfires in Southern California last month. The offering set the tone for the rest of the night, which featured numerous odes to the city and found host Trevor Noah continuously reminding the audience to donate via MusiCares to relief efforts; by the end of the night, viewers had contributed $7 million, the comedian revealed on air.
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More artists such as Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga then honored the City of Angels through their performances, with the former singing “Birds of a Feather” on a set made to look like Eaton Canyon in Altadena, and the latter recruiting her “Die With a Smile” collaborator Bruno Mars for an emotionally charged take on The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin.’”
There were also tributes to the artists we lost in the past year — led by Chris Martin, who sang “All My Love” on piano as the names of Liam Payne, Toby Keith and more late stars flashed on screen — and Quincy Jones, who died at 91 in November. In honor of the game-changing producer, Will Smith guided the audience through a string of performances from Cynthia Erivo, Lainey Wilson and Stevie Wonder with Herbie Hancock and Jacob Collier on piano, closing with Janelle Monáe channeling Michael Jackson on “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.”
Plus, viewers were treated to performances from all eight best new artist nominees, with Carpenter hamming it up for “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” Roan — who later won the category — serving rodeo princess on “Pink Pony Club,” and Benson Boone, Doechii, Teddy Swims, Shaboozey and Raye all singing their biggest hits of 2024 back to back.
Elsewhere in the night, The Weeknd finally ended his beef with the Recording Academy and made his return to the Grammy stage, Shakira got Taylor Swift and more guests up and dancing, and Charli XCX closed the show with a Brat medley of “Von Dutch” and “Guess.”
With so much musical excellence packed into one night, it might be hard to choose, but Billboard still wants to know which artist delivered your favorite performance at this year’s Grammys. Cast your vote below.
During the 2025 Grammys red carpet Sunday (Feb. 2), one reporter got a little caught up in the femininomenon of Chappell Roan while speaking to Babyface.
In a viral clip of the awkward exchange, the “When Can I See You” singer — looking dapper in a jewel-encrusted suit jacket and black shades — is only a few words into his answer to a question while speaking to The Associated Press when the 26-year-old pop star walks by behind him. At that point, one of the AP’s reporters calls out to get Roan’s attention while Babyface is still speaking, prompting the R&B icon to stop in the middle of what he’s saying and ask, “You guys wanna do that?”
“Go do that,” Babyface adds, relinquishing his microphone as the “Hot to Go!” singer — appearing not to have heard the interaction — walks over.
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Shortly afterward, AP posted an apology on X. “We are deeply sorry for cutting our interview with Babyface short on our YouTube livestream of the Grammys red carpet,” the news agency wrote in its statement. “We have apologized to him through his representative and to our viewers on the livestream.”
Billboard has reached out to Babyface’s rep for comment.
As evidenced by the commotion on the carpet, Roan was one of the buzziest guests at the 2025 ceremony. The star walked in with six nominations total, including for song, record and album of the year for “Good Luck, Babe!” and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, respectively. Though she didn’t take home any of those Big 3 awards — Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” won both song categories while Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter scored AOTY — the Missouri native did win best new artist.
And during her speech, she boldly challenged record labels to take better care of their artists, especially signees. “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and healthcare, especially for developing artists,” Roan said while accepting best new artist. “Labels, we got you — but do you got us?”
Elsewhere in the night, the star performed her Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit “Pink Pony Club,” taking the stage atop a giant pink horse prop while surrounded by dancers in clown makeup.
But before the ceremony even started, AP’s Krysta Fauria also issued a personal apology to Babyface before the site’s red-carpet coverage ended. “I wanted to say that I’m really sorry about interrupting Babyface earlier,” she said in a clip from the broadcast. “I’m a big Babyface fan — as are we all — and so I just wanted to say that I really apologize.”
It’s common practice for artists to thank their families when winning major awards. But, as rock star St. Vincent proved at the 2025 Grammys on Sunday (Feb. 2), it’s rare to see artists reveal that they’re married with kids during a massive event.
