Awards
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Thousands of people saw an optimistic message written to Beyoncé in the Los Angeles sky following the 2023 Grammys. But it wasn’t until Wednesday (Feb. 8) that fans learned who, exactly, was behind the note.
Billboard can confirm that The Recording Academy and CBS jointly gifted Queen Bey with the skywriter message, which read “BEYONCE, YOU MADE MUSIC HISTORY” in all caps.
Additionally, the two organizations also conjured up the Grammys-themed drone light shows spotted over Los Angeles in the days leading up to the awards show.
“We (RA/CBS) did do a drone activation,” Sean Smith, executive vice president of The Recording Academy, confirmed to Billboard. “We couldn’t fly Sunday due to high winds so we did one last pass Monday.”
The glass half-full approach to Beyoncé’s night at the Grammys could make more than a few members of the Beyhive raise a collective eyebrow, considering the superstar’s 2022 studio set, Renaissance, lost out the award for album of the year to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.
While Beyoncé now holds the record as the most-awarded artist in the Grammys history, she’s still 0 for 4 when it comes to The Recording Academy’s top prize, having been nominated for 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce, 2013’s Beyoncé and 2016’s Lemonade in addition to Renaissance. In fact, when it comes to the Big Four categories, she’s won only song of the year in 2010 for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).”
Bey’s husband Jay-Z was among those who thought her latest house-inspired opus deserved to win in the crowded race for album of the year, telling TIDAL ahead of the ceremony, “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.”
Beyoncé is the most awarded artist in Grammy history as of Sunday (Feb. 5), and she’s taking a moment to celebrate. As she should.
In a triumphant video posted to her Instagram Wednesday morning (Feb. 8) that features a remix of her song “Cuff It,” the 41-year-old record-setter poses with the four Grammys she picked up over the weekend for best dance recording, best dance album, best traditional R&B vocal performance and best R&B song. Stunning in form-fitted black gown with matching opera gloves, she dances hand-in-hand with Jay-Z and a group of friends.
In another clip, Bey holds hands with her husband as she and her team appear to be leaving the ceremony, victoriously pumping her fist. The video also features shots of the “Break My Soul” singer accepting her historic 32nd Grammy award, tearing up onstage as she surpassed Sir Georg Solti’s 31 trophies and became the top Grammy winner of all time.
Bey previously celebrated her wins on Instagram right after awards night, sharing photos with her new trophies, wearing a matching gold headpiece, and writing, “To my Hive, thank y’all so much for all of your love and loyalty… I feel very grateful and filled with joy!”
She isn’t the only one who’s pumped up over her big night. Lizzo and Adele — both documented Bey superfans — posed for a selfie together with the “Formation” musician onstage in the background giving her thank you speech. “Selfie as Beyoncé casually makes herstory,” Lizzo captioned the snaps, posting them to Twitter.
Watch Beyoncé celebrate her historic Grammy wins below:
Few Grammy watchers expected Bonnie Raitt to take home song of the year at Sunday’s (Feb. 5) awards — perhaps least of all Raitt herself, as judged by her heavily memed surprised reaction to the announcement — for the devastating, self-penned title track to her 2022 album Just Like That. The song was easily the least commercially visible of the 10 tracks nominated, the other nine of which were all top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. (Raitt has not reached the Hot 100 since 1995.)
That lack of commercial profile for “Just Like That” to that point, however, has just meant that there’s plenty of curious listeners now intrigued enough by the song’s big Grammy win to check it out for the first time. The song absolutely blasted off on streaming services following its song of the year victory, spiking from just over 10,000 daily official on-demand U.S. streams two days before the Grammys (Feb. 3) to a whopping 697,000 the Monday after (Feb. 6) — a gain of around 6,700%, according to Luminate.
And the growth in the song’s sales is even more explosive. After selling a negligible daily number in the days leading up to the Grammys, the song moved 4,550 copies on Feb. 6, a gain of over 10,000%. (The song has spent most of the week at No. 2 on the iTunes real-time sales charts, behind only Miley Cyrus’ Hot 100-topping “Flowers.”) Raitt’s non-“Just” catalog also saw big streaming increases, with the rest of her discography up from 333,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Feb. 3 to 869,000 on Feb. 6, a gain of 161%.
It’s not the first time a big Grammy moment has given Raitt a major sales boost. After her mid-career breakthrough set Nick of Time took home album of the year at the 1990 awards, it took off on the Billboard 200 — eventually topping the chart for three weeks that April, and starting a commercial renaissance for the veteran blues-rocker that lasted through the first half of the ’90s. Just Like That still has a long way to go before marking that kind of chart comeback for Raitt, but it may be on track to crack the Billboard 200 again next week (dated Feb. 18) — which would be the LP’s first appearance on the chart since it debuted at No. 44 there last May, falling off the week after.
