SZA was one of many huge winners on the 2024 Grammy Award
The 2024 Grammy Awards ended with a bang: Taylor Swift taking dwelling her fourth album of the yr trophy.
It cements her place because the one of many best songwriters of her period – though she was gracious sufficient to make use of her speech to reward fellow nominee Lana Del Rey, calling her “a legend in her prime” who has set the agenda for a whole era of feminine artists.
Regardless of Taylor taking the principle title, it was a reasonably even-handed night time by Grammy requirements.
Favoured nominees like Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, SZA and Boygenius all went dwelling with a number of prizes, whereas the perfect new artist went to R&B star Victoria Monét – the primary time a feminine R&B act has scooped that award since Alicia Keys in 2002.
Alongside the best way, there have been loads of shock appearances (Celine Dion!) and show-stopping performances (Burna Boy, Dua Lipa).
Listed here are the highlights, lowlights and takeaways from “music’s largest night time”.
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TAKEAWAY: Taylor Swift wasn’t simply recognised for her music
By any metric, it is an unbelievable feat: Taylor Swift has received album of the yr 3 times greater than The Beatles, two greater than Adele and yet one more than Stevie Surprise.
In actual fact, she’s received the prize greater than anybody. Ever.
Her newest honour is for 2022’s Midnights – a hazy, dream-scrubbed assortment of songs about late-night obsessions.
On the time of launch, it was not her best-received album. And for that motive, many individuals thought R&B star SZA or indie band Boygenius have been extra more likely to win.
However the Grammys aren’t merely about musical advantage, and Swift is at present in the course of an imperial section. Her Eras tour has damaged field workplace data, boosted native economies, prompted a authorities inquiry into Ticketmaster and even caused seismic activity.
The singer has additionally been named Time Journal’s individual of the yr, whereas her romance with Travis Kelce brought new eyes to American football.
It is arduous to argue towards her cultural dominance – but it surely all stems from the music.
That is an element the Recording Academy’s 11,000 voters may have been keenly conscious of. They take songwriting extremely significantly, which suggests they take Swift – who exists on the crossroads of business success and sonic innovation – significantly as properly.
So her fourth Grammy win was all however inevitable, even when your most popular Taylor Swift album is Folklore (appropriate reply), 1989 (additionally acceptable) or Lover (we have to have phrases).
HIGHLIGHT: A standing ovation for Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell’s music is sort of a language of its personal. It is uncooked, magical, nearly painfully stunning.
However over the previous 10 years, the singer was nearly robbed of language after a life-threatening mind aneurysm.
Following intensive rehabilitation, she returned to the stage in 2022 on the Newport People Competition – and a recording of that live performance earned the singer the Grammy for finest people album on Sunday night time.
Mitchell adopted that up with a efficiency of Each Sides Now, supported by musicians Brandi Carlile and Jacob Collier.
At first, her voice appeared to catch – however because the track continued, she settled right into a wealthy, dusky vocal tone.
“They are saying, Joni, you’ve got modified,” she sang, adapting the lyrics to the event. “Nicely one thing’s misplaced, however one thing’s gained / In dwelling each day.”
Wealthy with expertise, and laden with significance, the efficiency was exceptionally transferring. It rightly introduced the gang to their toes.
LOWLIGHT: Travis Scott vs some chairs
For considered one of rap’s most bodily intense performers, Travis Scott’s set was mystifyingly boring.
The star carried out a medley of My Eyes, I Know? and Fein (key lyric: “Fein, fein, fein, fein, fein, fein“) shrouded in shadow, whereas a dancer wandered round searching for one thing to do.
There was a quick frisson when Playboi Carti joined him on stage in a burst of pyrotechnics, but it surely all fizzled out with Scott flinging round plastic chairs like an escapee from a Eighties wrestling match.
HIGHLIGHT: Jay-Z goes off script
I say off-script, however I am undecided Jay-Z even ready a script.
Honoured with the Dr Dre World Affect Award, which recognises black music creators, the rapper used his allotted time to ship a wide-ranging ramble concerning the Grammys usually.
Straight off the bat, he reminisced about utilizing considered one of his earlier Grammy Awards as a “sippy cup” for his daughter Blue Ivy, who this time accompanied him to the stage.
“Blue’s grown up now,” he added. “She would not take a sippy cup and he or she has her personal Grammys.”
However he did not cease there. He joked about boycotting the 1998 Grammys as a result of his pal DMX had been snubbed. After which he went for the jugular – citing Beyoncé.