During the evening’s pre-telecast awards, Annie Clark (St. Vincent’s offstage name) took home the best rock song trophy for her 2024 single “Broken Man.” During her acceptance speech, the singer surprised fans and audience members by offering a special shout-out to “my beautiful wife Leah [and] our beautiful daughter.” In a later acceptance speech for best alternative music album for her 2024 LP All Born Screaming, Clark thanked her family for a second time.
Clark is known for remaining tight-lipped about her personal life, a fact that she acknowledged in a backstage interview after winning her award. When a reporter from the Associated Press said that they were “totally unaware” of Clark’s marital status, the singer jumped in to add that “most people were,” revealing that she and her spouse have made a concerted effort to keep their relationship out of the public eye.
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“She’s young, we’ve kept it under wraps,” she said, before quickly clarifying her point with a laugh. “The child is young, just to be clear, the child is young, not the wife!” The singer added that she and her family had plans to celebrate her victory with her sisters, but that Clark intended “to be in bed by 10” that night.
Elsewhere in her backstage interviews, Clark reflected on the LGBTQ+ representation at the annual show and across the industry, remarking that queer people existing in the industry and the world at large is not news. “There have always been queer people in the history of the world, and especially in music,” she said. “There’s a bunch of queer people being celebrated this year. And that’s great, of course it’s great — empathy and humanity, let’s go.”
For Billboard‘s 2024 Pride cover story, the singer opened up about the history of queer people in the music business, while pointing out the importance of LGBTQ+ artists remaining on the cutting edge of culture. “There have been plenty of queer people in music. Even if the culture was saying no, there were always queer people in the arts. Please. We have built this,” she said at the time. “If you’re safe for the TV screen, you also invite an aspect of grift [from the outside world]. Which … I raise an eyebrow at.”
The All Born Screaming singer took home three trophies at Sunday night’s ceremony — best rock song, best alternative music album and best alternative music performance for “Flea.” Clark was nominated in the best rock performance category, but ultimately lost out to the Beatles’ AI-assisted track “Now and Then.”
Taylor Swift may not have won any new awards at the 2025 Grammys Sunday night (Feb. 2), but she still got to show off something sparkly — thanks to Janelle Monáe. During the show’s sprawling Quincy Jones tribute, which the “We Are Young” singer closed with a phenomenal performance of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till […]
Amy Allen made history at the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 2), becoming the first woman to win for songwriter of the year, non-classical. The category is still fairly new: This was just the third year it was presented. Tobias Jesso Jr. was the inaugural winner in 2023, for writing songs by such artists […]
Sometimes, it just all comes together. Maybe not in real life — particularly not in a year whose first month has already seen two major plane crashes on the East Coast, large portions of the West Coast going up in flames, and the entire country being subjected to dehumanizing new policies and legislation meant to undo generations’ worth of societal progress. But in music and culture, occasionally you are lucky enough to get moments where it feels like everything is just about where it should be, like you’re witnessing both history in real time, and possibly also the start of a better future. Sometimes it can even happen on a stage as historically contentious as that of the Grammys.
The 2025 Grammys were probably always going to be a little bit special, just given the incredibly high caliber of artists present as the biggest nominees, performers and even presenters — an everybody-in-the-pool year for Music’s Biggest Night that had the Recording Academy working with one of its biggest head starts in ages. But the combination of potentially narrative-derailing award pratfalls and (much more importantly) the real-life tragedy transpiring in its backyard had these Grammys under even more pressure than usual to Get It Right, as much as any award show ever can. And from maximizing the sky-high performance potential of the artists on the docket, to hitting most of the appropriate big and small notes in addressing the heavier concerns understandably weighing down the buoyant festivities, to picking a slate of winners that felt much more triumphant and cathartic than confusing and disappointing, the Grammys got it right this year. And the impact of that ended up being surprisingly profound.
