Beyoncé & Taylor Make Grammy History
• Beyoncé became the most-awarded woman in Grammy history Sunday night, winning her 28th, while Taylor Swift became the only woman to win Album Of The Year three times. Beyoncé came into the evening with the most 2021 Grammy nominations — nine, and won four. A worldwide pandemic may have limited the live audience participation of the 63rd Grammy Awards on Sunday night, but that lead to a creative sense of comfortable intimacy that provided a nice change. Hosted by Trevor Noah in an outdoor/indoor setting at the Los Angeles Convention Center adjacent to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, the show opened with a salvo from Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and HAIM in rapid succession, followed by the first major award of the evening — Best New Artist — was presented to Megan Thee Stallion, who also won for “Best Rap Performance” and “Best Rap Song” for her hit, “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé.
With the later award, Trevor Noah announced that Beyoncé had tied the all-time record for most Grammy wins by a male or female artist with 27! Minutes later, Beyoncé went ahead broke that record — and set a new one — with her 28th win, taking home the “Best R&B Performance” Grammy for “Black Parade.” She now ties Quincy Jones‘ total for most wins for a non-classical musician. Only the late composer Georg Solti has more wins, with a career total of 31.In a related story, Beyoncé and JAY-Z‘s daughter Blue Ivy Carter becomes one of the youngest Grammy winners ever, as she and her mom won the “Best Music Video” Grammy for “Brown Skin Girl,” along with SAINt JHN and Wizkid.
Here are Grammy’s General Field Categories, a.k.a. “The Big Four” — Best New Artist: Megan Thee Stallion; Song Of The Year: “I Can’t Breathe” (Dernst Emile II, H.E.R. & Tiara Thomas, songwriters) — H.E.R.; Album Of The Year: Folklore by Taylor Swift, who became the only woman to win Album Of The Year three times. Taylor accepted alongside her two of her primary collaborators, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner; Record Of The Year: “Everything I Wanted” (Billie Eilish). During the pre-show awards event, Eilish and her brother/collaborator Finneas Baird O’Connell won the Grammy for “Best Song Written For Visual Media” for “No Time To Die,” the theme for the still-unreleased new James Bond film. The complete list of 2021 Grammy winners is posted at Grammy.com.
Other Grammy Highlights…
Dua Lipa won the “Best Pop Vocal Album” Grammy for Future Nostalgia; Lady Gaga with Ariana Grandewon the Grammy for “Best Pop/Duo Performance” for “Rain On Me,” and Harry Styles won for “Best Pop Solo Performance” for “Watermelon Sugar.” Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak performed twice — the first time in their new incarnation as Silk Sonic doing their single, “Leave The Door Open,” and again during the In Memorium segment performing “Good Golly Miss Molly” as a tribute to the late Little Richard. .Paak also won the Grammy for “Best Melodic Rap Performance” for “Lockdown.”
In a triumph of genre mash-ups, Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber won the Grammy for “Best Country Duo/Group Performance” for “10,000 Hours.” Fiona Apple took home two Grammys — “Best Alternative Music Album” for Fetch The Bolt Cutters and “Best Rock Performance” for “Shameika.” Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard won “Best Rock Song” for “Stay High;” John Legend‘s Bigger Love was named Best R&B Album,” while The Strokes won their first Grammy — “Best Rock Album” for The New Abnormal.
Other interesting winners: Kanye West was the winner for “Best Contemporary Christian Music Album” for Jesus Is King, while America’s Sweetheart Dolly Parton was honored with a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song” for “There Was Jesus” with Zach Williams. Filmmaker James Keach won the Grammy for “Best Music Film” for his terrific documentary, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice.
Posthumous awards — The late John Prine was honored with Grammys for “Best American Roots Performance” and “Best American Roots Song” for “I Remember Everything” (Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters), while the late Chick Corea, who was nominated for a remarkable 67 Grammys and won 23 over a six-decade career, picked up two more — “Best Improvised Jazz Solo” for “All Blues” and “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” for Trilogy 2 (along with Christian McBride & Brian Blade). The “Best Reggae Album” Grammy went to Got To Be Tough from Toots & the Maytals, whose namesake frontman Toots Hibbert died last September.
