Grammys
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Following his Grammy night loss for best R&B album, Chris Brown took to Instagram to project his frustrations onto the category’s winner: 12-time nominee and five-time Grammy winner Robert Glasper for his album Black Radio III. “Y’all playing. Who da f— is this?” Brown wrote on his Instagram story, with a series of cry-laughing emojis.
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Less than 24 hours later (and after a slew of social media critique), the chart-topping R&B singer re-evaluated his actions and sent an Instagram direct message to Glasper, apologizing for his mistake. Here’s what Brown said in the DM, posted to his Instagram Story:
“Congratulations my brother.. I would like to apologize if you took offense to my reaction at the Grammys.. you were not the intended target and I know I came off really rude and mean. After doing my research I actually think your amazing…THE ORGANIZATION ISN’T DOING US BLACKS OUR DUE DILIGENCE. YOU AND I SHOULD never be in the same [category].. two totally different vibes and genres. So from one black man to another.. CONGRATULATIONS. HOPE YOU ARE ABLE TO FEED YOUR FAMILY FOR LIFE. God bless my G.”
What Brown’s research may have led him to realize is Glasper’s innumerable accomplishments and contributions as one of the most lauded jazz, R&B and hip-hop instrumentalists of his time. Glasper has worked with 2023 best rap album winner Kendrick Lamar, as well as Mos Def, Lauryn Hill, Lupe Fiasco, Jill Scott, H.E.R., Ty Dolla $ign and Erykah Badu across his many collaborative albums and instrumental work, in addition to his frequent sold-out residencies at New York City’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club.
Following his win, Glasper was all smiles, telling Billboard on the Grammy red carpet he was “ecstatic” about the honor. His tone was far different from Brown’s, offering praise for the R&B star’s nominated project, Breezy (Deluxe), and expressing the feeling that one of his fellow nominees would take the award, adding, “They all have amazing albums.”
Sunday night’s Grammy Awards found their biggest audience in three years, early TV ratings indicate.
Fast national ratings from CBS and Paramount+ show that 12.4 million viewers tuned in to the 2023 Grammys on Sunday night, according to The Hollywood Reporter. (THR will have final ratings on Tuesday morning.) The 2022 show drew 9.59 million viewers, meaning this year’s telecast saw a 30 percent bump year over year.
The last biggest audience for the Grammys was at the pre-pandemic January 2020 awards show, which drew 18.69 million viewers.
Paramount+ says the 2023 Grammys drew the biggest livestreaming audience in the streamer’s history, though no exact numbers were provided to The Hollywood Reporter.
The 2023 Grammy Awards, emceed by third-time host Trevor Noah, awarded the night’s Big Four prizes to a quartet of artists: Harry Styles’ Harry’s House won album of the year, Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” won record of the year, Bonnie Raitt’s “And Just Like That” won song of the year, and jazz singer Samara Joy won best new artist.
Standout performances included Bad Bunny’s euphoric opening number of “El Apagón” and “Después de la Playa”; the Questlove-led 50th-anniversary salute to hip-hop, which included artists from Queen Latifah to GloRilla; and Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ crimson-hued spectacle of eventual best pop duo/group recording winner “Unholy.”
It was one of the most jaw-dropping moments at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday Feb. 5, when last year’s best new artist winner, Olivia Rodrigo, announced her successor.
It was a wide-open field, with no obvious winner such as Rodrigo or Billie Eilish, the 2020 champ. Latto and Måneskin were widely seen as the front-runners, with several other artists (Anitta, Muni Long, Molly Tuttle and Wet Leg) thought to be within striking distance.
The award instead went to Samara Joy, a 23-year-old jazz singer whose chances of winning were discounted by many pop-focused fans. They had much the same reaction 12 years ago to another talented jazz artist, Esperanza Spalding, and she wound up winning too — even among some stacked pop competition.
Joy won a second award on the night — best jazz vocal album for her second album, Linger Awhile. (She beat, among others, Cécile McLorin Salvant, a three-time winner in that category.)