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For a ceremony that many observers both locally and nationally thought she be delayed if not canceled outright in the wake of the fires that devastated so much of California, this year’s Grammys were wise to acknowledge the catastrophic loss and sense of community perseverance throughout the evening. From the beginning Dawes-led performance of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” to the CA firefighters who handed out the final award of the evening — and countless fundraising reminders and commercials aired to support local businesses aired in between — the Recording Academy and host Trevor Noah never let the fires totally recede to the background of the festivities, but also never came off too ham-fisted in their intimations towards true seriousness in an event still mostly devoted to music industry froth. Combined with the high percentage of legendary locals in attendance — including some of the night’s big winners — it made the evening and its message of support feel genuine and purposeful, not just a glittering distraction.
But oh, there was glitter, and glitz and glamour and all the spectacle that pop offers at its best and sparkliest. Sabrina Carpenter offered her continually improving updated take on Madonna at her most Marilyn Monroe-obsessed — but with a healthy dose of Groucho Marx also thrown in — on a stunning and occasionally side-splitting mashing of “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” Chappell Roan and a whole bunch of cowboy clowns brought Crypto.com Arena to Wild, Wild West Hollywood with a pitch-perfect performance of “Pink Pony Club,” confirming the song one more time as a generational anthem. And while some recent Grammys have frontloaded their lineups to a degree that became increasingly unforgivable as the hours dragged on, the 2025 awards smartly held Charli XCX’s Grammy debut for the night’s final performance, as she went full dance-floor decadence with her predictably incendiary, underwear-forward “Von Dutch” and “Guess” medley — a rare are they really allowed to do this? Grammy moment that was well worth sticking deep into the 11:00 ET hour for.
The current pop vanguard definitely led the way at the 2025 awards, but the veteran class also held its own on the Grammy stage. Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga wisely eschewed another victory-lap performance of current Billboard Hot 100-topping duet “Die With a Smile” to instead deliver a one-night-only acoustic duet on The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” with a beautifully understated arrangement and vocal interplay that sweetly complemented their singular vocal abilities and developing chemistry. Conversely, you kinda wished The Weeknd had more of a no-doubter smash to play for his surprise return to the Grammys stage — though “Cry for Me” and “Timeless” from the just-released Hurry Up Tomorrow have their charms, no one’s confusing them for “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears,” especially during such a moment — but it was still quite gratifying to see Abel making nice with the Grammys, and looking like King of the World again as he begins what many expect to be his potential final career chapter as The Weeknd. And while the all-star tribute to the late legend Quincy Jones stretched far longer than is usually advisable for an all-star Grammy tribute, the wildly varied nature of the many Grammy longtimers involved (from Herbie Hancock to Lainey Wilson to Janelle Monáe) actually ended up painting a pretty full picture of Jones’ genre-and-generation-spanning impact.
The most heartening part of the evening, however, belonged to the still-rising stars. A best new artist nominee medley — not in the old-school, everyone-at-once, Franz Ferdinand-colliding-with-Black-Eyed-Peas Grammy sense, but more of a carefully plotted, quick-moving showcase — brilliantly demonstrated the dazzling talents of this year’s class, including the vocal fireworks of Raye and Teddy Swims, the athleticism and showmanship of Benson Boone and a particularly scorching Doechii, and the lower-key likability of Shaboozey. (Carpenter and Roan were understandably given their entire own spotlight moments, while psych-rock power trio Khruangbin — who delivered perhaps the most resolutely chill performance in Grammys history — was held to 60 seconds of bumper music, likely for momentum reasons.) It was a near-embarrassment of riches for one category, and while not every year can be this strong a BNA class, you hope that the Grammys will continue with this performance model in future years; it was a great way to introduce five big new talents at once without shortchanging any of them.