Famously, his spouse has extra Grammys than anybody in historical past, with 32 in complete. However for all that obvious love, the massive prizes have eluded her. Of the 16 instances she’s been nominated within the main classes, she has received simply as soon as: track of the yr for Single Women (Put A Ring On It) in 2010.
“I do not need to embarrass this younger girl, however she has extra Grammys than everybody and by no means received album of the yr,” stated Jay-Z. “So even by your individual metrics, that does not work. Take into consideration that.”
HIGHLIGHT: Celine Dion’s shock return
Watch: Celine Dion, Taylor Swift and Jay Z highlights of the Grammy Awards
Celine Dion surprised the viewers when she emerged to current the perfect album trophy, nearly a yr after she was pressured to cancel all of her stay reveals after being diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder.
Dion was there to announce the album of the yr prize, arriving on stage to the sound of her hit single The Energy Of Love.
However the significance of her look was not misplaced on the gang – who gave her an instantaneous standing ovation.
“Thanks all, I really like you proper again. Once I say that I am blissful to be right here, I actually imply it from my coronary heart,” stated the singer, whose situation causes stiffness of the muscle tissues, affecting her limbs and vocal cords.
She lately introduced a documentary about her return to well being, and promised followers she was on the “street to resuming my performing profession”.
HIGHLIGHT: Boygenius’s childhood ambitions
Boygenius (L-R): Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker
Alt-rock supergroup Boygenius have been additionally triple winners, for his or her debut album The File, which updates the traditional Seventies California rock sound with an emphasis on concord, friendship and feminism.
“We have been all delusional sufficient as children to suppose this may occur to us,” stated Lucy Dacus, selecting up their first prize – finest rock efficiency for the track Not Sturdy Sufficient.
“Phoebe [Bridgers] would sing on the Guitar Middle, hoping that she would get found. Julien [Baker] needed to play bought out stadiums. And I might follow writing an acceptance speech, and thank all of the individuals who’d been good to me – like my bus driver and the man that held the door at church.
“So I really feel form of like a child, as a result of that was the final time that one thing like this felt potential.”
TAKEWAY: Girls “stepped up”, however there’s extra to do
Feminine artists totally dominated this yr, taking dwelling all the foremost prizes and lots extra moreover.
Kylie Minogue received finest pop dance recording, and South Africa’s Tyla (pictured) picked up the inaugural award for finest African efficiency.
In the meantime, the previously testosterone-soaked rock and various classes have been dominated by Paramore (led by Hayley Williams) and Boygenius.
It is a reflection of a yr during which ladies have been extremely profitable within the charts, and a major change for the Grammys. As lately as 2018, the ceremony was embroiled in controversy when former chairman Neil Portnow stated ladies wanted “to step up” in the event that they needed a nomination.
So has the hole been closed? Removed from it. By some counts, solely 20% of artists signed to a significant file label are feminine. Final yr, solely 19.5% of all songwriters throughout the Billboard Scorching 100 songs have been ladies.
“What we wish is to be seen as equals, not simply on the inventive aspect however on the enterprise aspect,” stated Dua Lipa on the pink carpet. “We’re nonetheless figuring that out but it surely’s getting there slowly.”
HIGHLIGHT: Billy Joel’s brutal honesty
Billy Joel attended the ceremony along with his spouse Alexis Roderick
Six-time Grammy winner Billy Joel was again on the ceremony this yr to carry out Flip The Lights Again On – his first new track in nearly twenty years.
Talking on the pink carpet, he defined why it had taken so lengthy to place pen to paper.
“I gotta go into my cave and turn out to be a caveman,” he advised CBS information. “It is not a enjoyable course of for me. It is very self-centred. It is very lonely. And typically it is torture. However afterwards, I really like having written.”
Joel added that he was stunned to be invited again to the Grammys after his final efficiency in 1994.
Again then, he paused his performance of River Of Dreams mid-song in protest at Frank Sinatra’s speech being lower brief earlier within the present.
“I checked out my watch and I stated, ‘There may be loads of helpful promoting time going by right here’,” he recalled. “I ended for a very long time… So that they nonetheless is perhaps mad at me for that.”
HIGHLIGHT: Tracy Chapman becoming a member of Luke Combs
In a significant coup for the Grammys, Tracy Chapman made her return to the stage to duet with nation star Luke Combs.
The singer, who had a run of profitable albums within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, has largely prevented the highlight since her final tour in 2009.