Three of this year’s other best new artist candidates also went home with Grammys. Wet Leg won two awards – best alternative music album for Wet Leg and best alternative music performance for “Chaise Longue.” Long won best R&B performance for “Hrs & Hrs.” Tuttle won best bluegrass album for Crooked Tree (a collab with Golden Highway).
The other nominees in the category this year were Omar Apollo, Tobe Nwigwe and DOMi & JD Beck, whose Not Tight was nominated for best contemporary instrumental album.
So how did Joy pull off this surprise win? Here are six factors that likely played a role:
Samara Joy can now call herself a Grammy-winning artist. During the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (Feb. 5), past winner Olivia Rodrigo presented the 23-year-old jazz singer with the best new artist award.
“I’ve been singing all of my life. Thank you so much for this honor, thank you to everyone who has listened to me or supported me,” she told the audience in her acceptance speech, as fellow nominees Anitta, Latto, Måneskin and more watched on. “All of you are so inspiring to me, and so to be here because of who I am … all of you have inspired me because of who you are. You express yourself and exactly who you are, authentically. So to be her here by just being myself, by just being who I was born as. I am so thankful.”
In addition to winning the coveted best new artist award, a stiff category that featured nine other nominees across different genres, Joy also won best jazz vocal album for her sophomore album, 2022’s Linger Awhile. It’s quite a feat, considering she began singing jazz just a mere five or six years ago, according to the singer herself.
After taking home two Grammys, Joy thanked not only the Recording Academy for recognizing her talent, but also her fans for cheering her on and lifting her up. “The best night of my life. Thank y’all so much for supporting me,” she wrote via Instagram, along with a red heart emoji.
So who is Samara Joy? Below, Billboard compiled five things you should know about the artist.
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.
Written By D.L. Chandler , Senior Editor Posted 45 mins ago @dlchandler123 D.L. Chandler is a veteran of the Washington D.C. metro writing scene, working as a journalist, reporter, and culture critic. Initially freelancing at iOne Digital in 2010, he officially joined the iOne team in 2017 where he currently works as a Senior Editor […]
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Offset is calling cap. The Migos rapper is disputing a report from TMZ that he got into an altercation with Quavo at the Grammys.
Early Monday (Feb. 6), TMZ reported that Quavo and Offset had to be separated after getting into an argument backstage at the Grammys. According to the outlet, tempers flared because Quavo allegedly refused to have Offset join him on stage during the shows “In Memoriam” segment while he performed “Without You,” his tribute to their late group and family member Takeoff.
However, Offset took to Twitter to dispute the account. “What tf [sic] look like fighting my brother yal niggas is crazy,” tweeted Offset on Monday afternoon.
It’s no secret that Takeoff wasn’t on the best of terms with Quavo and Offset, who had recently dropped their joint project, at the time of the latter’s untimely demise. Relatedly, Offset had recently taken to social media to retort in kind to J. Prince after the Rap-a-Lot Records founder came for him during a recent podcast interview.
Considering Takeoff was murdered on Halloween night in 2022, let’s hope these brothers can actually have a conversation to squash any simmering beef before it boils over.
Rest in power Takeoff
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:
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It’s been months since the tragic and shocking death of beloved Migos member, Takeoff, and during last night’s Memoriam segment of the Grammy Awards, his uncle Quavo paid tribute to his nephew in a moving performance that will not be soon forgotten.
Sporting a half-mask on his face and bringing along Takeoff’s diamond-encrusted chain, Quavo took to the stage with Maverick City Music and performed his touching tribute song “Without You” before being joined on stage by two choir singers who performed a rendition of the hit Wiz Khalifa and Chalie Puth song, “See You Again.” With pictures of Takeoff and the Migos crew being shown on the big screen behind him, Quavo put forth a moving performance that left Hip-Hoppers in their feelings and feeling the pain through Quavo’s black mask.
Lord knows how hard it must’ve been for Quavo to hold it together for this last night.
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The performance marks the first time that Quavo’s made a public appearance since his nephews tragic murder on Halloween night last year. Since then a man has been arrested in connection with Takeoff’s murder though he’s since been released on a million dollar bond.
Check out Quavo’s tribute below and let us know your thoughts on the performance in the comments section below.
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