With so many major performance moments, the awards could’ve felt like an afterthought some years — but not in 2025, following one of the most packed years in recent pop music history, with seemingly all the biggest artists going against one another in all the biggest categories. And the spread of winners was basically a satisfying one for pop fans: Roan and Carpenter picked up one televised award each (for best new artist and best pop vocal album, respectively), acknowledging their game-changing contributions to pop’s massive year without anointing either one the unquestioned queen of the moment. Charli picked up a couple dance Grammys but was shut out of the big four; as her electric not-safe-for-parents final performance further established, she’s better off sticking a little left-of-center as far as the mainstream is concerned anyway. Fans of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish might take umbrage at their respective 0-fers, but as two of the most decorated artists in recent Grammy history — really all Grammy history at this point — it’s hard to imagine two pop stars who’d be more quintessentially Fine following such a shutout.
In most Grammy years this past decade, this would be the point where we’d interrupt discussions of the winners to go “Ah, yes, but where’s the hip-hop?” Not this year: both song of the year and record of the year went to Kendrick Lamar for “Not Like Us,” just the second rap song to ever win in either category (following Childish Gambino’s double-winner “This Is America” in 2019). It was an overdue acknowledgment of an all-time artist who’d somehow never won in the Big Four categories before, and who certainly deserved it for his biggest and arguably best single to date — though an arena full of industry cognoscenti rapping along to lyrics accusing the defining rapper of the 2010s being a pedophile will never not be surreal. In any event, while rap was still in relatively short supply on the evening — outside of Doechii’s star turn (and best rap album win for Alligator Bites Never Heal), the only other rapper to perform was Playboi Carti, as a guest of The Weeknd — it’s fun to go one Grammys without having to ding the Academy for once again going the entirety of Music’s Biggest Night without properly recognizing music’s biggest genre.
And speaking of unfortunate Grammy narratives it’s nice to not have to brace once more this year, here’s one we basically never have to worry about again: Beyonce has finally won album of the year. With Cowboy Carter taking home the night’s top prize, the one remaining hole in the resumé of pop’s preeminent albums artist (and the Grammys’ all-time biggest winner) has officially been filled. Had any other nominated album — many of them also deserving winners in their own right — taken home the trophy, there still would’ve been an unpleasant aftertaste of Yet Again Not Beyoncé that would’ve lingered far beyond the ceremony. Whether or not you agree that Cowboy Carter was the best album of the year, or the best candidate for the first Bey album to actually win AOTY, you had to feel at least a little bit good about this historical snub — the story of which has loomed over the Grammys for a solid decade now — finally being made right after so many missed opportunities.
By the way, a quick note about Cowboy Carter: Beyoncé has absolutely nothing to apologize for by winning with this album. Some future accountings of these Grammys may paint the win as an undeserving one, coming past Bey’s commercial and artistic prime with an album not up to her peak standards, à la so many other questionable winners from early-21st century Grammys history. So let us say quite plainly from the present: bulls–t. This was a Billboard 200-topping album with a Hot 100-topping lead single, which posted the best first week of 2024 outside of anyone but the fellow pop legend who presented Beyoncé best country album on Sunday night. Moreover, it was a brilliant project that was unanimously acclaimed upon release, one that both excavated genre history and pushed it forward in real time, with a handful of the year’s finest pop, country and/or Americana songs and some of the most thoughtful and inspired structuring and pacing of any LP in recent memory. It was our editorial staff’s No. 2 album of last year. If it’s not your particular glass of whiskey then fair enough, but don’t you dare paint Cowboy Carter as Beyoncé’s own Morning Phase — Bey may be in a similar place in her Grammy arc to where Beck was 10 years ago (which likely helped her win here), but when you’re comparing the two in terms of commercial potency, critical adoration and cultural vitality, we promise that 2015 Beck doesn’t want to take it to the floor with Cowboy Carter.