However she was tempted again after Combs lined her signature track Quick Automotive – a haunting folk-rock story about making an attempt to flee poverty – and took it again into the US high 10 final yr.
Their efficiency opened with Chapman selecting out the track’s unforgettable riff, then buying and selling verses with Combs earlier than they united on the refrain.
Each singers seemed delighted. Chapman grinned all through, and Combs sang alongside off-mic throughout her solos.
In a video clip forward of the efficiency, Combs stated: “Simply to be related along with her in any manner is tremendous humbling for me.”
Within the viewers, Taylor Swift and nation star Jelly Roll sang alongside on the tops of their voices. A easy, however emotional, pleasure.
LOWLIGHT: U2 in Las Vegas
Look, I am keen on U2. I am from Eire, the place it is virtually a requirement. However typically… oh, man.
The band beamed in stay from The Sphere, the insane globular Las Vegas venue that is manufactured from 66ft LED screens and was constructed at a value of $2.3bn (£1.83bn).
U2 are enjoying a residency there, and in the event you dream of a gig the place you spend extra time watching TV screens than watching the band, then you definately’re welcome to the $750 ticket value.
Their efficiency was mainly an enormous advert for the venue, set to Atomic Metropolis – an underwhelming single they put out to coincide with their opening night time final yr.
Honest sufficient that the Grammys ought to spotlight innovation in live performance know-how, however the whole lot about this was disappointingly mediocre. If solely they’d performed Mysterious Methods.
HIGHLIGHT: Virtually each different performer
The Grammys is all the time a blended bag, however this yr’s hit fee was excessive. Dua Lipa bravely opened the present with a model new track, the pneumatic Coaching Season, whereas gyrating on metallic scaffolding, and SZA recreated the Loopy 88 swordfight from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Invoice.
Billie Eilish’s rendition of song-of-the-year-winner What Was I Made For? was suitably tear-jerking; and Burna Boy oozed charisma throughout his medley of On Type, Metropolis Boys and Sittin’ On Prime Of The World.
The In Memoriam part was notably robust: Stevie Surprise paid touching tribute to his pal Tony Bennett, earlier than Annie Lennox gave a stirring rendition of Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2U – backed by Prince’s musical foils Wendy and Lisa.
But it surely was Fantasia Barrino who stole the present, racing by means of an electrical efficiency of Tina Turner’s Proud Mary earlier than strolling into the viewers and shimmying with Dua Lipa.
The Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll would have been proud.
LOWLIGHT: That one bizarre picture everybody’s pressured to do
It is Grammy legislation. When you win a trophy, it’s important to pose awkwardly with it backstage. Bonus factors in the event you kiss it. Double bonus factors if in case you have an armful of the issues.
Who is aware of why at this stage? It is most likely some Illuminati factor.
A number of award winners Boygenius, Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff
Victoria Monét received finest new artist, finest R&B album and finest engineered album
Karol G turned the primary girl to win the award for finest musica urbana album
Lil Durk received finest melodic rap efficiency for his collaboration with J Cole, All My Life
Kylie Minogue picked up her second Grammy, for Padam Padam, 20 years after successful finest dance recording for Come Into My World
Shankar Mahadevan of the band Shakti received the perfect world music album award for This Second
HIGHLIGHT: Miley Cyrus vindicated
In her 17-year music profession, Miley Cyrus has had dozens of hits – from Wrecking Ball and The Climb to Nothing Breaks Like A Coronary heart and Midnight Sky.
However she’d by no means received a Grammy… till now.
The singer received two prizes: file of the yr and finest pop solo efficiency, each for the instant-classic break-up ballad Flowers.
Cyrus marked the second with a brilliantly tortured metaphor.
“There is a story I need to inform that sums up this second,” she defined.
“There was a bit of boy and all he needed for his birthday was a butterfly. And so his mother and father gave him a butterfly web and he was so excited. He simply went outdoors, out within the solar, and began swinging and swinging, however with no luck.
“Then he sat down on the bottom, and he lastly let go and he surrendered. He was OK that he wasn’t going to seize this stunning butterfly.
“And proper when he did, is when the butterfly got here and landed proper on the tip of his nostril. And this track, Flowers, is my butterfly.”
Later, Cyrus carried out the track stay for the primary time, including some parenthetical asides to the lyrics.
“I did not need to depart you (however I did) / I did not need to combat (however we did) / Began to cry however then remembered… I simply received my very first Grammy!“
She ended with a mic drop. And rightly so.