On Sunday the 14th, the most prestigious music awards took place, the Grammy Awards. These awards were full of powerful performances by many artists, from Billie Eilish to Bruno Mars and more. The 2021 virtual Grammys managed to deliver a rendition of the music that has accompanied us through the ongoing pandemic.
Although this year’s Grammys were full of controversy due to the many artists that were not
even nominated, many artists came out and spoke out against the awards. Artists like The Weeknd and Zayn Malik raised their voices on corruption and the ceremony’s lack of representation. Having said that, this year the Grammys took a different approach in their delivery due to COVID-19 restrictions. There was no live audience other than the nominees, their families, and teams, making the space look a bit empty compared to previous years. The guests sat in a separate large tent, watching the performances and waiting to receive their awards. The main stage was one red carpet away from the main venue. A circular stage was divided into four different sets where the artists performed their songs. This made for a more dynamic ceremony where we had four performances, one after the other., sometimes without a break in-between.
This year, the nominees were quite unique; we had songs that allowed us to escape reality and records that directly talked about the reality we have been living in. There’s always controversy about the winners; we all have our favorite musician that we wish could take every single award. However, as mentioned before, there was a balance in the style of awarded songs. We also saw some history happening as Beyonce broke the record for most Grammy awarded woman in history. We had some first-time winners, such as Harry Styles, who took home one Grammy for Best Solo Pop Performance for his summer hit “Watermelon Sugar”. “WAP” singer Megan Thee Stallion took the award for Best New Artist, and it didn’t come as a surprise since her music has become a national sensation. H.E.R took home the award for Song of the Year for her emotional song “I Can’t Breathe,” which talks about the Black Lives Matter movement that garnered strength at the beginning of 2020.
After years out of the spotlight, Fiona Apple came back harder than ever and snatched the Best Alternative Music Album award for “Fetch the Bold Cutters,” proving that she still has what it takes. During the ceremony, the struggles the music industry and business have faced during this pandemic were addressed. Because of this, the space for presenting some of the awards was given to businesses like the iconic Troubadour club and the Apollo theater.
Best Rock Album was given to The Strokes for their outstanding “The New Abnormal,” and singer Dua Lipa took the Best Pop Vocal Album award. Iconic Miranda Lambert won Best Country Album, and Nas won for Best Rap Album for “King’s Disease.” Thundercat took the win for best Progressive R&B Album and fan-favorite Bad Bunny went home with his first grammy for Best Latin Pop for "YHLQMDLG.”
There were also a few disappointments in the winner’s list since some fans were expecting the Korean group BTS to take home the award for best pop duo/group performance. However, this was given to “Rain on Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande which caused a lot of discontent on Twitter. The two big winners of the night were Billie Elish with her Best Record of the Year award and Taylor Swift, winning Best Album for “Folklore,” which admittedly made all the Swifties out there very happy.
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