Anyway, closing the loop on long-unresolved Grammy narratives is nice and all, but that’s not really what made these Grammys so resonant. The biggest reason for that was the feeling that these Grammys were kinda what every pop fan watching probably needed right now. Which is a nauseatingly hackneyed and clichéd — not to mention stupefyingly reductive — type of statement to make about any kind of art or entertainment, of course. But it maybe still sorta fits here. These Grammys were celebratory and comforting and exultant in a surprisingly uncomplicated and non-divisive way; even if you didn’t agree with all or most of the winners it’s hard to imagine leaving this year’s telecast not feeling at least a little bit better about the music world — maybe even the world in general — than you did before.
That went beyond the performers and the winners. While the Noah-led broadcast unsurprisingly steered clear of making any grand political or partisan statements, many of the artists involved took the opportunity to speak up at this year’s awards. Chappell Roan used her best new artist acceptance speech to demand labels provide health care and liveable wages for developing artists, while earlier on the red carpet, she spoke in support of the trans community. Roan pop progenitor Lady Gaga further preached that message on the telecast, using her own “Die With a Smile” win (for best duo/group performance) to proclaim “Trans people are not invisible.” And Alicia Keys took time while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award to speak in defiance of the current administration’s continued scapegoating of DEI as a cultural ill: “This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices… DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift,” she preached. “This room is unstoppable.”
The artist community took some lumps following the results of the November election, as the endorsement of so many A-listers ended up ultimately not making nearly enough of a difference in the race’s outcome. It was easy to take those results as reason to further bemoan the Hollywood bubble, and to label some of those artists (if not the entire industry) as out of touch with the real world — and maybe there’s something to that. But the flip side of that is a night like Sunday, where the magic on display from so many of these incredible artists and the joy they all at least seemed to really take in celebrating one another can be legitimately inspiring, and galvanizing, and soothing. Keys’ words felt particularly powerful because the night of diverse performances and winners did feel like a gift. And on Sunday night, the artist community actually felt something like a proper community, one capable of uniting and building and offering support and stability to those who need it — at a time when a whole lot of people, both locally and nationally, really really f–king need it.
Does that really make the room unstoppable, though? Probably not: The calamities outside the Crypto.com Arena were certainly still present following the near-four-hour broadcast, and while some of them are finally becoming contained, to others there’s no obvious end in sight. If the power of music, and the diverse community of artists who create it, was truly unstoppable, it probably would have demonstrated that a little more clearly back in November. But at the very least, it was awesome to have one Grammy night of stellar performances, of deserving winners, of such little inherent drama or divisiveness that it felt like the room was all together in the fight, more focused on battling what was going outside that room than on sparring with one another within it. It felt like a reminder of something good and important. It felt like music’s biggest night.
Here’s who hit the stage and highlighted Music’s Biggest Night.
Many of the awards at the 67th annual Grammys went exactly as predicted. Of the six General Field categories I handicapped on Jan. 6 (the Monday after final voting closed), five went as I foresaw. But there were still plenty of snubs and surprises across the (gulp) 94 categories that were presented on Sunday (Feb. […]
“Can we take a minute and make some noise for the city of f–king angels,” the Grammys‘ Premiere Ceremony host Justin Tranter demanded while opening up the show on Sunday (Feb. 2) in Los Angeles.
As commanded, the crowd cheered for the Grammys’ longstanding city of residence, and the duration of the show — which eventually moved from the Peacock Theater to Crypto.com Arena next door for the main telecast — gave significant love and airtime to L.A., where wildfires decimated entire neighborhoods in early January. The disaster prompted the cancellation of many Grammy parties and related events, but the awards show itself persevered, nodding to the disaster and corresponding relief efforts many times during the telecast while also functioning as a fundraiser and, of course, providing many non-fire related moments that emphasized music’s power to thrill and uplift.
The atmosphere backstage was essentially a facsimile, with artists finding a deft balance between celebrating their wins while acknowledging the awards happening in the wake of a major natural disaster. Even the commercial breaks included stars such as Doja Cat, Anderson .Paak and Avril Lavigne appearing in ads with local L.A. business owners.