Back row, from left: Juanes, Elvis Costello, Myles Frost, Frankie Valli, Kevin Costner, Jennifer Hudson, Harvey Mason Jr., Rickey Minor, Lauren Daigle, Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin, Thomas Raggi of Måneskin, Ethan Torchio of Måneskin, Latto. Front row, from left: Sheryl Crow, Clive Davis, Damiano David of Måneskin photographed at the annual Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala on February 4, 2023 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Austin Hargrave
Along with celebrating the queer community at large, the GLAAD Media Awards make sure to give vocal allies their flowers for supporting the LGBTQ community — and this year, the organization is recognizing two massive stars for their unyielding efforts.
On Wednesday (Feb. 8), GLAAD announced that recording artists Bad Bunny and Christina Aguilera would be the recipients of two allyship awards at its annual ceremony in Los Angeles taking place March 30. The organization also announced that out actor Jeremy Pope would receive the Stephen F. Kolzak award for his work in raising visibility for LGBTQ media professionals.
Bad Bunny is set to receive the annual vanguard award, which is presented to “allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people and issues.” Past honorees include mega-stars such as Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears and Cher. Speaking on Bunny’s inclusion, GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said that the star’s consistent advocacy — whether through live performances, music videos or elsewhere — “redefines the positive influence Latin music artists can have within the LGBTQ community, and has set an example for all artists.”
Aguilera will receive the advocate for change award, given to “a person who, through their work, has changed the game for LGBTQ people around the world.” The only two past recipients of the award are President Bill Clinton and pop superstar Madonna. Ellis said that through the dedication of her hit song “Beautiful” to the queer community, her work in raising money for HIV research and her staunch opposition to anti-queer policies in the U.S., Aguilera “loudly and proudly raises the bar for what it means to be a LGBTQ ally today.”
GLAAD previously announced their official nominees for the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards, including LGBTQ artists such as Demi Lovato, Kim Petras, Anitta, Fletcher and many more for their work in creating queer art in 2022.
Beyoncé made history at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night (Feb. 5), becoming the artist with the most awards in Grammy history. This year, the star won four awards, including two in the dance/electronic category.
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Diplo, who was also up for best dance/electronic recording and best dance/electronic music album at the ceremony, took to Instagram on Tuesday (Feb. 7) to reflect on dance music and Bey’s wins.
The DJ thanked the dance music community for “being my purpose in this life and shaping my career,” adding that the genre “has and will be the most Inclusive music of our generation,” with fans of different races, sexualities, socioeconomic backgrounds and ages all over the world. “You don’t need to be a savant or a great musician to be part of dance music u just have to love to move and have confidence,” he added.
As for the Grammys, Diplo celebrated the dance/electronic music categories being televised for the first time. “Beyoncé album was legendary (i’m a beyonce a stan remember I produced some classic dance songs for her like ’til the end of time’ and ‘girls run the world,’” he wrote. “What’s important to understand was that her intention was 100%. she did the work found the real producers and she made classics .. so she deserves her flowers . and when she won i was just proud to see my nomination on the screen in the huge arena..”
The post comes amid speculation that Diplo said “they bought that” when the camera panned to him at the Grammys after Beyoncé won the award. On Instagram, however, the producer revealed that he actually said, “I’m glad to be part of that.”
See his post below.
Beyoncé made history at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday, becoming the first person ever to win 32 of the Recording Academy’s shiny gramophones. But just one of those 32 awards has come in a Big Four category (album, record and song of the year plus best new artist). It happened on the 2010 telecast, when Bey won song of the year for co-writing her dance smash “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”
Beyoncé has been nominated in Big Four categories 18 times. That means she’s had to politely smile as someone else walked up to accept a Big Four award that she was nominated for 17 times. In 2017, she famously lost the three top awards to Adele. In 2001, she and her Destiny’s Child colleagues lost two of the top three awards to U2. In 2021, two of her singles lost to a Billie Eilish hit.
It’s hard to feel too sorry for an artist who has won more Grammys than Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Prince and Elton John combined. And yet, the fact that Beyoncé has a 1-17 track record in the Big Four categories – which are by far the most closely watched and prestigious – is galling to the Beyhive, and to many others who believe it shows that Beyoncé (and Black artists in general) are undervalued by the Academy.
That said, she has twice lost to other Black artists in Big Four categories. Two years ago, “Black Parade” lost song of the year to H.E.R.’s BLM anthem “I Can’t Breathe.” This year, “Break My Soul” lost record of the year to Lizzo’s jubilant “About Damn Time.”
Here’s a closer look at every time Beyoncé was nominated in a Big Four category. The dates shown are the dates of that year’s Grammy telecast.