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But of course, the Grammys also went big on what it always aims too accomplish — celebrating the year’s biggest songs and artists with the awards and showcasing huge, glitzy performances from some of the world’s biggest stars. Even back in the press room, journalists were cheering as artists such as Doechii and Benson Boone electrified the stage.
Throughout the busy, jubilant and occasionally tear-jerking night, Billboard was positioned on the red carpet, backstage and in the audience to report on all things behind the scenes. Read on for everything you didn’t see on TV.
2:32 p.m. PT: “Never get into a rap battle with Kendrick Lamar,” says Sean Lennon, offering a word of advice to the Premiere Ceremony audience and livestream viewers while accepting the award for best boxed or special limited edition package for his work art directing Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection), the 1973 album by his late father, John Lennon. (Even at this early hour Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has already won Grammys for best rap performance, best rap song and best music video.)
2:50 p.m. PT: Lennon then accepts the best rock performance award on behalf of The Beatles, who won the award for “Now and Then,” with Lennon acknowledging the band and making a request. “It’s really incredible if you think about it, man,” he told the Premiere Ceremony crowd. “The Beatles have done so much incredible work and they’re still in the culture … and as far as I’m concerned, its the greatest band of all time. … Play The Beatles to your kids. The world can’t afford to forget about people like The Beatles. We need the peace and love of the ’60s and we need the magic to stay alive.”
3:00 p.m. PT: Backstage in the press room, Norah Jones reflects on her best traditional pop vocal album win for Visions, which comes 22 years after her album Come Away With Me swept the 2003 Grammys, winning for album of the year, record of the year, best female pop vocal performance, best pop vocal album and Jones winning best new artist. “I’m really grateful that I still have a job,” Jones says while reflecting on this accomplishment backstage. “This business is crazy, so I’m just really happy to make music that I love and that people listen to still. It’s special. [Winning those early awards] was exciting, it was crazy though, and I was so young. I really, definitely, probably appreciate this even more.”
3:12 p.m. PT: Backstage, Anderson .Paak reflects on playing the massive FireAid benefit concert that took place two nights ago to raise money victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. “It was awesome to be a part of an epic lineup and to unite the city and provide some much needed aid for the people who need it,” the son of SoCal says. “I loved playing in the Forum. I was able to bring out the big homie Dr. Dre, the big homie Sheila E. and with my band The Free Nationals — it was one of the greatest nights for sure in L.A.”
3:17 p.m. PT: Jason Carter, the grandson of late President Jimmy Carter, reflects on his grandfather’s posthumous win for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording for his Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration. The project features recordings from President Carter’s final Sunday School lessons delivered at Maranatha Baptist Church, in his hometown of Plains, Ga.
“He was such an enormous music fan,” Jason Carter said backstage in the Grammys press room after accepting the award on behalf of his grandfather, who died in December at age 100. “He loves the creative aspect of music, it’s an important part of his political life and an important part of his personal life. He was an artist in many ways himself. He was an author, he was a painter … so he really appreciates the aspect of the Grammys that recognizes creativity.”
3:35 p.m. PT: St. Vincent cradles the three Grammy awards she’s won during the Premiere Ceremony. When asked how she plans to celebrate, she says, “My sister is in town and we’re going to make the night ours, and probably be in bed by 10, if all goes well.”
She’s then asked about the representation of LGBTQ+ people at the Grammys, to which she responds: “There have always been queer people in the history of the world and especially in music, so I think there’s a bunch of queer people being celebrated this year especially. Of course it’s great. Empathy and humanity, let’s go.”
She also discloses that holding the three awards at once is making her biceps burn.
4:01 p.m. PT: In the press area, Sean Lennon is asked about “the burden” of carrying on the legacy of his father, John Lennon. “It’s not a burden,” the younger Lennon responds. “It’s honestly a great privilege for me. I just feel so lucky that I get to do good by my dad. It feels like a privilege as his son to be able give back. He gave the world so much, and he gave me so much and I just feel really honored to be able to do justice by him.”
4:57 p.m. PT: Celebrating her best R&B performance win for “Made for Me (Live on BET),” Muni Long reflects, “For me, moments like this are just a reminder that when you do what’s in your heart, you win no matter how much resistance you encounter, no matter how many opinions people might have, you have to be authentic, because that resonates with people.”
5:19 p.m. PT: Percussion legend Sheila E., who won an award for best global music performance for “Bemba Colorá” featuring Gloria Estefan and Mimy Succar, shares about temporarily evacuating her home during the L.A. wildfires. “I was one of the fortunate ones,” she says. “It was very, very close to my house. I had to evacuate the night of the fires … and the first thing that I took — because I had evacuated that area before — and this time I put all my music, all my hard drives in bins so I could carry them down the stairs by myself if I had to, and I just took my music, a pair of pajamas, a pair of sweats, and I left.”
5:25 p.m. PT: While speaking to the press after winning for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella, John Legend discussed the recent wildfires in Los Angeles and the broader occurrence of climate change-related disasters. “We’ve had floods in this country, we’ve had hurricanes in this country, and what I love to see is when all of us realize that our neighbors, our fellow countrymen and women are struggling and suffering, and we all come together and help each other out,” Legend says.
“L.A.’s going through it now, and folks around the country and around the world are going through it in other ways,” he continues. “A lot of it is due to climate and heightened disasters and the strength of these storms and winds … I think more than ever, we’re going to have to come together and support each other in these times. It’s L.A.’s turn right now, but we’re going to have to return the favor for other communities and other cities and states as they go through the same things. Hopefully, we’ll be there for each other, and we’ll all do the best we can to think long term about climate change and how it’s affecting all of us, and we’ll do the things we need to do as a society to help mitigate the damage.”
6:10 p.m. PT: Brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of the band Dawes step backstage to discuss their show-opening performance of Randy Newman’s 1983 anthem “I Love L.A.” “We’ve never been nominated; we’ve never even been here,” says Taylor, “so for us this is just such a whirlwind of thinking [the Grammys] have never been a part of our journey, to going to the show and playing onstage. It’s a wild thing about how our childhood dreams could meet up with an opportunity to help our communities at such a tragic moment.”
7:22 p.m. PT: Inside the venue, Beyoncé — who has just won for best country album and attended the show with husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy — is escorted back to her seat just before a tribute to late genius Quincy Jones. The medley features Cynthia Ervio and Herbie Hancock performing “Fly Me to the Moon,” Lainey Wilson and Jacob Collier doing “Let The Good Times Roll,” Stevie Wonder and Hancock performing “Blusette” and “We Are the World” and Janelle Monáe singing “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.”
7:38 p.m. PT: After winning for best rap album and putting on a jaw-dropping performances of “Catfish” and “Denial Is a River,” Doechii arrived backstage and said the performance was one of the most difficult she’s ever done. “I really felt I needed to push myself harder than I ever have before,” she told the journalists assembled, who’d cheered when she entered the room. “It meant everything to me to prove myself tonight, to me, and so it was about Broadway and theater and art, and I think I brought that to the stage.”
8:35 p.m. PT: Backstage, SZA, whose “Saturn” has won for best R&B recording, is asked if she can reveal any secrets about her upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show special guest appearance with Kendrick Lamar. “Mm-mm,” she says, politely declining. “That’s King Kendrick’s performance, and all I can say is that he’s working really hard on it.”
She’s then asked what her future plans are in terms of not being “placed in a box” of R&B. “I don’t really think I’m actually really placed in a box,” she says. “I think these are the parameters in which I’ve been honored this evening, and I’m grateful for that, and I think within all the parameters I’ve been honored, regardless of the label, I’m grateful to have gotten the award, the but that’s not the point. The point is the reach, and the impact, and the experience I’ve had creating music.”