Justice for Renaissance! A skywriter appeared above the city of Los Angeles on Monday (Feb. 6) to remind Beyoncé exactly who she is after her loss at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Users across social media spotted the airplane’s message in the sky, which couldn’t be any more loud and clear: “BEYONCÉ, YOU MADE MUSIC HISTORY.”
Indeed, while the icon lost out on her fourth chance at album of the year after Harry Styles was named the winner for Harry’s House, she broke the record for the most Grammy win in history by adding four new gramophones to her collection of 32 wins out of 88 total nominations.
And while no one has yet to take credit for the BeyHive-approved message in the sky, Bey’s husband Jay-Z shrugged off the awards show jockeying entirely in an interview with TIDAL published after his wife’s loss. Calling the whole process behind the Grammys race “a marketing thing,” the rapper still lobbied that Renaissance was more than worthy of The Recording Academy’s top prize, saying, “Look what it’s done to the culture. Look how the energy of the world moved…Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world.”
Instead, Queen Bey did take home Grammys for best dance recording for Renaissance lead single “Break My Soul,” best R&B song for fan-favorite track “Cuff It,” best traditional R&B vocal performance for deep cut “Plastic Off the Sofa” and best dance/electronica album for the house-inspired studio set as a whole.
Check out the message to Beyoncé over L.A. below.
Premio Lo Nuestro has unveiled its first round of performers set to take the stage at the 35th annual awards ceremony on Feb. 23. Confirmed artists include Prince Royce, Christian Nodal, Tini, El Alfa, Gloria Trevi, La Adictiva and Lupita Infante. Hosts Paulina Rubio and Sebastián Yatra are also set to perform.
This year, Yatra leads the list of nominations with 10 nods. The Colombian artist’s entries include the all-genre artist of the year, song of the year and album of the year categories. He is also nominated for tour of the year and other pop categories. His PLN-nominated album Dharma (2022) peaked at No. 2 on Latin Pop Albums and No. 13 on Top Latin Albums.
He is closely followed by Bad Bunny, Camilo, Becky G and Grupo Firme, who each garnered nine nods; urbano household names Maluma, Daddy Yankee and Ozuna take eight each. Rauw Alejandro and Rosalía tie with seven, as well as Carin León, Karol G, Carlos Vives and J Balvin.
In total, 192 artists across diverse musical backgrounds are nominated within 39 categories. The nominations for Premio Lo Nuestro are based on Uforia radio airplay during the eligibility period of Oct. 1, 2021 through Sept. 30, 2022. Streaming counts and the assessment of a committee of music and entertainment experts also factor in this list.
This year’s theme is “El Mundo Es Lo Nuestro” (or The World is Ours), and the show — cohosted by Yatra, Rubio, TV personality Alejandra Espinoza, and Adrián Uribe of Univision’s late-night show De Noche Pero Sin Sueño — will broadcast live on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. ET. It will simulcast on Galavisión in the U.S. and Canal 5 in Mexico.
When Harry Styles was announced as the winner of this year’s Grammy album of the year award, his good friend and fellow nominee Lizzo could be seen on live TV filming him with a big smile on her face as he walked up onstage to accept. And, after teasing fans that she might, the 34-year-old songstress has posted the up-close video — and it features a hilarious cameo from Adele, who was seated right next to her.
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In the clip, posted to TikTok two days after the Sunday night (Feb. 5) awards ceremony, Lizzo captures Styles bewildered reaction to winning the coveted prize for his May 2022 record Harry’s House from just a couple feet away. The “Special” singer can be heard screaming loud and proud in support of her pal throughout the video, and at one point, her lens goes up in the air as Styles bounds over to her and gives her a big hug, a sweet moment that was also caught on camera during the ceremony’s broadcast.
As the “As It Was” singer climbs onstage, Lizzo pans her phone camera over to zoom in on Adele, who remained in her seat even as the immediate crowd around her gave Styles a standing ovation. “Why you filming me for?” the “Easy On Me” singer, who won best pop solo performance earlier that night, hilariously protests.
Twitter speculation has it that Adele, a self-proclaimed super fan of Beyoncé, was one of many Beyhive members to be disappointed that the “Break My Soul” artist had lost album of the year for a fourth time. After all, when she was the one to beat out Bey for the same award back in 2017, Adele literally apologized to her during her own acceptance speech.
Regardless, Lizzo — who earlier that night won record of the year for “About Damn Time” and gave Beyoncé a special shoutout of her own during her acceptance speech — had a great time celebrating her former boyband star friend. When a photo of her taking a video of Styles during his big win started circulating on Twitter, she retweeted it and teased, “SHOULD I POST?!”
The Yitty founder also shared a slew of selfies with Styles, Adele and Beyoncé after the ceremony, writing, “I won.”
See Lizzo’s TikTok featuring Harry Styles and Adele below.